Page 143 of Knox Academy Omnibus
After finding my spot, I take my bottle of Scotch back to my room and decide a hangover in the morning is totally worth it.
Chapter Seventeen
Kalen
“Don’t forget we have an initiation thing tonight,” Slate reminds me as he strums absentmindedly on his guitar. We’ve been hanging out in my room since dinner ended and Amelie left, and Slate has been working on some damn duet song he has to perform with Amelie. I’m tone deaf but it makes me want to switch electives to be with her.
“Shit! I’d forgotten!” I exclaim, groaning.
“We guessed,” Onyx replies dryly. “Given that Slate and I spent all morning racing around to set everything up, and where were you?”
“Busy,” I reply shortly. “You guys are going to have to run this one without me.”
“What? Why?” Slate asks.
“I have plans with Amelie.”
“Sure.” Onyx snorts. “Of course you do.”
Okay so maybe I don’t have planswithher, but I do have plansforher. I plan to show up at her door and refuse to leave until she hears me out.
“Guys, I plan to win Amelie back and I don’t care what you have to say about it.”
“Kalen—”
“No! Don’t ‘Kalen’ me! It’s driving me crazy, the way she keeps giving me the cold shoulder. She forgave Sawyer, why not me?”
“Technically, Sawyer didn’t do anything wrong, so there was nothing to forgive,” Onyx points out.
“Yeah, if anyone did any forgiving, it was the other way around,” Slate agrees.
“I still don’t get how he doesn’t hate her for what she did.” Onyx shrugs. He has a hard time understanding things like that.
“Doyouhate her?” I ask pointedly.
“No, I don’t give a fuck if people know about my past. I think Dad’s rule is bullshit. But she didn’t losememy dream job,” he tells me.
“Sawyer doesn’t care because he loves her too,” I say softly.
“You can’t possibly love her!” Onyx scoffs. “The pair of you barely knew her for a term. Right, Slate?”
Slate doesn’t rush to his brother’s defence. Interesting. Did he catch feelings too? I think Onyx has it bad; he protests far too much.
“Look,” I begin heavily, “Do you guys want to be friends or whatever with Amelie, or do you like the way things are right now?”
“You know Dad wants us to get her back on side.”
“Oh, I don’t give a fuck about Dad or The Order right now. I’m askingyou. Do you want to put shit right with Amelie, for you?”
Onyx doesn’t answer, he simply purses his lips and folds his arms. I sigh. Stubborn bastard. “Slate? Do you?”
“Yeah.” He coughs nervously.
“Right, so understand this. I am missing tonight’s – and any other – Order shit until things are sorted with Amelie. Besides, it’ll be easier if I keep her out of the way. Last time in the woods was a close call and I had to owe Branson a favour for warning her to run.”
“She should be playing, she’s a pledge,” Onyx points out. “Grandfather will come and force our hand in making her take part, it's the rules.”
“I don’t give a fuck. Not tonight. It’s too soon. And it’s not fair to chuck her in at the deep end without her knowing what’s going on.” I glare at my brothers, daring them to defy me, but thankfully they both keep quiet.
