Crap.
I’ve done it again, said something that I almost immediately regret. For the most part, my beef is with Parrish, not Chasm.
“And here I was thinking that I’d offer to tutor you, Little Sister. Guess you can figure that one out on your own.” He turns and heads down the hall after Parrish as I bite my lip. Shit. Tutor me? How does he even know I need to be tutored? Then I remember that Parrish and Chasm are rude assholes who go through my stuff whenever my back is turned. On Wednesday, I looked up from making a sandwich to see the two of them casually thumbing through my academy-issued iPad.
Pricks.
“Too bad,” Lumen says, casting a glance in Chasm’s direction. “Kwang-seon is on his way to being valedictorian.” She pauses for a moment, tapping at her glossy lower lip with a single finger. “Or at least salutatorian, if I have my way about it.”
Turning to look at her, I cock a brow and try to figure out which part of that statement is most interesting: that Chasm is one of the top students at Whitehall … or that Lumen just referred to him as … what was it? It almost sounded like it started with a ‘G’ and a ‘K’ at the same time.
“His name is Kwang-seon?” I ask, blinking a few times in surprise. Lumen gives me what amounts to a sultry smile before lifting a perfect brow in my direction.
“Apparently when they first met, Parrish was missing a tooth and all he could say was ‘chasm’. It just sort of stuck. Cute, right? Also, his dad hates the nickname, and he hates his dad, so …” Lumen takes my arm the way she’s been doing virtually every morning this week and leads me down the hall toward my first class. Without her help, I’d likely still be getting lost on the way there. “Guess it’s just you and me now?” She gives me a smile that I’m not entirely sure how to interpret, and then leans over and presses a floral-scented kiss to my cheek. “Don’t worry. He can’t sink you if you’re attached to me.”
And there it is, the honest truth.
What did Danyella tell me when I first arrived here? Welcome to hell? It hasn’t been so bad thus far, but I get the idea that I’ve somehow fallen into a lucky niche. Chance and circumstance are on my side. Maxx told me not to trust anyone at this school, and he should know better than anyone. He survived four years here as a scholarship student. Class warfare is real, unfortunately.
“Will he try?” I ask, because even though it feels like I know Parrish, we’re strangers. Worse than strangers, really, because we can’t escape one another, no matter how much we hate each other, no matter how much we fight.
Lumen gives me a look that sums it up without words: oh yes.
“Enjoy being my girlfriend for a while,” she says, her gang of supermodel-esque girls flowing down the hall behind us. “And I’ll see you at Danyella’s after school.”
Without warning, Lumen turns and threads her arms around my neck, pressing a kiss to my mouth that surprises the shit out of me.
It’s all I can think about for the rest of the day.
By the end of the school day, I’ve decided three very important things.
One: Mr. Volli’s class is by far my favorite. Granted, I don’t understand a thing he’s talking about, but he’s nice, and he doesn’t look at me like a steaming pile of cat turds the way my other teachers (minus Ms. Miyamoto) do.
Two: if I don’t find someone—Chasm or otherwise—to tutor me then I am really and truly fucked here. I will fail every class, and I won’t get into NYU, and I’ll be stuck living off of Tess’ good graces for the rest of my life. Note to self: maybe I should use my newfound clout to revive my Twitch channel.
Three: someone has posted a quickie shot of Lumen and me online and everyone knows about it.
Including Parrish. Who seems … pissed off?
“You and Lumen are really a thing now?” he asks me dryly, waiting outside my last class of the day, just to make sure he can dig in with a few extra barbs before I leave with Danyella. I pause, hefting my book bag up on my shoulder and giving him a look.
“What do you care if we are or we aren’t?” I quip back, trying to maneuver around him to head for the theater. Parrish blocks me off by slamming his palm into the lockers and I sigh. “Seriously? You’re the one who went on the attack this morning, tried to make a scene to humiliate me and lost. Get over it.”
“Lost?” he asks with a caustic laugh. “You got dumped in front of the entire school. Explain to me how that’s a win for you.”
“The whole school thinks you have a two inch long, perma-soft dick. Explain to me how that’s a win.” I go to duck under his arm, but then he slams the palm of his other hand into the locker, effectively caging me in place. “Nobody’s going to want to date you now.”
“Good.” He stares down at me with a level of haughty arrogance that I’m only used to seeing on the faces of K-drama stars. “Maybe I can enjoy the rest of my high school career without girls glomming onto me at every available opportunity?”
A laugh escapes me, one that I barely recognize. I’m not sure I even know who I am when I’m around Parrish—for good or bad. Probably for bad. For worse, really.
“You act like you’re god’s gift to straight and bi girls everywhere. If that were true, then why was Lumen crying at the party, hmm?” When I try to duck down this time, Parrish leans in close to me, bending his elbows and pressing my body to the lockers with the weight of his own.
People are staring. I mean, do you blame them? First, I’m a polyamorous, bisexual icon. Then we’re talking about threesomes. Then I’m getting dumped. Kissed by Lumen. Harassed by Parrish. He’s smiling at me now and, like I said, he never smiles. Not when he’s tattooing, not when he’s drawing, not when he’s playing video games. Unlike normal people, Parrish Vanguard only smiles when he’s about to do something cruel and awful.
“Lumen was crying because I turned her down,” Parrish says with a loose shrug of his shoulders. Still smiling though. Still fucking smiling. He leans in close to me, and I hate the way my body goes haywire when it’s around his. We have metric fucktons of natural chemistry, that’s for sure. And I hate it. And I hate him. And I hate the way he smiles. And I hate the way he kissed my neck on Monday night, and I hate the way that I can’t seem to forget about the warmth of his lips against my skin. “How does that make you feel, knowing your new girlfriend was begging for it just one week ago?”
“Well, based on the way she kissed me today, she isn’t begging for it now, is she?” I smile right back at him, flames racing across my skin, fingertips tingling. He just pisses me off so damn bad, I can’t explain it. Everything about him bothers me, like how he gets out of the shower and leaves his bedroom door open on purpose, just so that I have to stare at his bare torso. “What do you even want from me right now?” I continue, because it hasn’t escaped my notice that not only did Parrish track me down, but also that he seems weirdly preoccupied with the idea that Lumen and I might actually be into one another.
“I want to know what game you’re playing at,” he breathes, and the intensity in his eyes scares the shit out of me. He isn’t smiling anymore. Instead, he’s staring at me like he could break me apart with his gaze alone, find every little hidden piece of me and memorize its shape. “You ruined my entire life, you know that? I had to wait until I was sixteen to spend the night at a friend’s place. Seventeen before I was allowed to drive to school by myself. I’m still not allowed to drive my car anywhere else.”