Page 8 of Wicked Games

My eyes widened. “His name isMaverick?

“Yeah, why?”

“I’ve never heard a name like that in real life. Just in movies. It’s a bit like an AO3 name.”

April’s brows rose. “AO3?”

“Like… fanfic.”

April started giggling. “Oh mygod.I would literally pay you to say that right to his face. It would be so funny.” Her laughter promptly ceased, and a more serious expression appeared on her face. “Actually, no. He’s not someone you want to mess with too much.”

“Why?”

She rolled her eyes. “He’s one of the most popular guys here. No one messes with him. You know the type, right?”

“Yeah. I think there are guys like him at every school.”

“Totally.” April lowered her voice. “It’s weird that he keeps glaring at you. Are you sure you haven’t met him before?”

I considered it for a second, chewing on my bottom lip. “Wait… did you say his last name is Reinhart?”

“Uh-huh.”

With an internal groan, I realized why Maverick knew my name. He was the guy whose car I crashed into last year. He wasn’t in the vehicle at the time—he was standing at a nearby lookout with some girl, apparently—but I’d completely fucked it up to the point where it needed to be written off.

I’d never actually met Maverick in person after the incident, because his parents were the ones who dealt with all the legal stuff, but he must’ve heard my name from them.

April looked at me expectantly. “So do you know him or what?”

I hesitated again. There was no way I could tell her everything about that night. She wouldn’t believe me. No one ever did.

I decided to give her a brief account of the story instead, leaving out ninety percent of the details. “I was on my way home a while ago and accidentally crashed into his car. I totally ruined it.”

April’s eyes widened. “Was he in it?”

“No. Parked.”

“So why would he care so much? He’s rich enough to get a new car easily. Besides, insurance exists.”

I swallowed thickly. “Well… there’s a bit more to it than that.” I took a deep breath and filled her in on the scholarship. “I was going to get in a ton of trouble, but instead I ended up here. The Reinhart family actually helped to sponsor the scholarship, among others. They wereveryforgiving.”

April nodded. “Ah. So Maverick is probably pissed as hell because not only did you wreck his car, you’re now benefiting from the accident in a financial sense.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I murmured. My face was burning with embarrassment now.

“Thanks for telling me about it. It’s rare for people to be so honest at a place like this,” she said. “But you should know something.”

“What?”

“If Mav recognizes you, then the whole school will know what you did by lunchtime.”

I sighed. “So even if I didn’t tell you, you would’ve found out anyway.”

April nodded. “Yes. But now I know you’re a decent person, because you admitted it to mebeforeany of that gossipy shit started going around. Seriously, that’s super rare here. Takes guts.” She paused and gave me a small smile. “Other people willeventually notice that about you too. So I think you’ll be fine here.”

“I hope so,” I said, stomach twisting.

“If anyone is nasty to you, let me know. I’m the child of a faculty member, so I could possibly arrange for them to wind up with a few detentions. Or perhaps thrown off one of those nearby cliffs,” she said with a playful smirk.

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