Page 330 of Knox Academy Omnibus
Adrianne laughs before she speaks. “Baby boy, it’s cute that you think you could stop her. If you lay one finger on her she has four boyfriends and a best friend that would strip you of your internal organs and sell them on the black market. I’m not convinced the bestie wouldn’t just eat them raw for shits and giggles. But don’t you worry your pretty little head about your job security because I’ll be escorting our boss to the toilet. If you have an issue with that, I suggest you start looking for another job…but that’s the thing, I know that once you’re in you’re in. I’m new, but I can’t help but wonder what they do to those who are no longer useful?”
He visibly swallows and nods his head. Adrianne grabs my arm and pulls me into the girls’ toilets and laughs the entire way. She lets my arm go when we’re inside and kicks each stall door open to make sure we’re alone.
“Did you see his face? We should jump just to show him we can.”
“As much fun as that would be, I don’t need Monty on my ass again,” I reply, entering one of the stalls.
I hear the door open and the sound of someone clearly crying.
“Are you okay out there?” I ask.
“Um, that’s not me but I need your help.”
I quickly wipe and flush, opening the stall to see Elsie flopped into Adrianne’s arms and poor Adrianne looks stiff as a board, awkwardly patting Elsie’s back. For someone who’s raising a kid, she sure looks awkward as fuck at consoling and giving affection.
I wash my hands and the second I’m done Adrianne steps back with relief etched all over her face. Elsie looks up through tear filled eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I ask and she opens her mouth to talk but just starts crying again.
“Did you have another fight with Jasper?” Adrianne asks and Elsie nods. I have to release my sigh internally. This is getting to be a real problem.
“How about we ditch and have a girls’ day?” I suggest, knowing that my friend needs me more than my frustration right now. “We can stop at the cafeteria and grab some ice cream.”
Elsie nods and Adrianne looks as if she would rather watch paint dry, but she’s also my assistant that doesn’t really do that much assisting. I have a feeling that Kalen just wanted her to have a decent job.
Adrianne offers to go and get the ice cream while I take Elsie back to our dorm. Elsie sobs most of the way back to the room, and once we are inside she sits on my bed dropping her bag on the floor.
Wow, it must be bad. Elsie is a precision placer, not a careless dropper. She doesn’t even flinch when something inside the bag sounds like it breaks.
“Why are you this upset over a fight with Jasper?”
She flops back onto the bed, star shaped, so I walk over and take a seat on my desk chair.
“I went to see him because I knew he was sick, but we ended up having a fight. He doesn’t want me to join The Order! He kept stating that it’s way too dangerous and he is worried about my initiation. He says that they usually find out all of your fears and exploit them.”
“Usually, they do. But I get to do yours. And although I can’t tell you what it is, except that it won’t be pretty…” I move from the chair and sit next to her on the bed and take her hand, shesits up and faces me. “Just remember that no matter what, I love you and you’re my best friend. If you hold on to that you’ll be fine.”
“They know that I’m afraid to be alone.” I nod. “And the fire…”
“What if I’m too weak?”
“You’re not weak. It takes guts to do what you did and to be where you are today. You have me and Jasper – even though he is acting like a douche. I can even see Kalen likes you, and Baxter. That’s a lot, to not have Baxter waiting to skin you alive every time you walk into the same room as him.”
She snorts and snot bubbles from her nose. I jump up and hand her a box of tissues. She cleans herself up and goes to say something, but the door opens and Adrianne walks in, red faced and holding a massive school sized tub of ice cream that is almost half the size of her body.
“What did you do?” I laugh.
“Those ladies down there are super protective of their ice cream! I had to break in, and one hit me with a mop! So I pulled my knife to get them to back off. I didn’t have time to be picky, so you get whatever the hell is in here. I had to run all the way here with this shit before campus security caught me. Lucky that guy is a lard-arse! For a school full of criminals you would think they would have better people watching over us.”
“You do realise if you asked them for a few small tubs they would have given them to you? You didn’t have to break into the cafeteria during the day.”
Elsie loses it and laughs like a crazed hyena. “I really needed this, let’s get on some comfy pjs. How about we watch movies in my room?” Adrianne looks at me and I nod. “I have some spare sets.”
We follow Elsie from my room and down the hall to hers. Once we get there, I pull out my phone and send a text to my group chat with the guys.
Amelie
The B&E in the cafeteria…can we make that go away?
