Page 52 of Midsummer Phoenixes
Fucker. He needed to be slapped. On the ass.
Before I could do that, Ella walked over, right up to the table. Guyliner, pah. If anything was gender neutral, it was fucking eyeliner, and Ella still looked like she had accidentally used crayon.
“Sorry for interrupting. Sophie said I had to come over and greet you or whatever. And tell you we’re here studying. Rae knows.”
The fetus wasn’t lying this time around. “Fine. What subject?” I asked because I had to. Because vassalship sucked, and because I had been forced into caring about this shit.
“Trig. But as I told you, I’m really good at math.”
“Right. I’ll follow up on that.”
Ella’s eyes widened, the reaction exaggerated by her stupid eyeliner.
Tate chose that moment to interrupt. “Hi. I’m Tate, by the way. You two know each other? Bennet didn’t mention he knew anyone who went here.”
Ella fidgeted slightly. And I had to give it to her. Where a regular teenager might have just spilled something unhelpful, Ella paused and considered. Fear rose its head, and behind her, the Star-Garbed grew agitated, ready to spring up and come to her aid.
“I know her sibling,” I said. Ella relaxed.
“Oooh,” Tate said in a knowing way, not realizing he didn’t know shit.
“You’re taking a cab home?” I asked Ella.
She shrugged. “Okay.”
“Directly. No fucking detours. I’ll hold Atkins responsible if you go on detours.”
Ella knew enough to pout and give me her most evil stare, which was considerably dimmed on account of her very bad eye makeup. And of course she understood I was going to blame her desired love interest if she fucked up.
“Fine. I’ll take a cab directly home. And I’ll forget I saw you here.” She didn’t addwith this suspicious human guy, but she wasn’t very subtle about casting her eyes at Tate, and yeah, fair. Working hard to get whatever leverage you could was something I could appreciate as a life skill.
“Off you go to study then.” I shooed her, and she was just slow enough to let me know she was pissed and annoyed and in teenage drama mode all over again.
Seriously, children. I couldn’t see why anyone would bother.
Once she had sat her ass back down next to the Star-Garbed, who smiled at me politely, Ella gave me her best impression of an evil-eyed stare and went back to studying.
“What a nice girl,” Tate said. He was trying to be polite.
“Yeah, totally.”
“Is she, uh. I’m sorry. It’s rude to ask. She’s very cool. It’s so sweet of you to make sure she gets home okay. You can never be too careful these days.”
I looked at Tate. “You said you were a TA?”
He nodded. “Not that grade though. University. Organic chemistry department.”
“Exciting. Aren’t all chemists great at baking?”
Tate nodded his head eagerly. “Baking, cooking, the works. I’m currently into brownies. You know, to get them just to the right fudginess isn’t as easy as you’d think. What I’d love would be an oven with even heat distribution.”
“You can get those. Fucking expensive, but also worth it,” I said, because he was right about the oven.
He gaped. “You’re a baker?”
A real smile made my lips twitch. “I was a baker once. These days, I just dabble.”
“Wow! Any specialties?” He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “Anything that might help me with my brownie goals?”
