Page 57 of Eat You Alive (Court Legacy 4)

Kurt:Hey. It’s Kurt from the NY Times.

I shot up, ramrod straight. Even if I hadn’t known the number by heart, I knew it was him. Who he was, I mean. Obviously.

Kurt:I’m in town again covering a story, and since you’re at the top of my list for the internship, I wanted to see you in action. Are you game? I’ll be shooting downtown.

Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap. Was my luck seriously changing right now?

I pushed my hair out of my face.

Me:Yes, totally. When and where and what time?

Those details shot over while I rooted around my bag for something other than sweatpants. I’d filled my duffel with as much as I could the one or two times I’d been able to sneak into my dorm. I hadn’t wanted to risk Wolf seeing me, and since I didn’t have much stuff anyway, I’d gotten most of the things that mattered. Things like my dad’s camera and clothes.

Kurt:If you can bring an assistant, that’d be great. You’ll be shooting most of the feature, so it’ll help you get more angles. I’ll be around to advise, of course. ;)

This was wild, and I had the perfect person. Heath would love this and would be completely stoked.

I shot Kurt a text that would be no problem and was barely able to get the words out when I called Heath. He had a class, but he obviously ditched it. We decided to meet downtown since he was already out, and I brought his gear with mine. It’d been awkward carrying it all since I had to take the bus, but I managed.

“Well, this is fucking cool,” he said, the moment he saw me get off my bus. He tapped my fist. “And good looking out. This is a great opportunity.”

It might even open some doors for him. I had no idea his plans after graduation, but mentioning he worked on a piece with Kurt Ackerman I was sure wouldn’t hurt. I grinned. “No problem. I guess I owed you one for letting me crash on your couch. You and Allen.”

He’d been very cool about that. They both had.

“Eh. Not a big deal. Though, I’m still wondering about all that.” He took his stuff from me. “Any idea when they’ll have your place fumigated?”

So I’d had to give him a little white lie, but I hadn’t gotten a hold of housing yet. Honestly, I was kind of intimidated by the whole thing considering it’d been Wolf to arrange everything.

He could have easily locked me in to live with him knowing his pull, and any call to housing could be futile.

Honestly, Kurt reaching out to me today in the first place was a surprise. After I’d left Wolf (abruptly), I thought I may see some repercussions from that, and also knowing him, I should have.

He was like a specter hanging over my head, an animal waiting to retaliate, pounce…

I dodged Heath’s inquiries and instead had him focus on our shooting location today, which was crazy. Kurt texted later that his story downtown was to cover the city’s youth, but I hadn’t expected this.

There were kids, many kids spray-painting walls, graffiti. In fact, there were so many I couldn’t count, and the dingy back alley couldn’t look prettier. Normally, the area held squatters, but today, it was nothing but kids making art. They varied in ages, some teens and others younger.

“Wow,” I said, snapping a test shot. Kurt hadn’t given me too many details, but he said this was what we’d be covering.

“Wow is right.” Heath took a shot himself, quick and probably for lighting like me. “Can’t wait to add this to my portfolio.”

He wasn’t the only one, and both of us took a few more shots. We did this while looking for Kurt, and while we did, I couldn’t help but bug my ex-roomie about what I’d seen in the library. I didn’t tell him I’d seen him,of course,but I did say word had gotten around that he and Wells Ambrose had hooked up.

His face colored after I said it, and mine did too. Though, for other reasons. He passed it off. “Eh. It was nothing. Just a hookup.”

“Do you want it to be something more?” I snapped another photo, surprised when he shook his head.

“Nah, I’m good. I didn’t go into it thinking it was going to lead to anything.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s Legacy.” He shouldered his bag. “I mean, it was nice. Fucking awesome, but I’m not trying to deal with the heartbreak if you know what I mean. These guys aren’t generally known for commitment, with the exception of Prinze and well, now, you and Mallick.”

He nudged me, laughing, and though I laughed too, mine had been dry. He was the smart one, I guess. Not to get involved.

“So, what’s going on with you two anyway? You’ve had campus buzzing since you’ve been hanging out. I mean, when did it happen? How?”

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