Page 3 of A Sinner's Saint

The door opens and slams behind me. Vin slumps against the wall. So freaking close. He doesn’t look at me, doesn’t say a word. Just stands there. Silent. I don’t know why he chose that moment to talk to me. During an exam. And now, out here, nothing. He confuses me, and if I’m honest, he also takes up way too much space in my mind. I don’t understand what he wants from me. Or why he has a habit of watching me. I know it’s not an attraction thing. The kind of girls I’ve seen him with at parties, well, let’s just say I’m not one of them.

I’m short. Even now, standing next to his six-foot frame, he dwarfs me. I’m also a lot more conservative than the other girls around here. I wouldn’t say I dress prudish, but I don’t have my ass cheeks hanging out of my shorts either.

I open my mouth to say something, anything to break the silence, and then I close it again.I don’t need to break the silence.Sliding down the wall, I sit on the floor and cross my legs. I can feel him looking down at me. I refuse to acknowledge him. If he’s just going to stand there and not say a damn word, not even apologise for getting me kicked out of an exam, then he doesn’t exist to me.

About five minutes later, Vin turns and walks down the hall. “Where are you going?” I call after him.

He stops short and glares at me over a shoulder. “Anywhere that’s not here. Wanna come?”

“You’re ditching?” I ask, even as I’m moving to follow him.

“We’re already in the shit. It can’t get much worse.” He shrugs.

“Okay.” I nod and take quick steps to close the distance before he heads towards the door again. I have to practically jog to keep up with his strides.

It’s not until we’ve slipped out the back of the building and I watch him climb through a hole in the fence that I stop and question if I really should be following him. The fence leads to the park, a park where not much of anything good happens. “I… ah…”

“You’re scared,” Vin says. It’s not a question.

“Should I be?”

“Of me? No.” He shakes his head while holding the fence piece back, waiting for me to climb through.

“You taking me to the park to… I don’t know… cut my body into tiny pieces?” I ask him.

“I’d need a saw or something to be able to do that. Which I don’t have. You can either come with me or you can stay,” he says.

Fuck it.There’s a pull I can’t deny, so I step through the fence and look up at him. “Just so you know, if you do cut me up, I’ll come back and haunt you. I’ll be your worst nightmare,” I tell him.

Vin runs those honey eyes of his up and down my body. “You couldn’t compete with my nightmares,” he says, then turns and walks towards the park. “Come on.”

Finding a spot he deems suitable underneath a huge old gumtree, he sits and pulls out a little tin box. I plop down in frontof him. I don’t make a habit of ditching school. I have ditched, just not as often as Vin has.

“So… how much trouble do you think we’re in?” I ask him.

“You won’t get into trouble. I’ll fix it,” he says.

“Just like that, you’ll fix it?” I raise an eyebrow at him as he pulls a rolled-up piece of paper from his little tin. There’s a floral outline detail on the lid, and the nameDe Bellisengraved on top. But the thing is old, worn, and looks like it could be an antique. “You always keep your weed in family heirlooms?”

“It was my mother’s.” He shrugs. “Considering she’s the reason I smoke, I figured it’s only fitting to use her tin.”

“What did she use it for?” I ask, not broaching the fact that he just said he smokes weed because of his mother. I want to know, but I can read the room, and he’s about as closed off as anyone could be.

“No idea. I didn’t know her.” He places the joint between his lips and lights up the end. After taking a puff, he offers me a hit.

I shake my head. “Thanks, but I’m good.”

“Suit yourself,” he says before bringing it back to his lips.

“Why’d you do that?” I ask him.

“Do what?”

“Talk to me during the exam?”

“You looked upset. I wanted to help. It’s not a big deal, Cammi.”

“Thank you.” I sigh, unsure of what else to say. He claims it’s not a big deal, but it is. To me. That he noticed and cared enough to want to help me.

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