Page 93 of Knight

“Why’d you lie to me?” she asks when we’re out of earshot.

“What?” My eyes dart right back to her but it’s not for long. It’s like I sense him. Like I can feel him in the air and when I look up, Damien’s standing at the top of the steps like the King he is. His eyes on me.

Like me, he’s wearing his leather jacket in the middle of winter. The only sign he’s as cold as his heart are his black gloves and his red nose but I can’t be sure that’s from the cold.

“You said you were going to Cabo with Allie and Christian but Damien told me he spent all Christmas with you,” Willow says. No bullshitting. She looks back at him then down at her feet. “You didn’t have to lie. Don’t you trust me?”

Shit. Of course, he told her and I know exactly why he did. He knows her face like this, all twisted with worry, her cheeks red, makes me want to die. I hate worrying my sister. “Is everything okay?” she asks.

“Of course I trust you!” She’s the only one I can trust. Always has been and it’s no different now. Pulling my hood over my head, the cold wind blows right between my legs. “I don’t know why I lied. Maybe I was—”

“Ashamed? Scared I’d tell Lea?”

“No!”

“Will! We’re going!” Someone calls from her little circle of Freshman barbies.

Will? She hates when people call her that. The one time I did she huffed about it for a week.

“I gotta go,” she says, her voice low.

“Wait, are you mad?” Willow rarely gets mad at me.

“No, I just don’t know what’s going on with you and it’s disappointing you didn’t tell me.” She gives me another small hug and turns to walk away, her friends pulling her into her circle.

“See you later?” I call.

“I’ll be at Bellas!” she calls back. “I’ll call you.” I keep a smile on my face until she turns around and when I look up, Damien still has his eyes on me. This time he’s not twirling that coin and I’m happy his aunt sold it.

My shoulders drop as my sister goes out of view, heading towards the freshman building. Disappointing. God. I only thought that wrenched my guts when I heard it from my parents. It’s just as disheartening hearing it from her.

“There she is!” Allie’s voice comes from behind me and when I turn around, I’m relieved to see Nate with her. Allie’s in a big puffy jacket and her usual knee-high boots while Nate looks like he got a fresh tan. Christian’s behind them in his black coat, duffel bag on his shoulder, but he looks a lot less chipper than his twin sister.

Nate and Allie sandwich me between their arms and it makes me feel good, but Christian brushes by us without so much as a glance my way. The air’s cold but that cold shoulder is icy. “How was Christmas with the King?” Nate asks, leaning into me. “Twelve days of fuckmas?”

Allie snorts, “He’s been dying to say that.”

It’s like Christian hears it because I see his entire body go stiff, his pace quickening.

“Uh, give me a second,” I say, pulling from their hold so I can catch up to Christian. I have an apology to make. I don’t care that Damien’s eyes are on us the whole time. This isn’t about him. “Christian,” I call but yeah, he’s pissed because he doesn’t answer. “Hey, wait up.”

When he turns around his face is stoic. Like an Easter Island statue and he’s looking at me like he looks at the rest of the kids in this school. Like nothing. “What do you want?”

“Well, I wanted to apologize,” I say, guttered that he can hardly look me in the eyes. But I’m being honest. Christian’s gone out of his way to have my back through this hard time and I left him high and dry on Christmas break. “I know you didn’t see that coming but neither did I and—”

“If you wanted to spend all Christmas fucking King you should have just told me,” he says, his voice more tired and monotone as if this no longer fazes him. But with the way he’s gripping that stick, I’m sure it does.

“Hey, we’ll be inside,” Allie whispers as she and Nate walk by, but I’m too focused on the pain in Christian’s eyes to answer.

“I couldn’t leave him alone,” I explain. “You have Allie and your parents and he has—”

“So you didn’t spend all holiday fucking King?” He cuts me off with a hard tone and it surprises me so much I take a step back. A group of girls walk by and look at us, shooting me glares of fury. That royal asshole side to Christian comes out again, the one he’s hidden away for some time. Seems I struck a nerve.

Looking around I try to calm him down. “Christian, can we—”

“You did, right?” His eyes narrow again and I’m not used to him being this pushy. The post-Christmas break crowd grows around us and this is way too public to talk about right now.

“Fuck. No,” I whisper and it’s not a complete lie. We didn’t spend the entire break fucking, only half of it. In any case, this should be enough to take the heat off for a moment so I can get him to a quieter place. A warmer one. “Now, can we …” I pause as another group of students pass by, damn near looking into our mouths. I lower my voice, “Can we talk inside?” Christian scoffs, pushing his hand in his jacket to pull out his phone. He swipes at the screen and I’m not sure what he’s doing so I ask, “No?”

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