Page 59 of Learning Curve

Ace and Julia practically maul her, closing her in a group hug that nearly knocks her off her seat. Connor laughs at Lexi’s discomfort. Blake takes Ace and Julia’s place as they step away, Connor holding out the cash enticingly. Blake moves in for a hug, but Lexi stops him with a stiff arm to the chest. “No touching.”

I hear Scottie choke to herself as she stifles a laugh in front of me.

As Blake steps away, his eyes even more googly than before, Lexi watches me closely, a small smirk on her face. I use Scottie as a human shield, pinning her to my front as I step toward my secret long-lost relative.

“Well, well, Finn Hayes is a winner again. I might have to keep my eye on you.”

She’s right, of course, but not for the reason she thinks.

“I think you’re the one we need to keep an eye on,” I challenge back. “Running an underground society at a prestigious university like this.”

Her eyes narrow. “What makes you think I’m in charge?”

I laugh. “Maybe because you’re always the one in charge.”

She shakes her head and jumps off the table. “That’s simple thinking, Finnley. And I’m pretty sure you don’t have a simple mind.”

She and Connor laugh together as they leave the room, and Blake stares after them, his mouth agape as always. “I swear I’m in love.”

Scottie rolls her eyes and bumps him with her elbow to move him out of the way. Ace and Julia are counting the cash and splitting it up five ways. I take a stack from them as they hand them out, feeling the weight of it on the bulging anxiety that lives and breathes in my chest.

Blake smiles at his own stack. “Well, folks, you’re stuck with me now. Consider this team officially formed for any and all group Double C shit for the rest of the year.”

“Me too,” Ace confirms, shaking his bills in the air while Julia nods. “Ditto.”

Blake looks from them to me and Scottie—once again, we seem to have migrated toward each other. “What about you guys?”

“I’m in,” Scottie says immediately, steering her gaze up and over her shoulder to me. But it feels like my answer is for more than one question.

Am I in the group?

But more importantly…

Am I ready to stop pushing Scottie away?

Power and pain and deep longing move from Scottie’s green eyes to my gut as I hold them hostage. “You’ve got me.” My heart thrums in my chest. “You’ve got me for good.”

God help us all.

Tuesday, October 29th

Finn

I flip through my copy of The Winter’s Tale and wait for Scottie and Nadine to get to class and take the two empty seats next to me.

The ripped page from my dad’s journal burns a smoldering hole in the pocket of my pants, and anticipation makes my heart race even though I’m sitting down. I spent last night while Ace was out with Julia pulling some prank on his parents reading through it again and again until I found the perfect page to leave on Professor Winslow’s desk at the end of class.

The time has come for someone other than me to feel the pain of reality.

I want him to see the truth for himself and wonder, like I spent two years wondering, what it all means for his life. I want him to wonder who I am and how long I’ve known, and I want him to feel as helpless as I’ve felt my entire life living under the abuse of our asshole dad.

Scottie flops down in the seat next to me, and I jolt out of my daydream. It’s one of the darkest parts of me—these horrible thoughts I have about people who don’t know me at all—and it scares me a little that I can’t rein it in immediately when Scottie sits down. I shift in my seat and swallow to clear my throat, but I still feel like I’m burning alive from the inside out.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

I shake my head and look down at my lap. “I’m fine.”

She laughs. “Yeah, okay. Come on, Finn. Can we really not even manage to be friends? I mean, we worked together Friday night, and we’re all two thousand dollars richer because of it.”

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