“Look to your left first and if you’re lucky, I will,” he tells me, all saccharine sweet and smiling. Unfortunately, even though he’s clearly in ultra-dick mode, the gentle waviness of his hair makes it difficult to breathe. I look left.
Virtually everyone is staring at me. Us.
“Reap what you sow, Gamer Girl,” he tells me, pushing back from the locker as Chasm moves over to us.
“You’re really going along with this dating thing, huh?” he asks, just loud enough that only Parrish and I can hear. Parrish ignores us both, stalking down the hall like he just doesn’t give a shit.
Chas sneers at his friend’s back before turning to look at me.
“This isn’t going to turn out the way you want it to,” he tells me, and I raise both brows in question.
“Which part?” I ask as he scans me with those pretty amber eyes of his, shoving his lightning-bolt dyed hair off of his forehead.
“You and Parrish becoming a thing. Call it quits before he eviscerates you,” he warns me, but I just smile as I notice Lumen making her way through the crowd toward me. I’m starting to get the idea that Parrish is the king of the school; Lumen is the queen. I don’t need both of them to survive here—just one.
“Some people might say you were jealous,” I shoot back as Chasm lets out a grating laugh and reaches over to ruffle my green and black hair. I bat his hand away, but he remains unfazed.
“Keep dreaming, Little Sister,” he tells me, turning and sauntering off in the direction Parrish went. He makes sure to flip Lumen off as they pass each other, but she ignores him.
“Do you like the buzz I’ve generated for you?” she asks, reaching out and sweeping a tendril of hair back from my forehead. The move surprises me, but I don’t stop her. Everyone’s staring at us now, expecting some sort of a show. I’m not sure if giving them one—especially one that isn’t true—is the right thing to do, but my back feels bowed under the social pressure.
Ugh.
If invisibility were an option here, I’d probably take it. Back home, it was mostly just me, Sally, and Nevaeh. We went to the occasional party or sporting event or whatever, but there was none of this salivary expectation like I’m feeling now.
The students at Whitehall Prep do indeed enjoy a good show.
“So I looked you up last night,” Lumen continues, her blond ponytail curled in gentle waves and bouncing as she moves. Her makeup is flawless, her blazer ironed, the pleats in her skirt arranged just so. She barely looks human, but at least she’s smiling at me. I imagine that if she wanted to, she really could make my time here at Whitehall an even worse hell than it already is.
“Looked me up?” I repeat, still glaring at Chasm and Parrish’s retreating backs as they make their way down the wide hall. The walls are covered with this intricate wood paneling, and the floors are old but well-kempt, the stone covered in a thick layer of sealant or varnish or whatever. You can tell the building’s been here since the late eighteen-hundreds just by looking at it.
“You’re a superstar,” Lumen continues, giving me her elbow so we can loop arms. She’s a good three inches taller than me, but she seems like she’s a foot taller based on her presence alone. I hate to think it, but I’m sure Tess would be a hell of a lot happier with a daughter like Lumen instead of one like me. “The internet is in love with the story of your kidnapping.”
“It’s my defining feature, apparently,” I add with a dry humor that I don’t particularly feel inside. I used to have an online presence based on my gaming merit. Not anymore.
“It gives you this enigma vibe,” Lumen says, looking me over appreciatively as she guides me down the hall like an escort. “Run with it. You could have a lot of fun here at Whitehall,” she continues, glancing down at me with pale brown eyes. For a minute there, I’m pretty sure she’s checking me out, but then she blinks and the moment’s gone.
It only takes about five minutes of walking by her side to see that she most definitely is the queen bee on campus. Parrish is the lazy prince, and Chasm is his overprotective knight. Everyone else is just background noise.
“What’s your schedule like?” Lumen asks as I slip my phone from my pocket and hand it over to her. She scans my itinerary for a moment and then nods. “Your first class is across the hall from mine. Follow me and I’ll show you how to get there; this campus is a fucking labyrinth.”
Frankly, I think my schedule looks like something out of a nightmare.
