“Excuse me,” I say loudly, stepping in front of Trixie. “I asked you a question.” I square off against Brock, and I fight the urge to take a step back as he rises to his feet, looming over me.
“I decided not to answer your question,” he says, shrugging, but I can feel the emotion coming off of him.
He hates me.
“I thought you might be interested to know that someone dumped all of Landry’s clothes out in front of the dorm, and her uniforms are missing,” Trixie murmurs, grabbing my raised arm and pulling me back before I can punch Brock in the face.
“We don’t give a fuck,” Bodhi says, showing his teeth in more of a growl and less of a smile.
“You aren’t wanted here,” Corbin says, and my shocked gaze jumps to his. “You know what you did, Trixie, and there’s no coming back from it. Not unless you are ready to explain.”
All three guys stare at us as Trixie pushes me back, takes my hand, and quickly starts to walk away.
“What the fuck?” I hiss, and she walks faster.
“I thought they would be past this by now,” she whispers under her breath.
I pull my hand, stopping her. “What is going on?”
They’ve been weird but not downright hateful and bitchy to me.
“They aren’t pissed at you; it’s me,” Trixie says, grimacing.
“I kinda caught on to that. What did you do?”
“Not here,” she says, glancing around at everyone staring at us.
Something about her tone has me curious, but I don’t press the issue, noting the phones aimed our way, no doubt recording. Trixie continues walking past the table, so I lean down, grabbing the rest of my burger to finish wherever we are headed. I shuffle to keep up with her.
We exit the commons and start down a path that leads across the grounds and into a thick copse. Almadale Prep is surrounded by dense woods that stretch for miles. The trimmed grass stops at the edge of the shaded line of trees, and we step into the shadows, leaves from last winter littering the ground and crackling under our feet.
“Hey, uh, do you know where you are going?” I wipe my hands together to clear off some of the grease from the burger and hold a branch out of the way of my face.
I hear sniffling and realize Trixie is crying.
“Hey,” I say again.
She stops, back to me, body trembling. I finally catch up with her and spin her around to see tears rolling down her face.
“Whoa.” I pull her into a hug, and she gingerly wraps her arms around me. “It’s going to be okay.” I don’t know if it will be. If that scene back in the commons was any indicator, it’s not. But what else am I supposed to say to someone bawling in the middle of the woods the first day we meet?
“I’m sorry.” She sniffles against my shoulder. “It all hit me at once. I promise I’m not usually like this.”
“Don’t ever apologize for crying. Humans have emotions. Last time I checked, you are a human. Unless there’s something you need to tell me?” I lean back and look her in the eyes, and she giggles.
“No, pretty damn human here,” she says and pulls away, wiping underneath both eyes and across her cheeks.
“It’s not fair, what a pretty crier you are. I look swollen and puffy if I even think about crying,” I say, digging one toe of my shoe into the damp leaves as I grin. “So, you want to talk about it?”
“I can’t tell you everything, but I’ll try to explain,” she says and grabs my hand again, pulling me the rest of the way through the woods until we come to a small clearing.
I can see a few feet in front of me, where the rocky edge drops away, and as I creep forward, I register the sound of water below us. I don’t get too close as my stomach starts to turn, and I break out in a sweat. I back away and turn to see that Trixie is sitting on a rock, leaning back on her hands and tilting her face toward the sun.
“I love it here,” she says, smiling, and I sit next to her. The rock digs into my butt, so I wiggle to get comfortable. “The boys and I have an odd history.”
“I gathered as much when I told them you were going to be my roommate.”
“Oh? What did they say?”
Strangely, I feel like protecting Bodhi, and I decide that I will leave out that he still has feelings for Trixie. No matter how he acted toward me a bit ago, there has to be a reason for treating me like the dirt beneath their shoes.
“Just that they knew you and something about you and Bodhi. They didn’t elaborate much.” I shrug, and she chews her bottom lip.
“I guess that is putting it lightly. We were friends our freshman year, Bodhi and me. I wouldn’t say Brock and I were friends though. It was weird, almost like he resented me for spending time with Bodhi. I don’t know; maybe I read too much into it. Anyway, Bodhi and I hung out, studied together, and I guess our friendship turned into something more. But that summer before sophomore year, my life changed, and then things changed between us.” She pauses, tearing a leaf into tiny pieces and chucking it to the ground.
“What happened that summer?”
“It’s family stuff; it’s complicated.” She turns to me with sad eyes. “But it’s how it has to be now, and they don’t understand.”
“So, you broke up with him that summer and never looked back?”
“I had to.”
“Do you still have feelings for him?”
As she stares at me, I can see the answer flash in her eyes.
But I’m not surprised when she says, “No, I don’t.” The words come out strong, though her body language tells me a different story.
We sit together after that, neither of us speaking as we listen to the water trickle below us.
6
Corbin
“I don’t want to fuckin’ hear it.” Brock sits back down, leaning on the two back legs of his chair.
“Maybe you should take the stick out of your ass. I wasn’t going to say anything to you,” I grumble.
His angry gaze shoots to me. “I could tell by your face how you felt. You don’t like her as much as I don’t like her.”
“Who are you talking about? Trixie?”
“No, Landry. Trixie is irrelevant here,” he speaks with authority, as if he knew exactly how I felt at all times. Truth is, he used to. We are tight, like I’m a blood brother of theirs. I am since we made a pact freshman year.
I’m the only scholarship student in Almadale history who has ever been at the top of the social ladder, and it’s thanks to these two fuckers sitting beside me. I don’t like to be indebted to people, though because of where I come from, you always pay up. And when you don’t have money, sometimes, the payment is less than enjoyable.
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that, brother,” Bodhi singsongs, a cigarette perched between two fingers.
I shoot him a look, and he winks at me before reclining back on two hands atop the table, looking every bit the royalty he is here.
“What are you talking about?” Brock growls, sitting down on all four chair legs and leaning forward.
“Maybe if you paid attention and weren’t on your phone all the time, you would see the way he looks at her,” Bodhi says, tapping one foot as he stares across the commons, bringing his cigarette to his mouth and probably focusing on his next conquest.