The room went silent, and I watched as Luka’s expression of triumph melted away into a mask of seriousness.
Slowly, I turned to see the owner of the voice. My magical theory professor was standing in the middle of the lockers, silent students on either side of her.
“I was just leaving,” Luka said.
“Wrong direction,” she said. “This is the third time you’ve been busted in here. You know the rules.”
I turned back to Luka, incredulous. Jealous heat flared in my chest that quickly turned to anger. “Three times?”
He shrugged.
“You really are an asshole,” I said.
“Come on, lover boy, it’s confinement time for you,” she said.
I swallowed against the lump in my throat. Despite his brazen attitude, I couldn’t help but feel bad for him.
And there was still that part of me that wanted him.
“Luka,” I started but couldn’t think of anything else to say.
He shoved the underwear into my chest and I automatically grabbed them, too dumbfounded by the situation to argue with him. Was he really going to confinement over this?
Luka paused next to me and leaned down to whisper in my ear. “They really are your panties.”
I squeezed my hand around the fabric so tightly that my fingernails dug into my palms before I realized I was holding on to someone’s underwear. Snapping out of it, I marched toward a trash can and tossed them in.
When I looked back to where Luka had been, he was gone. And so were most of the other students.
Violet stood alone in the center of the room. “You know, you might just bring the excitement I was craving to this school. Things have been too dull lately. Too normal, you know? I have a feeling you’re going to shake all of that up.”
“Ms. Winters,” A male voice boomed into the locker room. “It’s Dr. Green. When you’re decent, you need to be in my office.”
My insides twisted and the ground seemed a little unstable. This was it. He was going to send me to magic jail. I was so, so fucked.
“You better go,” Violet said. “The longer you keep him waiting, the more pissed he gets.”
“Hey, thanks for not trying to hypnotize me or threaten me or anything,” I said.
“We just met,” she said. “No promises I won’t try something in the future.”
I laughed, then headed toward my fate.