Page 33 of The Masks We Wear

I bite the inside of my lip to keep from smiling—she dressed the exact opposite of how I see her like she’spure. Her oversized white sweater drapes over one shoulder and hangs over incredibly tight bleached skinny jeans. Her nude heels are too fucking high for class, but nothing surprises me with her anymore.

When she sits down, I have to temper a gag from the overbearing rose perfume encroaching on my lungs. It feels like thick poison, flowing down my esophagus, tainting my airways so I’ll never be able to breathe anything but her.

“Well, I’m glad you decided to show up today.” She slams a notebook on the lab table and shifts her body to face me. In my peripheral, she curls a long blonde strand around a finger as she waits.

It’s hard to ignore the heat of her body—it’s mixing with the rage that runs through mine, leaving the air stifling.

Instead of responding right away, I clench my teeth, knowing we still need to get the project done. I hope I can strike the deal Remy came up with. I may not know this new Lily, but I know what used to get my Liliana’s interest. Maybe some of her is under the mask, deep inside, but somewhere that I can still reach.

Peering at her from the corner of my eyes, I shoot my shot. “Can I offer you something?”

“Oh, he speaks?”

My face snaps to look at her fully. Her makeup is thick today—it flakes a little at the corner of her eyes, which seem impossibly darker under the contacts. For a moment, I forget my train of thought, how angry I am, and an unhealthy dose of curiosity takes control.

What made you this way?

“Are you picturing me naked?” It’s only a whisper, but it snaps the thin thread, releasing the anger to flush back through my veins—eradicating the rare moment.

I tilt my head, letting a lopsided grin bring out my right dimple. Her breath catches, and my smile widens, noting the tiniest increase in her breathing. “No, but are you picturing me licking that little cunt of yours the way I did your boot?”

Her lips twitch, and a beautiful sneer takes over. “You can’t lie to me, Spence. You ate up every helping I gave you.” She dips lower, her mouth a few inches from mine. Her eyes linger on my lips, and I hold my breath, scared if I breathe too deep, we’ll touch. “Do youwantto lick it like you did my boot?”

My body stiffens, and my dick swells in my sweatpants, allowing her to see that she can still fucking affect me.

She tips her head back, a hideous cackle erupting from her lips. Ignoring all the stares around her, she invades my space again, swallowing the air I breathe out. “I’m only kidding. I would let you die of thirst before I let you drink from this pussy,dog.”

A heat coats my face, and my nose flares. I’m tired of her smart-ass mouth, and for a second, I picture myself wrapping my hand around her throat so she can’t talk anymore.

Fuck. Her.

She sucks her teeth and leans back, twirling her hair as if this was just some ordinary conversation. Like she didn’t just fucking rip my gonads out and squish them under her heel. “Now, what’s the offer?”

I spit the words out quickly, rage coating each one with spikes. “Don’t come back to class. Make up something about your cheer schedule, or whatever the fuck you want, but don’t come back. You do that, and you’ll only have to help me with the experiment part. We meet once a week for six weeks, read a simple script, and go our separate ways. Back to our lives where everything was great, and we didn’t remember the other was even alive.”

Her eyes narrow, but it’s the only change to her cocky demeanor. She examines her cuticles as if she can’t be bothered anymore. “Fine.”

My head jerks back, and a weird combo of relief and trepidation coil around my nerve endings, making my voice an octave higher. “Fine?”

Lily shifts, her gaze flashing to Remy before returning to her long-ass white nails. “Yeah. I have better things to do than waste it here, doing nothing. Just text me a time and location.”

“Great,” I respond, nodding to Remy, who’s been looking back occasionally.

“Great.”

FOURTEEN

“That’s a pretty dope deal if you ask me. Free period to do whatever the hell you want and still get the grade?” Amora sits next to me on the bench in the locker room.

I’m not a thousand percent sure how I feel about this deal I’ve just agreed to. But I am pretty relieved he’s still letting me work with him. I hadn’t given the after-effects much thought, and even though Spencer isn’t the type to snitch, he could have pulled out on being my partner.

“Yep.” I pop the p, braiding my hair to the side.

Amora stops fiddling with her socks and glances up at me. She’s gotten a lot of sun lately, making the little brown freckles on her nose more apparent, and when she wiggles it, I bite back a laugh.

“Or maybe he doesn’t give a shit.” She shrugs.

This gives me pause.

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