Page 32 of Heartbreak Kings
I felt rage well up inside me like a rising column of lava.Stop fucking talking about her like that.“She’s not getting away with shit besides studying for midterms, you dumbass. And you’ve got who’s controlling whom completely backward.”
His brow slowly furrowed in confusion. “What?”
“If you see her with us, and you think she’s the one calling the shots, you’re out of your damn mind.” I walked toward him, the small crowd parting for me. I clenched my fist at my side, and I stopped out of punching range so I wouldn’t be tempted.
“You say that—” he started.
“I’m saying it too,” Marcus said at my elbow. “Go look at her blog. You might have noticed that she’s fucking settled down. It helps that none of you idiots have gone after her with scissors in days, but the point is, she’s no longer posting shit that damages the school’s reputation.”
“That’s not good enough,” Carmody spat. “You want us to stand back and let you deal with her, but then you’re not dealing with her. Explain to us why she’s still here?”
“We have explained this to you twice, you fucking dunce,” I sighed. A chuckle rippled through the group.
Carmody’s eyes rolled frantically to take in his fading supporters. “Don’t listen to them. They’re in bed with her. They don’t care what happens to us or this school as long as they’re getting laid.”
“That is bullshit!” Marcus’s anger shocked me a little. “None of us have touched her.” But all of us wanted to. Not that either of us was going to bring that up.
“Man, that dinner wasn’t even my idea,” I added. “I spent half of it arguing with her. Called her a bitch like five times. She was pissed.” And I felt terrible about it now, but I wasn’t about to admit that either.
Some guys looked mollified. Some, impressed. But Carmody’s face turned tomato red. “You’re just saying that to make me look bad.”
“Carmody, you do that shit just fine all on your own.” I sighed. “We’re here because you’re hassling the other pledges so much, they can’t focus on their studies. There have been complaints. From them. About you. Something about sticking them all on a mailing list and spamming them all night with your crap?”
It was only half bullshit. As for Carmody, he blinked slowly, appearing embarrassed.
“I have freedom of speech,” he started, but Marcus just laughed at him.
“Freedom of speech saves you from government censorship, not from other people’s opinions of how shitty you’re being,” Marcus reminded him. “And it doesn’t save you from any other consequences either.”
“Yeah.” I glared Carmody right in the eyes until he glanced away.It won’t save you from catching these hands either, you prick.
“Thanks for coming along,” I remarked to Marcus as we walked away. “I don’t think he’s going to budge on any of this.”
“Yeah, well, he can picket in a snowstorm in a couple months and catch pneumonia. Besides, you were still right in having us come down here. Even if he won’t listen, some others did.” He patted me briefly on the back.
“I guess that’s something.At least we weakened his influence over some guys who have been following him.” I would have to monitor that damned discussion group after this and see if our intervention had any kind of effect on people’s responses to Carmody. “The question is, what do we do now?”
“Seduce Sabine after midterms,” Marcus suggested. “Honestly, I believe that the best way of preventing her from disrupting everyone else’s lives is to not disrupt hers.”
“Some guys are distracted just by her presence,” I muttered. Though, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“Well, yeah, but I kind of like that kind of distraction,” he teased me.
“Oh, hell yeah. Me too. But I’m not a fucking woman-hater like Carmody.” Or at least, I wasn’t anymore. “I just hope I haven’t ruined my shot.”
“After Daniel’s damage control, I’m guessing that depends on how you treat her now,” Marcus responded.
I guess it didn’t matter who’d come up with the stupid idea to trick Sabine. Daniel had our backs.But what happens if I can’t win her back and just have to watch the others share her?The idea fucking hurt.But I had gone along with Blake’s plan, even when my gut had told me not to.If I was paying for it now, I had only myself to blame.
Guess I’d have to cross that bridge when I came to it. If I hadn’t burned it already.
Chapter 13
Sabine
Midterms were looming,and I was on track to get good grades—if I could stop being distracted by thoughts of the Gentlemen. All five of them seemed to have an interest in me—but all five had also deceived and antagonized me in the past, and I didn’t know whether I could fully trust what Daniel had told me. And even though I had every reason to be pissed as hell at all of them, that wasn’t what I felt when I thought of them.Not even when I thought of that hot asshole Jude.
As much as I knew that he deserved to have me tell him to go fuck himself, I just couldn’t bring myself to consider it anymore. Yell at him, sure, but not shoo him off entirely.Trusting him after that, however, was another matter entirely. Even if he had been putting on an act when he had been so damn insulting, I didn’t know whether I could trust someone who could invoke that kind of behavior in himself. It was one reason I had never dated any drama students. Once you knew they could pretend to be someone else so fluently, how could you trust them to be genuine?
