Page 4 of Liar

Usurping mine.

Chapter 2

Ember

Everyone is quiet as we take our seats in our first class after the holidays, world history. No one clusters together, catching up on what they missed. Instead, students take their assigned seats at the double desks and look forward at the classroom door.

The seat beside me is ominously empty. My fingers tangle against my thighs at the thought of who will occupy it.

Another vacant desk sits in the middle of the room, the circle of fidgeting bodies surrounding it making the gap all the more obvious.

Shadows flit on the other side of the frosted glass of the door. My peers stiffen at the sight.

As the knob turns, small murmurs lower into complete silence.

Zeke Aiden saunters through the door to a crescendo of groans.

“What, am I not what you cliterazzi want to ogle today?” Zeke arches a brow. “I’m gutted.”

He moves through the aisle. My shoulders relax when he comes to a stop at the desk diagonal from mine.

But Zeke still manages to catch my eye and smile. “Are you also part of the mainstream desperate for a glimpse of Savannah?”

“No.” I shift away from him, staring directly ahead.

“Too bad. I hear that’s the only way to get Prickly Boy’s attention these days.” Zeke sits in my periphery, cradling his chin in his hands. “You look so much like her, too. It’s no wonder he was so infatuated with you, then discarded you the instant his true love returned.”

“Shut up.”

“And she’s traumatized. A classic case of missing white girl syndrome where she returns into the arms of a society desperate to find her. Or Thorne’s arms, I should say. And his abdominals. Treasure trail. Not to mention his sizable—”

“I said shut up, Zeke.”

“Oooh.” Zeke’s stare simply gleams when I jerk back from my desk. My nostrils flare, but I hold my lips tight, clenching and unclenching my fists.

“Ember darling, you’re going to have to find more nerve than that if you’re aiming to survive the rest of the year.”

He’s right, but damn if I’ll let him know. Crossing my arms, I resume staring blindly at the whiteboard in front of us.

“I know it was you,” I say.

Zeke studies my profile. “Me, what?”

“You told Damion how you and I broke into his home on the night of Thorne’s Halloween party. And had me drugged for it.”

It’s subtle, but I catch Zeke’s eye twitch. “I didn’t know it’d go that far,” he mutters, then swivels in his seat until he’s facing the front like me.

Good. Finally, he shuts up.

The classroom door swings open again, and this time, the students get what their tuition paid for. A first row seat to Savannah’s re-acclimation into student life.

Thorne strides in first. Air hisses through my teeth at the burn he casts over the entire class, daring someone to speak up.

His stare snags on mine.

Prickles of heat make the hair on my arms stand up. My knees lock together. My spine goes rigid.

The burn in his eyes turns into a full-fledged wildfire. White-hot and searing, but I force myself to blink and be the first to look away.

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