Page 106 of Vengeance & Sin

“What’s up?” Trent asks as he finally comes up behind us. Some guys had stopped him, and they were talking with him and Leo. Hazel shoots me a look, and I don’t have to be great with people to understand the meaning of it.

“Nothing. We were just waiting on you guys.” I tell him, the lie rolling off my tongue far too easily, and Hazel nods.

He looks between us, and I wonder for a moment if he can tell I’m lying. Most people aren’t very good at seeing anything that isn’t laid out right in front of them, but he’s a cop, so who knows?

“Alright, well, let's go.” He finally says, nodding in the direction of the building just down the path that we’re headed to.

Hazel turns and walks away just a little too quickly, causing Trent to turn to me in question. I just shrug before following after her. If she doesn’t want to tell Trent, I won’t, but I will get to the bottom of this with her.

I look over my shoulder one more time before we enter the building and find Mai still watching me. Before I step through the doors, I let my mask slip just the slightest bit, giving her a smile that's all cruel edges and teeth, and I get the joy of watching her rear back just the tiniest bit.

That’s all I need, though. I let the smile drop and walk into the building after everyone else. She might be the height of the social status around here, but she doesn’t scare me in the slightest. She'll leave me alone if she knows what's good for her. These people might look at me like a victim or competition for them with the guys, but little do they know, I’m the biggest threat on this campus now, and I’m not afraid to prove it.

* * *

I foundout pretty quickly that math and I probably aren't going to get along. I take notes for the first half of class even though it all might as well be in another language to me, but I figure it can’t hurt. I wonder if Hazel would be willing to help me get caught up with this, she isn’t in the class because she's in Precalculus, which I guess means she's better at it than anyone in this room.

Just after the lecture ends and the teacher tells us what we can work on, my phone vibrates in my back pocket, almost making me jump out of my skin.

I had forgotten I even had a phone, and I didn’t know they vibrated. I thought they just made noise. I pull it out and touch the screen causing it to light up. There's a red dot on the messenger circle, so I click it. A chat pulls up and at the top is Zander's name with a black heart next to it. I shake my head because, of course, he would do that.

How’s class?

I feel the corner of my mouth pull up in a smile at the idea of him checking up on me.

Not bad, though I don’t think a job with math will be in my future.

I say back after probably way too long. The little keys on the screen are so small that it took a lot of typos before I got the message right and even longer to figure out how to make the message go.

He responds so quickly that the vibration still startles me. Fuck, I’m going to have to learn to type faster. His response is a little laughing face with tears coming off of it, it's adorable, but I have no idea how he did it.

I turn to Trent, who has decided to sit next to me. Leo sits just beside him, and while I don’t like him exactly, the longer he's around, the more I can start to accept that maybe he’s just a happy person, and it’s not as weird as I made it seem at first.

“Hey, Trent.” I say to get his attention. He seems to understand math okay, considering he’s doing the work. Maybe I can just get his help instead of bugging Hazel.

“What’s up?” He says without turning away from his work as he scribbles some numbers on the paper.

I kind of feel bad for disturbing him, especially with something that has nothing to do with math. I bite down on my lip as I consider telling him never mind and just asking Zander later.

Before I can decide, he sets his pencil down and turns his attention to me. He looks at me for a second before his eyes roam, my face landing on my lip that's still stuck between my teeth.

He reaches out and gently pulls at my lip until it pops free, and I freeze. I watch him as he looks back at me, and I can see just the slightest bit of amusement and heat in his eyes before it’s gone, and he smiles at me.

“You shouldn’t bite your lip like that. You're going to tear it up.” He says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“Why does everyone keep telling me that?” I ask more to myself than him, his smile dims just slightly, and he opens his mouth as if to say something before Leo butts in.

“Maybe people tell you that because it’s true?” He says as he leans forward on his desk to look at me around Trent.

I roll my eyes at him, but he still smiles back at me, and okay, he might be growing on me; we’ll see.

“Anyways, I was wondering if you could help me with this phone. Zander gave it to me this morning, and I have no clue how to use it.” I hold my phone out to him and give him a look that I hope comes across as pleading so he will take pity on me.

“What?” They both say in unison, and I give them a confused look because I’m unsure what they’re questioning.

“Shit, sorry. I forgot.” Trent says a second later, rubbing a hand down his face. “Let me see, and I can walk you through whatever it is you need.” He says, grabbing my phone from my still outstretched hand. He rests his elbows on his desk and taps around on it a bit. Clearly, he’s used to phones because I’m already lost.

“Wait, what did I miss?” Leo asks after a second, I ignore him because I’m not really sure, but also, I’m trying to focus on this stupid phone.

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