Page 80 of Fire Fight

There’s a strange fluttering sensation as I get into the passenger seat next to him. When he leans across to untwist myseatbelt, all I can feel is the hard press of his erection against my inner thighs last night as he held me in place.

“You should remember to wear sunscreen,” Drake remarks. “Your face is bright red.”

For three weeks, I’ve cursed his attendance at school.

Now it’s ending so abruptly, I feel unanchored.

I stare out my side window. Unsure what to say, I stay silent for the entire drive. The moment he parks, I leap out, striding towards my locker while he lingers to lock the car and check all the doors.

At my locker, I notice a boy stare at me from a few metres along the hallway. By the time I’ve swapped out my books for the first two lessons, another two are keeping tabs.

After the attack last night, it’s obvious enough to be creepy.

One boy stops me in the corridor, asking if I need a hand carrying my textbooks to first period. Another holds the door to the class open, waiting for me to take a seat, then takes the empty desk to my side.

At lunch, I queue with my tray and a strange boy starts up a conversation about New York Fashion Week, as if I know anything in hell about it. Drake sits with his usual table at lunch, and with Hudson taking the entire day off school, Salesi and Viliami bookend me.

Fine.

I swallow Drake’s bait and ask, “Have you two heard anything about a bingo card?”

“Wow,” Salesi says, ostentatiously staring at his phone. “Is that the time? I’m late for practice.”

He departs with his laden tray, slipping into a seat on the other side of the room, at a table crowded with rugby team members.

Viliami is momentarily delighted to have me to himself, then scowls. “He told you, then?” He slumps in his seat until he’snearly as low as me. “I had ten on Hudson keeping his mouth shut.”

I say nothing, struggling with the knowledge I’ve been duped, and Hudson is part of it.

My mind replays every interaction, reframing them in a callous new light.

“Want to make it up to me by letting me score a square?” Viliami leans over, voice dropping to a low rumble guaranteed to loosen any girl’s knickers. “You know I’d take good care of you. It’s a matter of pride. I’d even split the proceeds, fifty-fifty.” His fingers tap the back of my hand, then dance along my forearm, igniting tingles until I jerk away.

“I’m not jumping into bed just because you lost ten bucks.”

“Ten grand.”

An answer that arrives when I have a mouthful of pasta and suddenly, I’m choking.

“Ten thousanddollars?”I ask when recovered, and he nods. “If that’s the side bet, how much is the bingo card worth?”

“Hudson left off that juicy detail?”

I frown, drumming my fingers on the table, unsure how much to share. “He’s not the one who told me.”

“Blaine, you loose-lipped prick,” Viliami shouts across the room. “Just because she’s not crazy enough to touch your tiny diseased dick doesn’t mean you have to ruin things for the rest of us.”

A chorus of low groans follows his accusation. Drake glances over, raising his eyebrows while he gives me a knowing smile.

The development makes me feel even worse. “What the fuck’s wrong with all of you?”

“We’re rich and bored and horny. What else would be wrong with us?”

“That’ll teach me to ask rhetorical questions,” I mutter.

He laughs, moving close enough to slip an arm around my waist, leaning his chin on my shoulder. Between his dark curls, smooth brown skin, and the warm fire of gold highlights in his chestnut eyes, I’m almost tempted.

Almost.

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