Page 4 of Crush
Aurora’s smile goes cold around the edges. She rises, her long nails snicking against the stone as she does. “Look, girls, the poor, dirty cum bucket’s leaking bullshit today.”
On cue, her posse titters. Belle’s brave enough to shove my shoulder as they laugh. I brace for the impact, lurching forward when she does. She snatches her hand back, her grin growing wider. “Oooh, the cum bucket’s got some fresh spunk in her, too.”
I jerk away from Belle, and my gaze cuts to Aurora. “Would you be mad if it were Thorne’s?”
This time, Aurora loses her glee entirely. “Fuck you, you pathetic loser. Thorne wouldn’t touch your swampy snatch if you shoved it in his face.”
Been there, and he loved every drop. My lips part for those very words, but I slam them shut before I make such an obvious mistake. While the memory of him parting me underwater and slipping his tongue in the most sensitive part of me makes my knees weak, I can’t hold it. He’s as much my enemy as Aurora, and to give Aurora any clue of my feelings—my past feelings—for him would be akin to offering myself to her pack of lionesses as a meal.
I can’t ever put that memory into existence again.
Sensing my hesitation, Aurora flips her hair from her shoulder and gestures to her lackeys. “Bell’s going to ring any minute. I need my coffee more than I want to watch this jealous bitch try to figure out how to best me. News flash, honey. I’ve already won.”
“For now.”
Aurora’s back stiffens. She looks over her shoulder, her gray eyes narrowed and red lips parted for her next low-ball insult. Delaney takes her arm, muttering loud enough for me to hear. “C’mon, she’s so not worth it. Look at how haggard she is. It’s sad, really.”
Aurora shakes her off. “I’ll see you tonight, bitch,” she hisses at me, then stalks off, her loyal subjects filling her wake.
Tonight. I shove the consequences of that invitation away for later when I notice Aiko clattering up the pathway, attempting to balance two hot coffees, a black instrument case, and a clear bag holding a box of donuts.
“You play an instrument?” I say in greeting when I rush to help.
“Trombone. Orchestra tryouts are today,” she huffs out, pressing the donut bag to my chest. “Here. Take.”
The scent of sweet, sugary bread and icing wafts into my nose. “You went to Raven’s Buzz,” I say on a drunken exhale.
“Figured we needed it after last night.” Aiko hoists the trombone case further into her arms. “We’ll discuss it during study hall. But take a donut now. Seriously. Shove it into your face before we go inside. I saw the showdown with you and Aurora.”
“It was nothing,” I lie. “Just her being predictable and rubbing my nose in losing the fellowship.”
“Doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt.”
Pricks of heat tickle the backs of my eyes at Aiko’s sympathetic words. Truly, all it takes is a little understanding at this cold academy, and I become a faucet. “So, orchestra, huh?”
Aiko side-eyes me, well aware of the poor segue, but goes along with it. “Yep. There’s one seat available for the brass section.”
I elbow her with my free arm. “You’re gonna rock it.”
“I’m not so sure.” She shrugs. “I have to beat Jaxon Murray first.”
My stomach drops. “You don’t mean Jaxon Murray, best friend of Thorne Briar and confirmed member of…” I drop my voice to a whisper. “The Noble Society?”
Aiko matches my tone. “The very one.”
“Shit.” The last thing I want is for Aiko to feel how I do when Societal connections fuck up your hard-won plans.
“Yeah, so you’ll have to excuse me while I go panic in the girls’ bathrooms and practice the trombone loop in Pharrell Williams’s ‘Happy’ in my favorite stall for the kabillionth time.”
“Here.” I hand her the donut I’d fished out. “Shove it in your face before we go inside. Seriously.”
Aiko’s face breaks into a smile as she takes the offering. “Your first class is math, right? With more of those demons? You win the rest of the fried goodness. I’ll see you at lunch.”
Aiko and I part ways inside the double doors, and with the bakery bag crackling at my side, I head to my first class.
It isn’t until I reach the lockers that it hits me. In all the time I spent in the courtyard, I haven’t so much as seen one glimpse of Thorne.
* * *