Page 33 of Mud

My cheeks flushed and flushed, and I continued to keep my eyes on the painting, on the ink, on the lines, biting my lip to stop the smile, but it wouldn’t have it. It spread all across my face anyway.

“When the pussy’s so good he turns into fucking Romeo is whatcunt-struckis,” said Gina, and I was laughing and dying of embarrassment at the same time.

My goddess, these girls were a world away from anything I knew—and Ilovedit! They were so…freeto say whatever was in their minds.

And for as long as this lasted, I would be free, too.

“Come on, tell us! Who is it?” the girls said, and someone closed the door after making sure nobody was in the hallway, and then they were all around me, looking at me with wide puppy eyes.

“Spill it, new girl—who’s the Romeo?”

“Taland Tivoux,” I said, and I had no idea why I expected them to stop and gasp and freak out or something—how would they know who he was or why I was here? That I was an undercoveragentfor the IDD—how would they know?!

They didn’t, and nobody gasped, but plenty of girls grinned and wiggled their brows at me and patted my shoulders with twice as much strength.

“Nice!”

“Go, new girl!”

“That’s how you do it, baby!”

“He is one yummy-looking guy.”

“And he’s over six feet—hi-five, girl!”

On and on they went.

“So, what is it?” Kayla asked after a moment, looking at the painting in my hands, and we were still standing there in front of the door for some reason. Nobody thought to go back to the couches and sit down.

“Well,duh—it’s the third tower of the school. See that—it has eleven floors. The other three have only seven,” said Briar the Greenfire, pointing her finger at the squares that were supposed to be windows.

“So, he’s inviting you to the third tower?”

“Like, to fuck?”

“Does he live there?”

“I thought the senior boys slept in the second.”

“No, no, it’s…it’s for a date. Ithink.” It was the place where he was going to take me for our date.

The girls looked skeptical. “A date?”

“On the school grounds?!”

“When?” they asked me, and the best I could do was shrug as I smiled.

I had no ideawhenI was going to have my first-ever date.

But I found out not twenty-four hours later.

Chapter 9

Rosabel La Rouge

2 years ago

On Sunday, I was exhausted before the day even ended because I’d gone out to explore the school, to see where the classes were, what we would be studying.

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