Page 35 of Twisted Little Game

I still think some Onyx Society guys are uncomfortable and intimidated around me, even ones I’ve known for years.

I pull out my phone as Weston and Sev are wrapping up their stuff to go.

Maks Petrov

Met with Yegor this afternoon, got a ride from Nata. Pick me up in a while?

Roman

I’ll be there.

Yegor says guests are coming over soon. No clue who.

Be on your guard. I don’t trust any guest he entertains.

You read my mind.

See you in a bit. Stay safe.

My own family life has felt like a distant world since Tate arrived on campus.

I have been avoiding my father’s Sunday dinners.

Avoiding a few of my cousins’ phone calls, too.

There will be consequences for that… but watching Tate has been all-consuming.

After Weston and Sev head out to hit the gym, I help Tate fold up his picnic blanket.

“Walk with me,” I tell him.

“Sir, yes, sir.”

We head through the main part of campus, walking side by side down one of the shorter gravel paths that cuts across the quad. The clouds are puffy and white in the sky, and students are sitting under trees, tossing frisbees back and forth, and laughing all around us.

“We go get this fucking… rock,” I say to him, waving my hand through the air. “Then I have to take care of a couple of things. Then we go back to Onyx House.”

“What do you need to take care of?” he asks.

My eyes scan the grassy quad. “Things.”

“And how do you know I don’t have plans?”

“You don’t have more classes. I know your schedule.”

“What if today was different?”

I give him a heated glance. “Okay. Do you have plans, Tate?”

“No,” he admits, and we fall into silence again.

My boots crunch on the path as we walk. It feels like I’m reverting now. It had been getting easier to talk to Tate lately… even easy to text him sometimes, too.

Now I’m myself again.

Silence hanging between us like a third person on the path.

I accompany Tate upstairs to his dorm room, where he grabs the rock, the bow it came with, and the wrapping it was in. He tosses them in his backpack and slings it over his shoulder, heading back downstairs.