Page 26 of Crush

11

Ember

Last night, I’d gone home after swim practice, still throbbing from Thorne’s skilled fingers and tongue. It seems I’m always pulsating for him now, and I’m desperate for that ache to go away.

I don’t need him. I can take care of myself just fine.

Even though he does so much more for me than my hand or anything else I’m desperate to use to get him out of my head. My electric toothbrush. My phone’s vibrate mode. The edge of my fucking bed.

I’ve tried them all.

But my sexual issues aren’t what have my nerves fraying this morning. I’m getting more attention than usual, eyes tracking me through the hallways and people whispering to each other through their fingers. The entire courtyard quieted when I arrived and didn’t resume conversation until I’d reached Winthorpe’s entryway.

What’s going on? I couldn’t find Aiko to help decipher the weird mood before first period, so here I am, at my desk, ignorant and confused.

Did Thorne tell everyone what we did yesterday? Heat creeps into my face, but I scrunch my nose to keep it down. No way. He hasn’t outed us before. There’s no reason for him to do so today.

I sit back in my seat with a sigh. It probably won’t be long until I find out anyway. Aurora’s in first period history with me.

As if my thoughts summoned her, Aurora saunters in, tote bag dangling from one forearm and a to-go coffee container held in the other. She stops at a few desks like the regal socializer she is, laughing and tilting her head just so, before heading to her seat near mine.

I try not to stiffen the closer she gets. Every day she or Thorne sits close, I’m reminded of the reasons I should’ve kept myself at the bottom of the alphabet during school.

Boiling heat scalds my chest so suddenly, I leap out of my chair with a scream.

“Omigod, I’m so sorry, Ember!” Aurora’s hands are on me before I can flinch, her fingers undoing the buttons to my blouse.

“Stop. Stop!” I blubber, the pain spreading down to my stomach.

“We have to get the fabric off before it melts into your skin!” Aurora’s voice is so high-pitched, it has to be faked, but I’m too busy fighting back tears to call her on it. It hurts.

“I don’t need—get off me.” I throw her arms back one more time, but she won’t stop grabbing at me and pressing into every spot that burns. “Silly me for asking for a fresh black coffee. I normally drink it with tons of milk to cool it down, but today, I thought I would save the calories. Gosh, this is such bad luck.”

She rips off one half of my blouse, then the other. The students that made it to class early balk, but no one rises to help.

“Shoot, even your bra’s stained.” Aurora pretends to pout, but a smile creeps through the mask as she shrugs off her blazer. “Here. Take my blazer to cover your slutty self while you go to the nurse and cry.”

“You—” My eyes burn hotter than my skin. “You did this on purpose.”

“Who, me?” She palms her chest, but her eyes say duh. “Thorne gives his regards, Cum Bucket,” she whispers so only I can hear. “He’s ordered me to make your life miserable. Tell me, am I doing a good job?” Before I can respond, she says in a louder voice, “I’d never deliberately hurt someone like this. I’m so, so sorry.”

I grab the blazer from her, sliding into it and gently closing it at my front. Shoving her aside, I stumble down the aisle.

“Don’t forget your things!” she calls. “Or are you waiting for Zeke to get them for you?”

I stop. Turn. “What?”

“Everybody knows how you’ve fucked him already, Ember. What’d it take, less than eight hours after meeting him? I mean, I always assumed you were a slut, but since you weren’t hooking up with anyone and just pathetically drooling over Thorne, I thought I could be wrong. You were just a skank in your fantasies. Until yesterday, of course. Let him fuck you in the computer lab, did you?”

“I don’t … That’s not what…” It happened. Just not with Zeke.

“What’s going on here?”

The booming voice I hoped for shoots through the room, but it doesn’t come from the guy I wished it would. Zeke barrels into the classroom, taking one look at me before his brows jump in horror. “Oh, shit. Ember. Are you okay?”

“I’m-I’m—” Even as I stand here, painful heat blooms from my chest.

“Come on,” he says gently, wrapping his arm around the small of my back. “I’ll help you to the nurse.”