“Right now, you really have to go. Dana’s got to go to class, and I have to study … or all those strings Astor pulled are going to be for nothing.”
Dana gives me another look behind his back before the two of them leave together.
I try to pick at the food, but I really don’t have much of an appetite yet. With Dana gone, I get back to studying for a couple more hours until, yet again, there’s another knock on the door.
This time I jump out of bed and storm over in my pajamas to fling it wide myself.
It’s Blair with hot cocoa, and he’s brought two mugs even though Dana’s already gone to class.
I lean against the doorway, one hand on my hip, blocking his path.
“Uh uh. No way. I have to study Blair, and I’m not going to be ab
le to do it with you murmuring sweet chocolate nothings into my ear.”
“No worries, Bunny,” he says, doing exactly what I was worried he’d do. His whispers make the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. “Whatever you want.”
For once, he doesn’t push it. He actually leaves.
Now this, this really makes me wonder what’s going on with the holy trinity.
Dana shows up not too much later to check on me for lunch, and to stock up on some of those chocolates, when she sees the half-empty cocoa on the floor and shakes her head.
“What did you do to those boys?”
I glance up from my work and mime pulling my hair out from the roots. “I don’t know, but their guilt is starting to drive me a little insane.”
As if to drive the point home further, there is one last knock.
Both Dana and I look at each other, then at the door and shout for them to go away. The silence on the other side of the door is deafening.
“I think that might keep them at bay for a bit,” Dana says on her way out, but she makes me promise not to let them distract me any further.
I think it’s just guilt making them act like this. Once time has passed again, they’ll go back to their old ways. It’s how things are. But I’m going to enjoy their sweetness while it lasts. That’s why, even though I was getting a little bit smothered earlier, I’m disappointed when they don’t come back later on in the day.
But they gave me this time to study, so study I do.
In the morning, I ace the test.
Even though all I did was stay in bed all day yesterday, I’m still exhausted after the make-up exam so I head back up to my room to take a nap instead of heading straight to first period. I need a nap, and my teachers know that I’ve just come out of the hospital so they’re a little more forgiving about me missing a few more classes.
I sleep a little longer than I mean to and end up rushing down to try and catch the last half of French class. Madame Bisset is already concerned for me, and I don’t want to give her any more reason to look too closely. I’m in such a hurry to get to class that my hair is still plastered to the back of my head in a tangle when I nearly walk straight into Chris Hardy.
He’s one of Astor’s less friendly minions. Unlike Astor, he doesn’t have a secret soft side. He’s all hard edges and cruel jokes.
“Oh look, it’s the druggie. They didn’t send you to rehab?”
I take a couple steps back and evaluate whether or not I can just walk by him … but I took the back staircase and it’s too narrow. I took this on purpose to try and avoid running into anyone, but I guess this now defeats the purpose.
“Come on Chris, let me pass.” I look past him and try to walk forward, but he just juts out and arm and stops me in my tracks.
“I don’t think so. Not until I’m finished with you.”
Chris slaps the top of my books with the palm of his hand, knocking them out of my arms with a thunderous sound as they slam onto the concrete floor. Before I can start to recover from the shock, he’s grabbed me by each of my shoulders and shoved me up against a wall.
My voice doesn’t seem to be working. I was just trying to get to class. This isn’t the first time Chris has tried to haze me, doubtless under Astor’s orders, but it was always small things before. And it was never physical.
He draws one arm across my throat so his forearm presses against my windpipe. His free hand bats mine away and reaches down to grope my breasts. I start to struggle, but he just pushes harder on my throat and I can’t breathe.