Page 44 of Baby Duke

"Well, you did have your little posse of bitches cut her hair up," he says tonelessly, tapping his pen on the table. "Girls and their hair, man. You don’t mess with a girl's hair."

"Fuck off," I grumble half-heartedly. I know he is right.

By lunchtime, I am squirming in my seat. East and her friends are staring daggers into my back, not that I give a fuck what Felix and Trent think. On that matter, the fuck is she doing still hanging out with that mother fucker?

"You got worms or something?" Law says, rolling up a slice of pizza from tip to crust before shoving the entire thing into his mouth. Disgusting.

"He’s just agitated because his girlfriend isn't here," Brett says unhelpfully.

"What!?" a shrill shriek comes from behind me. Fucking Sherry.

"Oh, fuckoff, Sherry," Law says, mouth still full. "Nobody cares about your unrequited love for West,leastof all him."

I don't bother looking back at her while she seethes and waits for me to defend her. Not. Gonna. Happen.

She squeals her frustration like a fucking chihuahua before storming off, the clicking and clacking of high heels finally dispersing.

Law bangs his fist on the table as he struggles to swallow. "The fuck you think you're doing, bro?" he growls. "You are all over the place when it comes to Roe! Stop tormenting her and fuck her brains out already. We all know that’s what you want to do. Hell, that’s all any of us want to fucking do."

I tense up at his last words, and he holds up his palms in surrender.

"I said I want to, not that I would," he says. "Chill the fuck out."

"She'smine," I snarl anyway. He needs to know I am not fucking around. I have claimed the little fire cat and no one is going to get in my way. Not even myself.

Law rolls his eyes while Brett huffs.

"You got a problem with that, Brett?" I ask, tensing.

He snorts, throwing his burger onto his plate. "We'veallgot a fucking problem. Have you forgotten what subject she chose for our group to study in Social Studies? How the fuck do we deal with that?Withoutletting the Elders know."

"Let her do it," Law says around a mouth full. "I want to see what she can dig up on the old bastards."

"Iwon'tlet her get hurt," I say.

"Then don't let her get hurt, dude," he says, punching his chest as he swallows. "Help her. Cover for her."

"I wouldn't let her get into any situation that would come back to bite her on the ass," Brett adds. "We can interview one of you guys instead of one of our dads. They won't even know we did our study on them.”

I nod, processing what Brett said. He’s right. Ever the logical one. By using either Law or I as the interviewee, we take away the risks of involving our fathers. I don’t wantRoe anywhere near my father, especially after the other morning. Brett's dad wasn’t as much of a dick, but I still didn’t want Roe anywhere near him either. That left Law's dad. The guy was a lazy fucker and didn't give a fuck about anything. From what I had heard, he was a Duke by name only. His participation in Duke business was minimal if he did anything for us at all. There are other Elders, of course. Minor and inconsequential members work on the sidelines, keeping the society running.

My phone pings with a text message, pulling me out of my own mind. My heart honest to fuck stutters for a moment, thinking maybe Roe was sending me some furious and sassy words.

It isn't her.

I curse under my breath as I open the text from my father.

My office. 7 pm.

"Mother fucker."

"What's up?" Brett asks, not taking his eyes off his own phone as he scrolls through his socials.

"My father," I huff. "Wants me to meet him in his office at 7. The fuckerknowswe’ve got the party tonight." He was pulling rank on purpose. He always got a rise out of pulling me away from shit I wanted to do.

"Typical," Law says.

"Any idea what he wants?" Brett adds, putting his phone down.

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