I can’t forget that I screamed to Tess that I was dating Lumen. Now she thinks I’m sleeping with Chasm. What a clusterfuck. At least she didn’t bring up the former part of that equation last night. I can only deal with so much embarrassment in a single evening.
“Oh, honey, you should’ve stuck with me.” Lumen leans down to whisper in my ear. “You don’t need a condom with a girl. No evidence.” And then she licks the shell of my ear, and I’m slapping her away while she laughs again.
“Parrish is still missing you know,” I remind her, and she gives me a look, reaching up to check her ponytail for perfection.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” she says, but some of her usual confidence is missing. “How do you know he didn’t just take off for some sun and space? Tess is like a wisteria vine, one of those ones that strangles the trees it attaches to.”
I mean, she isn’t wrong about the Tess part, and I don’t have the energy to argue with her about Parrish, so I let it go.
At lunch, Chasm appears outside my classroom looking annoyed but resigned.
“You made the right choice, Little Sister,” he tells me grudgingly, holding out a cold soda can like a peace offering. I take it and pop the top, taking a sip so he has time to think about what else he wants to say. It’s clear he’s been thinking about this all day. “Tess can’t find out. What if she does something crazy like … I don’t know, ship you back to New York?”
I pause with the soda halfway to my lips for a second drink. Just a few months ago, I would’ve done literally anything to go home. Now, Parrish is counting on me, and I cannot fuck this up.
“You think she’d do something like that?” I whisper as people pass by us on either side, their assessing gazes and whispers so prevalent that Chasm eventually snaps.
He gives this harsh, mean laugh that raises goose bumps on my arms and legs.
“Y’all better keep that shit to yourselves. I know enough to bury each and every one of you under a pile of scandals.”
“Get fucked, Kwang-seon,” someone bites out, and I recognize him as the boy that tried to throw garbage into the lake near Chas’ place. “Unlike everybody else, I don’t think Parrish is just on vacation. He’s probably lying in a ditch somewhere.” The guy makes a slicing motion across the front of his throat. “Slayer probably cut him into little pieces. Even the gamer geek thinks that.”
Chasm just laughs softly and then, before I can even think to stop him, he’s throwing a punch that knocks that guy’s head back, dropping him to the floor in a heap. Blood runs from his nose as he clutches desperately at his face and groans pitifully.
Nobody steps in to help, not even the guy’s friend. They all just sort of … watch?
“You think Parrish needs to come back for you to get your ass kicked, bro?” Chas squats down next to the guy, shaking out his hand. He purrs something in Korean, but it may as well be the language of demons the way it sounds.
The guy’s eyes widen, and he scrambles to his feet, swiping at his bloody nose with his tie.
The crowd disperses with a caucus of disappointed grumbling.
Apparently, they expected a better show.
Apparently, I know nothing at all about how Whitehall Prep really works.
Chasm stands up and turns to me, rubbing his knuckles on the front of his shirt like they might be sore.
“I have an idea,” he tells me, as if he didn’t just clock some dude in the face. He looks down at me and smirks as I gape back at him. “I think I can get ahold of Mr. Volli’s keys.”
“Are you insane?” I whisper back, looking around for an administrator. No way that guy doesn’t rat Chasm out. He could get expelled, suspended at the very least. Assault charges might even be on the table.
Chas blinks at me for a moment and then glances over his shoulder at the small spatters of blood on the floor. He reaches out with his shoe and sort of rubs them away.
“Better?” he asks, almost like it’s a joke. But then he offers up what I can only describe as a pitying sort of smile. “Didn’t I warn you about Whitehall? I said you had bite, but I wasn’t sure if it was enough. Prove me wrong, Little Sister.”
“Everyone warned me about Whitehall,” I murmur back warily, realizing not for the first time how damn lucky I was to fall under the protection of the school’s royalty. Jesus. As much as I’d like to press for more information, we have better things to do. “You can get his keys, how?”
