Page 66 of Toxic Things I Love About You

Still nothing.

“Vinny? Vinny-whinny?”

I got up and was shoved back into the couch.

“So what you’re saying is, stay? Use your words there, big guy.”

This time I got something from him. A little twitch of a muscle in his cheek.

“Oh, good. And here I thought you were a robot. AI is getting impressive, but I still really appreciate the real thing. I’ve seen the Terminator movies. No, thank you. Skynet? How about that hostile takeover?”

Vinny came back.

“Do you ever shut up?”

Crossing my legs, I met his eyes and waited for him to blink. When he did, I laughed.

“I win. What do I get?”

I was starting to get really good at body language when they were irritated. The way he flexed his hands and the red flush on his face wasn’t exactly rocket science.

“For fuck’s sake. No wonder your father sent you to boarding school.”

It didn’t sting, because I’d never pretended to be anything but me, and maybe I was a bit much.

“You know what, Vinny? I just had a revelation.”

He sneered. “What an enormous word for such a girl.”

I stood and this time the grumpy-robot guy didn’t push me back down. Good.

“Oh, Vinny, let me show you just how many big words I have. I don’t really care what you think of me. It was never my job to make you like me. And if you underestimate me? Well, it will make tomorrow easier.”

I turned and walked toward the stairs.

“Hey, Terminator 3.0, where is my room?”

Vinny sputtered, and I just didn’t care.

“Where are you fucking going?”

I smirked to no one but myself as I climbed the stairs.

“To get ready for my wedding day, of course. Maybe I can just sleep through whenever that is. Or,” and I looked over my shoulder toward Vinny, still in the living room, “I’ll just be upstairs while someone comes and rips your heart out of that puffed up chest of yours. Hm, hold up your hands, Vinny.”

He glared but did as asked. They always did.

“Small hands. Guess we know where you fit into the power struggle in prison.”

And I left before he could catch up in the thought process.

* * *

There were no clocks, and the windows had locks that went to a security system. I was willing to bet that Vinny and the monkey behind my door couldn’t catch me if I could get the element of surprise. I knew there was one more guard somewhere, but I was still willing to bet this wasn’t a well thought out plan.

Then again, I didn’t have a well thought out escape plan. So here I laid, staring up at the ceiling. Locking the door seemed futile, but luckily for me, Vinny hadn’t come up here. Yet. Maybe I just needed some self-reflection time.

Vinny had seemed stressed, the poor dear. Part of me wanted to know why. It was most likely not worth my time. So I just lay here staring at the ceiling like I didn’t have a care in the world. Boarding school had one merit. You learned how to sit and wait and bide your time. I’d gotten out of that place several times to the disgust of my father and the headmistress.

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