Page 75 of Spearcrest Knight

“Nothing. I left. Then the next day I ran away and went back to my parents’ house.”

“Oh.”

The girls all exchange glances.

“So how didthatgo?” Audrey asks.

I sigh. “As well as you might expect.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I shake my head. “There’s nothing to talk about. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. Just more stuff about making the most of my amazing connections, that sort of stuff. Apart from that, it was fine, really.”

“Talk about making connections,” Araminta says with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows. “You’ve been making connections alright.”

Audrey lets out a bark of scandalised laughter. “Minty! Stop.”

“Networking with a Young King,” Araminta carries on shamelessly. “Networking… with tongues.”

“You’re disgusting,” Audrey says.

But she’s laughing, and so am I. The crushing weight lifts from my chest. Things are still pretty bad, but they don’t seem as hopeless now.

I take a deep breath, letting my lungs fill up properly, and slump back into my chair in relief.

“I feel like the biggest fucking idiot.”

“You’re not the biggest fucking idiot,” Audrey says. “And you know what? I want to celebrate the fact that you finally got some action. It’s been, what? Your first time since you got to Spearcrest?”

I laugh weakly. “No, no, there was that boy at my cousin’s birthday party in Year 11, remember?”

“Oh, God, yes, that boy with the braces who kept texting you after?” Audrey shakes her head. “I can’t believe that was your first time.”

Araminta shakes her head. “And he was shorter than you.”

“To be fair, every boy was shorter than me in Year 11,” I point out.

“That time doesnotcount,” Araminta says with a wince. “It stresses me out just thinking about it.”

“Then don’t think about it,” Audrey says. “Think about Sophie getting some hot action with the walking wet dream of Spearcrest.”

I glare at her, hoping none of them notice how red I’m sure my face has become.

“Seriously, though, Sophe,” Audrey asks more seriously. “What are you going to do now?”

“About what?”

“About Evan.”

“God. Haven’t I done enough? I’m going to do what I should have done to begin with: nothing at all. Stay as far away from him as possible.”

“What about Miss Bailey’s tutoring programme?”

“I’m just going to leave it. I’m sure Evan wants to see me just about as much as I want to see him after the absolute embarrassment of the entire situation, so I’m just going to not go back to his house and hope that he lets sleeping dogs lie.”

“Hmm,” Audrey says dubiously.

“What, you don’t think he will?” I ask, fear rising in my chest.

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