Page 8 of Heartbreak Kings
But Marcus, of all of us, didn’t seem entirely on board. “Is there something you’d like to say, Marcus?” I asked gently.
Marcus shook his head. “If you say it’s necessary, I believe you. But I wish there were a different way.”
“Well, let’s discuss that,” I challenged, biting back my irritation. “What would you suggest? Bribery?”
“If I thought she’d go along with that, yes,” Marcus affirmed. “The five of us could pay her way through to a doctorate at any school in the country on less than our investments together make in a month. We wouldn’t even require help from our parents anymore.”
I pressed my lips together. If I were honest with myself, I would have preferred something that simple. But Marcus’s reluctance in the face of obvious necessity bothered me.
“I would not be against such a plan,” I countered. “If we could be certain it would work.”
Nathaniel uncoiled from his tense posture, stretching his long limbs. “It won’t.” His eyes hooded thoughtfully. “We should have tried that plan a few weeks ago, prior to the backlash. But now, the blundering of men like Carmody has angered her. Her guard is up. If we approach her with a bribery attempt, we’ll likely end up internet famous for it. The risk is too great.”
I peered at Marcus, who slowly nodded and sat back, conceding.
I glanced around. “Any other protest against my plan?”
“So, your plan is that we all date and fuck her, then all dump her?” Daniel lifted an eyebrow. “Do we do this in any order, or…?”
“No, let’s tempt her into something more scandalous.” I smiled lopsidedly. “We’ll share her and leave her torn between us. Whoever she confesses to first breaks up with her first.”
Quiet spread over our little group. I could tell the other four were interested, but like me, they were debating.
“What are you going to do if she’s a one-guy woman?” Marcus still sounded troubled. “Most women aren’t interested in dating five guys at once.”
I shrugged. “Same plan, but in serial instead of at once. One of us dumps her, the rest court her on the rebound, drop her again, and so on.” I held up an imperious finger. “Gentlemen, I’m talking about pulling out all the stops here. Whirlwind romance. Gifts, charm, seduction, the works. Make her believe it.”
Nathaniel leaned back and propped his hands behind his head.“Raise her up on an emotional high, while tempting her into scandalous behavior that will prevent her from reporting us for fear of losing her own reputation.”
“Who gets her virginity?” Daniel asked casually, as if he were finding out who was picking up the tab for pizza. “I have never seen such an obvious virgin in my life. Was she born with a textbook in her hands?”
Marcus shot him a stare so dirty that for a moment, it looked like he was going to walk out. But then, he glanced back at me and calmed down, saying nothing.
“If she is a virgin, obviously the answer is whomever of us she surrenders to first.” I wanted it to be me, but I didn’t say that. If they knew how attracted to Sabine I really was, they would question my impartiality. That couldn’t happen. Instead, I smiled mildly and took a swallow of my beer. “May the best seducer win.”
Everyone was nodding, expressions amused, except for thoughtful Marcus and Nathaniel, who still looked like he was doing math equations in his head. Sometimes I wondered if that weird, detached fucker ever got excited over anything.
“Okay,” Marcus drawled. “So, who breaks the ice with her?”
I smirked. “Oh, that’s easy. It’s my idea, so I’ll do it and let you all know how it goes.”
Daniel chuckled and shook his head. “Good luck, man. If she sniffs you out, the entire game is over before it begins.”
Chapter 4
Blake
I putmy plan into motion immediately.
Sabine and I shared two classes, English literature survey and a small panel on journalistic ethics. The first was so enormous that I could watch her from the crowd, the class held in a cavernous auditorium. The second was in a small classroom that reminded me of high school. A much better choice for what I was planning. There, I would try to engage with her through the back-and-forth of class discussion.
The first week of classes had involved massive disruptions from the same fifty-odd angry young men who shared any classes or space with Sabine. I had watched the pranks, the harassment, the outright threats. I had seen her hair pulled, her clothes grabbed, and three attempts at up her skirt photos that had her wearing long skirts and trousers now. She was showing all the poise of a professional journalist dealing with an unpleasant assignment, but she had to be suffering under the surface.
Watching her in English from a few rows behind, I marveled at how tough she was. The men after her had been weeded out now or forced to quiet down, but they still challenged everything she said in class. Yet she held up every single time.
I sipped my latte, watching as a fellow student spluttered through an attempt to decimate her academically.
“I strongly disagree with Sabine’s point,” the pseudo-academic in the cartoon T-shirt spoke up almost shrilly. “There’s absolutely no evidence that Sethe had to sleep with the stonemason to pay for her child’s gravestone inBeloved. Not one line even hints at that.”
