Page 23 of Cruel Abandon (Fallen Royals 5)

“You should call me Mitch.” He’s speaking normally, like an angry bull isn’t striding across campus toward us.

I swallow.

“You look like you’re chewing glass,” he whispers.

He has my hand hostage, and I’m suddenly sweating.

Instead of stopping in front of us, Liam sails by. He doesn’t so much as glance at me, and Mitch grins.

“See? Not so scary.”

“Uh-huh,” I manage.

“Let me buy you a coffee. To make up for the trauma I think I just inflicted.”

I force a smile. “Sure.”

He gets both our coffees and hands mine over, and we head to our math class. I should be unsettled by… well, all of this.

First he’s saving me from near-death, then holding my hand, now buying me a coffee?

What sort of alternate universe have I landed in?

Girls like me don’t attract the attention of guys like him. Or, if we do, it’s usually the bad sort. I have gray hair and a nose ring, and the way I dress strays toward Gothic. It’s such a drastic change from who I was in high school, if I were to meet my past me I wouldn’t recognize her.

I’m the one who went to all the parties, stressed myself out buying all the ‘in fashion’ clothes, keeping up with the latest trends. I was a cheerleader. I had the most popular girls in school as my best friends, through thick and thin… until my fall from grace.

And somehow, I’m still falling.

“How’d you do on the homework?” he asks, jarring me from my thoughts.

“It wasn’t too bad. We’re probably going to end up with a pop quiz on it.” The numbers make sense in my head—I can’t explain it. I was never a math whiz, but it’s soothing.

He throws his head back and lets out a loud groan. “Stop that. I don’t need your sort of negativity.”

I shake my head. We travel the rest of the way in silence. I’m impressed with how easy it is to walk beside him. He jostles my arm and lifts his chin. I follow his subtle pointing to a group of girls in our class. They’re gathered outside the door, and a few of them keep turning around and staring at me.

“Got yourself a new friend, freak?” one of them calls. “Did you tell him you can’t keep a secret?”

I roll my eyes. “Real original. Where’d you come up with that, twenty-eighteen?”

I grab Mitch’s arm and drag him into the class, scowling. Those girls… I would’ve been friends with them. I would’ve been the one calling out to a poor girl, flaunting her mistakes.

“You okay?” he asks.

“Do I look okay?”

“Well, your face is kind of red.”

I flip my hair over my shoulder. “It’s because I’m angry, not upset.”

He studies me for a moment, then nods. “Okay, so, how are you going to fix it?”

“She can’t.” Liam stands behind Mitch, arms crossed. “Not until she repents, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that.”

The bruises and cut lip he sported last week are gone, and his face is… well, handsome and extremely annoying. Especially because he’s smirking at me like he’s won something.

He hasn’t won shit.

---