“Now that that’s over, we just have to figure out how to keep Chuck here,” Tobias continues, but clearly, Spencer isn’t in the same mindset. He looks at me with his beautiful eyes, and I can’t resist, I go to him and let him put his arms around me. I can feel the others watching me, but I don’t move.
“I’m not a cheater,” I tell him, and he laughs, stirring my hair.
“Never thought you were. I’m also not a liar. I said what I meant. If you want to … I don’t know, explore shit with those cinnamon stick assholes, then fine.” He pushes me back a step and looks so deeply into my eyes, I feel like I’m falling. “I’m not afraid. We have something here, Chuck-let. Once you spend time with them, you’ll realize it.”
“Cinnamon stick assholes?” I ask, because come on, that’s a weird one, even for me.
“They’re redheads, so they have red pubes on their dicks, thus, you know, they look like cinnamon sticks.” I snort and slap a hand over my mouth, but it’s hard to keep it in.
“Fuck you, Spencer,” Tobias says as Ranger moves up to the counter to order something.
“Have you told her about Amber yet?” Spencer retorts, and Tobias’ already narrowed eyes turn to slits. “You can’t date Chuck if you don’t tell her about Amber.”
“What is there to tell?” Tobias spits back, and Micah scowls. They’ve never looked less in sync than they do right now. It’s disconcerting. “You know, I let her stay in Amber's room.” It must be a big deal, if they throw this girl’s name around like she’s the be-all, end-all. Tobias looks me straight in the face, and a shiver goes through me. “I was dating a girl I really liked. She …” He shrugs and rubs his hands over his face. “Micah and Amber were screwing behind my back.”
My eyes widen, and Micah curses, throwing back the rest of his beer and storming out of the room before I can even think of how to respond. Several random comments and arguments I’ve encountered make so much more sense, like when Tobias was talking about how Ranger wanted to protect his sister’s legacy, no matter what she’d done, and Micah got angry and … well, stormed off like he did just now.
Then there was Spencer’s comment about the twins saying they shared girls—since Amber, you mean.
I feel like I’ve just opened up a can of worms.
“Can we please talk about something else?” Tobias groans, ruffling up his hair. His eyes meet mine. “We have just over a day to figure out what to do about your dad.”
“Maybe if I tell him I’m dating the Student Council, he’ll give in and let me stay?” I joke, and Ross makes a scoffing sound under his breath.
“Not the whole Student Council, honey,” he says, giving me a look and then taking his drink outside. As soon as the door closes, he answers a phone call and leans up against the side of the building.
“Any ideas?” Spencer asks, giving Tobias a skeptical look. “I mean, we couldn't possibly let our girlfriend fly across the country, right?” He props himself up on the wall, accepting the soda that Ranger brings his way. Church joins us and we stand in a small circle in the quiet café. The only other patrons are in the back corner, giggling and playing footsie. Gross.
“I've already tried to bribe the headmaster,” Church adds, eyes lifted to the ceiling as he muses, stirring his iced coffee and making the cubes clink against the glass. “Didn't work. A threat, perhaps from your mother, Tobias?”
“No, if I ask that, she'll ship me off to some military school,” he says, frowning, and I raise a brow. I'd had that same thought recently, only about myself. I wonder what he did prior to coming here to earn that level of distrust from his mom? “Are you sure you don't want us to all traipse over there?”
“The headmaster knows something,” Church repeats, and I frown. I don't want to believe that Dad's somehow involved in all of this shit. So I relay what Ross said about Mr. Murphy and Mr. Dave. Ranger and Church exchange a look, but I can't even begin to decipher what they're thinking.
“Maybe we start there? Question the two of them?” Spencer asks, but it all feels so hopeless.
I can feel it in my gut: I'm going back to California.
“I'll talk to him again,” I say, but I don't have a lot of hope.
Archie Carson is as stubborn as I am.Dialing Mom's number gets me nowhere. She's changed it again. And when I go downstairs to ask Dad to give me her new one, he gives me this look.
“Pleading with your mother behind my back won't change anything.”
