It’s an empty sentiment, and we both know it, but I appreciate it anyway.
“Aren’t you getting changed?” Lumen asks, appearing in a red party dress with so many sparkles it could light up the Fourth of July. “Here, zip me up.”
She turns around and pulls her gently curled blond hair over her shoulder.
“I’ll wear my uniform,” I say, yanking her zipper into place and then taking another swig from the bottle. “Let’s go.”
Because if Chasm is at the hangout, then Parrish probably is, too.
And I’m not excited about that at all.
I can hear the music before we turn the corner and find ourselves at the edge of a lake. “Up” by Cardi B is blasting out the speakers of someone’s car. Danyella pulls up beside the row of vehicles and we climb out. There aren’t many people here, maybe ten in total, including us, but there’s one person I spot right away.
“If it isn’t Pokémon pants,” Chasm says, arms crossed over his chest as he leans against the hood of his car. “Wouldn’t be a proper hang without you.”
I close the back door on Danyella’s car, bumping it with my hip to keep it that way. It clicks open regardless, and I sigh.
“Where’s your first-in-command?” I quip, moving over to stand beside him in my Whitehall uniform. I might not be as dressed-up as Lumen, but it’s infinitely better than old pj pants and an anime hoodie.
“Simp for Parrish?” he questions, raking that amber gaze over me and clicking his tongue in distaste. “Sorry to disappoint you, Little Sister, but he isn’t here. Seems somebody pissed him off after school.” My cheeks blaze as Chasm turns away, narrowing his eyes at one of his friends as the guy chugs a bottle of liquor and tosses it into the lake. My lip curls in distaste, but before I can even say anything, Chasm calls him out. “Dude, what the fuck? I swim in that lake during the summer, you dick. Don’t throw garbage in there.”
He turns back to me as I tuck my hands in my blazer pockets and raise an eyebrow at Lumen. She’s already got a drink in hand, body working to the song as Danyella takes a seat and pulls out her sketchbook. She’s got colored pencils, and it looks like she’s going to draw the lake. Interesting.
“So, Kwang-seon,” I start, and Chasm gives me a look, his own brow raised in surprise. “I hear you’re not as shitty a person as you seem. Everyone at Whitehall seems to think that you’re—” I almost choke on the next word, forcing it out the same way that Tess says Dakota—“charming.”
“Is that the word on the town?” he asks, staring me down in just such a way that I feel like fidgeting. No, Dakota, no. Bad girl. Don’t let him see you squirm. I stare right back at him instead, and he laughs. “Everyone who attends Whitehall is part of a powerful or influential family. Someday, I might need a favor. Might as well make friends now so I can be rich later.”
“That’s … sort of a depressing reason to be nice,” I reply, eying him up and down. See? He really is a dick. He’s not actually some sort of angel the way Lumen painted him. “I don’t ever recall you trying to be nice to me. The first time we met, you shoved me into a swimming pool.” Chasm just continues to stare at me, the corner of his lip quirking up.
“I’m always willing to make exceptions,” he says finally, giving a loose shrug of his shoulders. “Why should I be nice to you anyway? You stole my room. Where am I supposed to take girls now?”
“How about home?” I quip back, but he just shakes his head like that isn’t even an option. Why he never wants to go home is a mystery I have yet to solve, but it’s also not something I’m willing to press. Who knows what his living situation is? Just because he’s rich, that doesn’t mean he has a good homelife.
I decide to take a seat on the hood beside him, hopping up on the car as he lets out a small whistle.
“Really? This is a car, not a bench. Move your ass, Little Sister.”
“Why? You’re leaning on it,” I challenge, and surprisingly, he laughs at me, turning his attention back to the small group of his friends gathered near the lake. “By the way, can I call you Kwang-seon?”
“No.”
I elbow him in the side, and he flashes a look my way.
“Why not? It’s a pretty name.”
“Regardless, you can still only call me Chasm.”
“Then you can start calling me ‘Dakota’ and forget all about the ‘Little Sister’ bit.” I start to slide off the hood, intending on leaving Chasm in the dust so I can join Lumen instead. He surprises me by putting a hand on my arm, dragging reluctant goose bumps from my suddenly heated skin.
“Call me Kwang-seon if you want, but don’t be surprised if I don’t answer. You want a beer or something?” I shrug in response to his question and Chasm saunters off, dressed in dark jeans and a red zip-up hoodie over a white t-shirt. He’s undeniably gorgeous, that much is a fact, even if he seems to be nice to everyone but me.
“So, what did you mean about offering to tutor me?” I ask when he comes back and hands a beer out to me. His fingers burn mine when we touch, but he doesn’t seem to notice, so I pretend that I don’t either.
“You blew your chance at that this morning,” he tells me, chugging his drink as I roll the bottle between my suddenly sweaty palms.
“I’m sorry I said that,” I reply, and he stops mid-drink to stare at me like I’ve grown horns. “I’m not usually like that. It’s just something about Parrish that infuriates me.” Chasm looks briefly pleased and then supremely irritated again, all in the span of a single breath. “You and I don’t have to butt heads all the time, you know?”
“Maybe if you’re real nice to me tonight, I’ll change my mind?” he purrs, giving me another look, one that’s dark and heavy with innuendo. I don’t pay it much notice; Chasm McKenna looks at a lot of girls like that. Even still, I can’t help the hot flush that takes over my face and boobs. Luckily, he can only see one of those things.
“McKenna is an interesting last name,” I posit instead, trying to change the subject before I give myself away. “Irish?”
“My dad is white as fuck,” he tells me, removing a small tube from his back pocket. He pops the top and a pre-rolled joint slides out. “Irish, sure, I guess. My mom was his superior at their company’s South Korean branch.” I scoot a bit closer to Chasm to listen and he frowns at me.
“What? I’m always game for a good love story.”
“Love story? Whoever said this was a love story? My mom got fired for dating my dad, wound up pregnant and living with my grandmother, and then died from preeclampsia. Does that sound like a love story to you?”
I just stare back at him, too surprised to formulate a response for a moment.
“Preeclampsia … that’s related to pregnancy, right?” I ask, and Chasm nods.
“I was gonna ask you about your family history, but then I remembered you don’t know any of it.”
A frown pulls my lips down.
“Was that necessary?” I query back, my mind drifting to Tess and her sketchy behavior when I asked about my birth father. Chasm is being a dick right now, but he isn’t wrong about what he’s saying. I know precisely zero about one half of my lineage. As for the other half, I know only that Tess’ parents are both dead and that she doesn’t have any other family outside of the Vanguards. That’s about it. “If you don’t want to talk about your past or your mother, that’s okay, but don’t be a dick to me just because you’re hurting.”