“A restaurant.” Lucy takes the hair towel away. “Nao hates it.”
“I don’t hate it.” She throws her hands in the air. “Actually, let’s go there.”
Lucy bites her lower lip. “Are you sure? Sebastian will be there.”
“Fuck that asshole,” she grumbles.
“Sideways,” I add as I pull my hair up in a chignon. “Do you really hate him?”
Naomi’s eyes nearly bug out. “Is that a trick question?”
“I thought…forget about it.”
“No, what? Say it.”
“I don’t know. I thought there was something between you two. You act tough, but well, you watch him.”
“I do not.”
“Uh-huh.” I grab the camisole and pull it over my head.
Naomi’s expression turns to one of pure contempt. “Like you watch Asher?”
My chest squeezes and the good mood I’ve been in since they appeared nearly disappears. “This isn’t about him.”
“Yeah, right.” Naomi flips her hair.
“We’re just an illusion, like Lucy said.” I flop in front of the mirror and stare at my eyes. They’re becoming lifeless, like the somber depths of an ocean.
“That was before.” Lucy clutches my shoulders from behind, looking at me through the mirror. “You guys are different now. You make me want to film your life.”
“No, we’re not.”
“Uh-huh.” Naomi throws the pants at my head and Lucy catches them. “Is that why he called us and asked us to check on you?”
My eyes widen as I face them. “He…he did that?”
Lucy’s smile is soft and dreamy. “He sounded worried, too. I need an Asher in my life.”
This can’t be true.
Wait—is this another one of his games?
If he wants me dead, why would he worry about me?
It doesn’t make any sense.
The following day, I go back to school.
I try to keep to myself and not talk to anyone except Naomi and Lucy. I can’t take any jabs at my person while I’m still trying to push that gloomy cloud away.
It’s clingy, you know.
Like super glue, it won’t go the fuck away no matter how much I shake it off. It has less to do with my state of mind and more with how the fuck I’m supposed to carry on with my life after what I uncovered.
That doesn’t mean I cower away from the snide remarks or the envious looks I keep getting from everyone around campus. Apparently, the locker room incident has been circulating around that shady Instagram account, blackwood-black-book. The fact that I disappeared two days afterward is one more reason for everyone to roast me, talk behind my back, and whisper at my face.
Blackwood College is full of fucking hypocrites. But then again, Old Reina gave them all the reasons to put her on a high pedestal. What she didn’t know is that no matter how high you rise, one day you’ll fall. The higher the position, the louder the crash.