Page 37 of Cruel Prep (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 1)

I try to hide my blush. “Uh, yeah, totally. I made a friend.”

“That’s great,” she says, scribbling a note down. “Tell me about her.”

“Her name is Cora,” I say. “She’s, um… Pretty. Fashionable. Really nice.”

You, Lily DeVry, are a rotten-ass piece of fruit.My face burns. Right where Cora slapped me.

If she’s a friend, I’m fucking Elvis. Friends don’t do what she did to me. Torment me. Corner me, strip me, embarrass me.

But if she’s my enemy, what does that make Finn? Is he better? Worse?

I don’t know. I don’t fucking know.

The only thing Idoknow is that I can’t let Dr. Sharon or my mom know just how bad things are looking. They’ll panic, do something drastic.

No, I just need to hunker down. Suffer through this year.

Then I can get out of Ravenlake forever.

“That sounds lovely. Any boys on the horizon?” She winks playfully.

My face feels like it’s glowing red, so I look down in my lap and fiddle with the zipper of my hoodie. “Finn,” I whisper.

“Sorry, dear, what’d you say? I didn’t catch that.”

I gulp and try again. “Maybe. His name is… Finn.”

“Finn. That’s an interesting name. Is he cute?”

I know she’s trying to be nice. Trying to connect with me.

But talking about Finn like he’s just any other boy feels so wrong. He’s not “cute.” He’s not “nice.” He doesn’t “treat me well.”

But when he touched me, I would’ve done anything for him.

What does that make him? What does that make us?

I shiver.

“Yeah,” I say, as casually as I can. “He’s very cute.”

Dr. Sharon gives a quiet golf clap in support of my social skills. “That is nice. All of it. It sounds like you’re adjusting very well to this new environment.”

If only you knew, Dr. Sharon,I whisper to myself.If only you knew what I’ve done. Or what’s been done to me.

“Is there anything else that’s been on your mind?” she asks. “The floor is yours if you’d like to talk about something specific.”

I think for a moment. “Mom has been sadder about Dad recently,” I say. “Or, at least, she has been showing it more. I think everything that happened this summer has left her a little raw.”

“She almost lost you,” Sharon says.

I shake my head. “I’m fine.”

“She didn’t know that at the time. Injuries like you sustained are a kind of trauma for everyone around you as well. You have to give her time.”

I suck in my cheeks and then sigh. “She has had time. Six years.”

Sharon tilts her head to the side. “It’s only six years if you’re talking about your dad. I’m talking about you. It has only been a few months since your accident.”

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