Page 28 of Wicked Games (Fallen Royals 2)

Who’s pretending now?

8

Margo

Riley takes me to school. It’s our first moment alone since I got out of Eli’s car, and we sit in hers instead of joining the masses in the courtyard.

“What happened?” she asks. “All I know is that Caleb burst in on Eli and I—”

Her cheeks turn red.

“He was telling my foster parents lies about me.” I sigh. “So I ran away.”

“To Ian’s house.”

“Well, I couldn’t go to your house,” I answer, sending her a pointed glare.

She giggles. “True.”

“I had hoped that it wasn’t obvious.” I look down at the muffin in my lap. Bribery at its finest. I’m not going to argue with her methods. We haven’t talked about the video that was sent around the morning after the ball. I’d forgotten about it until this morning, when she gave me the muffin.

“For courage,” she had said.

Yeah, right.

“Caleb…” I stop and try again. “We can’t be a thing. He’s toxic. And crazy.”

She nods. “Yeah.”

“He’s not going to like it.”

She throws her shoulders back. “You’ll make him listen, Margo. If anyone can get through to him, it’s you.”

I shift. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“You’re probably the only one who can stop him.”

I sigh. The bell ringing in the school is faint, but it’s there. We climb out and make our way straight to homeroom. I can’t help but keep my head ducked down, wondering when the laughter is going to start. The stares.

Nothing happens.

No one does a fucking thing.

“Is it me, or are we blending in more than usual?” Riley whispers.

“Um…”

My gaze lands on Caleb. He’s leaning against the desk I normally sit at, a shit-eating grin on his face. He did this. I’d bet money on it that he made the video disappear. Still, how he erased it from everyone’s eyeballs is a whole other issue.

“Morning,” he says to me.

I ignore him and take a different seat. Ian’s, in fact.

Savannah glances at me and opens her mouth, then seems to change her mind. A second later, someone leans over me.

“I don’t much like being ignored,” Caleb says.

“I don’t much like being made a fool.”

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