We need to talk. Meet me in the hedge maze on Monday after school.
My blood goes cold.
“Lumen,” I murmur, and Parrish’s body gets tense.
“Don’t tell me that fucker made you sleep with Lumen, too?”
I lift my gaze up to meet his.
“Definitely not,” I tell him, clutching the note in my hand. I knew it; I knew something was going on with those girls.
“Lumen’s posse kicked the shit out of Dakota and broke her nose,” Chasm explains as Parrish’s eyes get wide. He vaguely heard of the attack on one of our video chats, but I’m certain he never got any details. “Broke two of her fingers, too.” Chas gestures at me, but I’m not wearing my splints like I’m supposed to. I ditched the gloves and the white fur wrap long ago, but I’m still wearing the bloody princess dress—and the tiara. “Things have been bad since you left, Parrish. Veronica and her buddies whipped out a bunch of utility knives on us out back of the hedge maze.”
“You better be fucking with me?” Parrish growls out, clenching his hands into fists. He closes his eyes and forces himself to exhale, sweeping his hands over his hair. “Let me guess: Whitehall is falling apart without me?”
“As always, your majesty,” Chasm drawls back, with just the right amount of humor.
Parrish opens his eyes again and drops his hands by his sides.
“I’ll handle it,” he declares, but I don’t see how. Tess is unlikely to let him finish the last week of school out. “I see that we have a lot to catch up on.”
He pauses suddenly, turning his head to the door, and we all stop talking as Tess’ heels approach and she knocks lightly, peeking in the door. She’s holding something in her hand; it looks a bit like a first aid kit.
“Just checking on you,” she says, and Parrish forces a smile that reminds me of my own.
“We’re just making small talk, to keep me calm,” he says, and her eyes crinkle with love and worry. “It’s weird to have been gone for so long; I feel like I missed out on a lot.”
Tess’ attention turns to me and Chasm for a moment, and I’m sure she’s thinking about the condom the authorities found, about my confession that I was ‘sleeping with’ Chasm at the time. How now, I actually am sleeping with Chasm.
“It’s okay, honey. It’ll take time to readjust. What matters is that you’re here, you’re safe.” Her eyes fill with tears, and she moves into the room again to give Parrish another hug, one that she holds for so long that he starts to get annoyed.
“Mom,” he murmurs, and she finally releases him, smoothing his hair back and then looking over at the bathroom. Steam is rolling out from the shower and drifting into the bedroom.
“Are you showering? I can reapply your salve and bandages when you get out. Also, did you take the antibiotics they gave you at the hospital?”
“I did. And the pain pills.” Parrish gestures at me with a tilt of his head. “Dakota is going to help me put the salve and bandages on after; I’m good for now.” He takes the first aid kit from Tess’ hand and tosses it onto the bathroom counter before returning to his spot near the doorway.
Tess gives me an odd sort of look in response, and I resist the urge to shiver.
She isn’t going to take the news of Parrish and me as a couple very well at all.
“Okay, well. Please leave the bathroom door unlocked. I won’t bother you, but I’d like the option of being able to check on you anyway.”
Parrish sighs heavily and gives her a two-fingered salute.
“Yeah, okay.”
Tess drags herself away with obvious effort, leaving the door wide. Maxx moves over and adjusts it back to a sliver again, peeking out to make sure she’s gone into her office before he returns back to the open area beside Parrish’s gaming chairs.
The four of us stand there in awkward silence.
“Give me a chance to recoup what I lost,” Parrish murmurs, looking down at the floor. He glances up at Chasm, at Maxx, and then over at me. “Give me some time. If it doesn’t work out … we can all try to woo you and best man wins.” His jaw clenches, but he hides his anger well.
“You don’t need time to recoup anything, Parrish,” I tell him, putting my hand on his arm. “My feelings for you haven’t changed.” He looks at me before turning his face toward his friends again.
“What about Maxine?” he asks, directing the question to, of course, X.
X grits his teeth, but he doesn’t look away.
“Maxine broke up with me before anything happened between me and Dakota. She wouldn’t give up on the notion that something was happening to Kota, and I had to discourage her. She didn’t like that, so … Anyway, she knows about us.” He gestures at me with his left hand. “I told her everything. It’s completely over between us—permanently.”
