Page 240 of Releasing 10
“Yeah, you did.”
“No, I bleeding didn’t.”
“Yes, you did!”
“Yes, you did,Jonathan, admit it.”
“It was a minor slip of the tongue,Gerard. Don’t read into it.”
“Say it.”
“No.”
“Say it or I’m putting the blazer back on,” Gibs warned, snatching the blazer back.
Kav narrowed his eyes in challenge. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Oh no,” Gibs said loud enough to draw attention to us as he made an exhibition of feeding his arm through one of the sleeves. “If only I had a best friend to show me the way.”
“Fine—fine!” Kav snapped, snatching the blazer back. “You’re my best friend,” he grumbled, balling the fabric up and stuffing it into his bag. “Are ya happy now?”
“Ecstatic!” Gibsie exclaimed, and I swear if he had a tail in this moment, it would have been wagging. He turned back to us and grinned. “Johnny called me his best friend.”
“He sure did, Gibs,” Feely and I laughed in unison, thoroughly amused by the horrified expression on Cap’s face. “He must love ya, lad.”
“Yeah, well, it’s a coercive relationship status at best,” Kav grumbled, closing his bag and tossing it over his shoulder. “And loosen that tie, will ya?” he added, giving hisbest frienda final once-over. “You’re heading into a classroom, Gibs, not a courtroom.”
“Anything for you, bestie,” Gibsie replied, quickly falling into step with him.
“If you call me that again, I’ll throttle ya,” Kav grumbled, while planting a hand on Gibsie’s shoulder and steering him away from a puddle of rainwater.
“Aye-aye, Captain.”
“This place is a zoo,” Feely declared when we finally found each other at big lunch. Meanwhile, Gibs and Kav were nowhere to be found. “I’ve never felt so intimidated in my life.” Sinking into the chair beside mine in the lunch hall, he unscrewed the cap on a bottle of Tanora and took a deep swig. “I’m not sure about this school, Hughie, I’m really not.” He took another gulp of his drink before whispering, “The girls here are fucking terrifying.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice.
After spending the last eight years in an all-boys school, Tommen College felt like we had been transported to an entirely new planet, and I felt acutely grateful to my sister for preparing me for this alternate universe.
“See the blond over there, the one with the ponytail?” Feely gestured toward a group of girls sitting at the table opposite ours. “She full on grabbed my ass at the lockers this morning, and when I turned around, she didn’t even look away. She just stood there and winked at me.”
“No shit,” I laughed. “What did you say to her?”
“I didn’t have a fucking chance,” he replied, pulling at the collar of his shirt. “She laid it on me before I could get a word out.”
“What do you mean she laid it on you?”
“I meanshestuck her tongue inmymouth!”
“Who stuck their tongue in your mouth?” Pierce O’Neill asked, joining us. “Well, Biggsie?” He turned his attention to me. “Don’t tell me you got the shift already, you jammy bastard.”
“I have a girlfriend, asshole,” I snapped back defensively. “I’m hardly going around shifting randomers.”
“You’re still knocking around with your sister’s friend?” Pierce asked in an incredulous tone.
My entire frame stiffened. “And?”
“Isn’t she still at primary?”
