Page 7 of Promise to Break

Every time some student fails an assignment that could cost them their freedom in the real world, they get sent to the school jail. It looks very real from what I remember from the few times I was in the department with my dad as a little girl. It's a way for the school to make the rich understand that every action comes with a cost, and where people from the outside would see that as something good, the reality is that in this place, we learn how to get away with murder.

" Yeah, poor Noah forgot to pay to hide some numbers, and the police caught him. They sentenced him to forty-eight hours."

I look at her in disbelief. Forty-eight hours is a lot. "I'd pay him a visit, but the last time I got jail time, the asshole came to ask me if I would fuck him for the bond fee." I got jail time for not abiding by the recording laws and getting caught. We have teachers here whose job is simply to catch us in the act.

" Fucker," Raven exclaims. "He deserves every hour."

My friend starts jumping up and down like a child, and I know I'm going to hate whatever she plans to tell me. I walk away, forcing her to jump in front of me in a ninja move. Her hair sways around her head like a colorful halo.

"No. Nope. Nuh-uh. Don't you even start. We're going," she sings as I stare at the ceiling of the hallway, not for the first time. Raven loves to make her life more difficult than it already is, so she makes me do every stupid thing she comes up with right along with her.

"Mari, you know you want to."

"I don't, and you don't either. You're just a cabra loca who likes to dare fate."

Raven giggles solely. "I like it when you talk dirty to me. What did you say before the loca this time?" She smirks, the little whore.

"A goat. I called you a crazy goat."

"Hmm. I liked it more when you told Killian to come in as toilet paper for someone with explosive diarrhea in his next life."

I snort, remembering his expression of utter confusion and then fury when he asked the Spanish teacher passing in the hallway—whom he refuses to listen to—to translate my words. This was after he sent his lovely fiancée to put eggshells in my bookbag. Luckily, the books here are free. Of course, I paid for that the next day when toilet paper covered with chocolate waited for me on my chair. Dear Lila wouldn't touch poop. I'm fairly certain she has someone to do the task of ass-wiping for her. Probably with golden paper toilet from some mountain that uses the hands of children dipped with pure gout milk or something outrageous like that.

"What do you want?" I ask because I know she won't leave me alone otherwise.

"The Molinas are having a party next month, and we got an invitation." By we, she means she got the invitation. I would never get an invitation from anyone like the Molinas.

I shake my head, but she wraps her arms around me and lifts me off the floor. My friend isn't as short as I am, and she's actually strong due to all the running she does. She makes me run with her in the morning as a way of torture. I'm an excellent runner because I've had to run for my life more than once in the past, so I don't complain, even though I hate it.

"Put me down." She just hugs me closer, making our big boobs collide for the liking of everyone who goes by. Great. Just great.

"Will you go with me?" She jostles me a bit more before letting me go.

I smooth the school uniform skirt because the last thing I need is to be called out for indecency. "You know it will be the deviant's domain. You really want to go there?"

"I told you I need to."

Oh, yes. She needs to get fucked by other men before she marries her personal bully, and it has to be outside of college because no one wants to mess with the Joker, a/k/a Liam Bourne, the next ruler of the British mafia, one of the deviants, by getting close to her.

"I'll think about it," I relent. We both know I want her to live a little before she graduates.

We head for the cafeteria, where we'll endure our daily dose of healthy foods and poisonous people. Today is Thursday, which means a lot of fresh salads and seafood I didn't even know existed before my sister met Santino.

As if summoned, I get my daily message from both of them.

Santino: I heard you're doing well in your classes, Little One. If you need something, just tell me. We miss you here. Your sister is getting bigger and bigger. P.S. Don't tell her I told you that.

I chuckle at that last bit. My sister is seven months pregnant with my first niece. She's huge and more beautiful than ever.

Me: I'm fine, and don't you dare tell one Latina woman what to do about the other. Just kidding. I'm not crazy, but yes, she's huge. Good thing the doors in the mansion are wide enough, or you'd have a problem on your hands.

I open the message from Serena just to see a picture of her with her feet on a cushion. I can't hold in my laughter and show it to Raven. We both smile before I answer Serena.

Me: Hola, tiny Constanza, you're growing up well. Now, please let me speak with your spoiled mama.

Serena: I'm not spoiled, you brat. How are you, Little Fairy?

We text back and forth until I get in line to get my food. I don't wait for someone to give me my portion, like the other students. It would be ludicrous since I work here. I don't want to take anything more from the Fierro family. This school is more than I ever expected. Santino sends me money that I refuse to touch. He's never told me so in words, but I know he's kind of proud of me for making my own earnings. To be fair, I don't need to use much of it here, so I keep most of the money I earn to go out with Raven.