Page 14 of Heartless Legacy

With that thought in mind, I walk over to Connor and Austin and hold up my hands, signaling for them to toss me the football. They give me a weird look, but let me join the game. The repetitive motion of moving my hands keeps me from fixating on my problems, letting my rage consume me, and looking for someone else to hunt down and bleed. Austin catches the ball and tucks it under his arm, before pointing to something over my shoulder. “LJ’s here.”

Connor and I turn, watching her walk our way. “Hey guys, thanks for waiting for me.” She slows her approach as she spots me. “What’s going on? Have you heard from Thea?”

“Nope. Just here tossing the ball around.”

She glances over at Austin for confirmation, then asks, “Where’s the rest of them?”

I didn’t even think about checking on Holden or Pax before heading this way. “Busy.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, we’re heading to lunch. We’ll see you around, I guess.”

I fall into step with them, informing her, “I’m ready to eat too.” She shares another look with Austin, before shrugging and launching into a conversation about her class schedule. I stand in line with them to order my food, then head towards my usual table to wait for my food to arrive. I’m on autopilot when the person walks up with my tray, and motion towards an empty chair. Everyone’s settling in. The table groupings and hierarchy falling into place like it’s supposed to.

Pax enters the dining hall, with Eloise trailing behind him. I was enjoying my meal until they showed up. Holden and I promised to keep up appearances in public. I didn’t expect to have to bring out my acting skills so soon, and definitely not while sitting at the table with them, alone.

Eloise smiles, her attention on the end of the table. I follow her gaze to where Thea used to sit. Oh, hell no! “Get the fuck up!”

A hush falls over the dining hall. I don’t care that I’m about to make a scene. It’s what I do. They should all be used to it. My full stare is on the person who has the fuckingaudacityto sit in Thea’s seat.

The girl looks beyond me before saying, “Eloise gave me permission to sit at this table.”

Oh, didshenow? Pax and Eloise want to play these games? Fine, I’ll play. I was gonna tell her to find another chair, but since she’s Eloise’s puppet, I have a different idea. Smirking at her, I say, “Apologies.”

I force myself to choke down the rest of my food and wait until the girl finishes eating. She rises from her seat, and I wait thirty seconds before doing the same. People are payingattention and will whisper about me running after her. “Hey!” I call out to her once I’m outside.

She stops and spins to face me. I don’t miss how she looks over my shoulder again before meeting my eyes. “I wanted to apologize again for what happened in there.”

I smile to put her at ease. I haven’t had to usethissmile in a while. It feels weird. But I have a point to make. “I- I’m having a bit of a bad day, and reacted badly to seeing someone new at the table. I hadn’t spoken to Eloise yet, so I didn’t know you’d be joining us.”

I wait for the guarded look in her eyes to drop, then take a step closer. I reach out my hand and place it on her shoulder. Giving it a comforting squeeze. “Forgive me for my rudeness, mon chéri?”

“Sure.” Her head bobs up and down. “You’re forgiven.”

“Really?” I stroke my hand down her arm. “You don’t look like you-” I squeeze her shoulder again, “Forgive me.” I say as I tip her chin up. “There’s no smile on that pretty little face of yours.” I softly brush my knuckle across her cheek.

“Yes, really.”

“I still don’t see a-” I repeat the gestures of tipping up her chin. “Smile.” And brushing my knuckles across her cheek. “On this pretty little face.”

She blushes and smiles. “That’s better.” I coo, stroking down her arm and squeezing her shoulder.

“I, um, need to head to the bookstore.”

“Okay.”

“I guess I’ll see you at dinner.”

“I guess you will.” I tip her chin up once more. She smiles, then turns and walks away. She doesn’t even realize what happened. You’d think Eloise or someone would warn these girls not to let me touch them, but oh well. Her ignorance works in my favor. She’s on Team Eloise right now. By the time I’m donewith her, she won’t so much as take a shit without asking me for permission.

This isn’t the way I expected this semester to start off, but stealing all of Eloise’s little friends seems like a reason to enjoy school again. Who knows, they might even yield some promising leads for me to follow.

I make my way towards the dorm, softly singing, “Tear drops on cement and whimpers on suspects. Bright copper blood and gashes and scratches. A room full of liars, tied up and bleeding. These are a few of my fav-or-ite things.”

Pax

It’s the first lunch gathering with all legacies in attendance this semester, and shit has already hit the fan. I hadn’t even sat my ass down in my chair before Finn went on a warpath over some chick I don’t even know. He would’ve said his peace and been done with it, but she had to go and say the one thing to make the situation worse.“Eloise said.”

I thought Finn was gonna go ballistic. Instead, he apologized and calmly finished his meal. I knew some shit was about to go down when he ran after her. By the time I got outside, the girl was walking off, waving at him over her shoulder. He either didn’t see me standing there watching, or chose to ignore me. Either way, he was in a better mood after talking to her, humming as he headed towards the dorms. Humming or any other musical activity by Finn is never a good thing. I’ve beenstanding here trying to decide if I should ask him what he’s up to.

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