Page 101 of The Blackened Blade

I stifle a chuckle. It was a terrible name. Imagine, one small spelling error and they become ‘The Internal Four’.

It also sounded like some hell-bound quartet or demonic boy band.

I flicker my gaze between the four boys, an image of them wearing matching boy band costumes taking over my thoughts and it has a stupid grin stretching my cheeks.

I sit down and start to dig into my dinner, three extra-large slices of pepperoni pizza. It had become more normal over the past week to eat together, even Creed making more of an appearance since the fight night.

Annex, Mallyn and I would meet in class, sharing more of them than I had thought. I guess they just never showed up before. Then we head to the cafeteria together for lunch or dinner, sitting with Ezra and Mr. Sunshine over here.

“Lovely little message you left for me in class, Red.” Grins Annex, piquing Ezra’s interest as Mallyn shows a rare smirk.

“What message?” Asks Ezra as he grabs a slice of his chicken-barbeque pizza and starts eating, his eyes flickering between Annex and me.

I take a large bite of my own slice, the crispy dough and melt-in-your-mouth mozzarella making me hum happily, his question now forgotten as I eat.

Annex chuckles as he watches me, his own lips making their way around a huge meat-lovers slice as Mallyn opens his mouth.

“She made a little addition to Annex’s name on her seat in World History.Annex eats dick.”

I stop eating for a moment, looking toward Mallyn. He had just spoken more today with that one sentence, than I’ve heard him speak since we met.

I’m staring at him, my eyes a little wide as a muffled laugh breaks out behind me.

“Annex eats dick…” Ezra puts his half eaten slice down and wipes his lips through his chuckling.

The psycho in question leans in toward me, his gaze flickering between my eyes and the food I’m eating.

“I’d prefer to wrap my lips around something a little sweeter, Red.”

The table falls silent.

Ezra whips around to Annex, his eyes widened. Mallyn’s mouth opens slightly, and Creed’s gaze seems to be burrowing a large hole in Annex’s face.

A strange feeling wraps itself around me, a shiver working its way down my lower abdomen with the dark gaze Annex is giving me. I don’t think he was talking about dessert, at least not the edible kind anyway.

I shake my head, pushing the thought away. No, he meant the food. Hehadto.

“Then go get some.” I grab my last slice and take a huge bite as the grin grows wicked on his face.

“Is that an invitation, Red?” His eyes drop to my lips as I finish off my last slice, licking a little sauce from my lip.“Fuck.” He mumbles as he shifts in his seat.

He moves closer, bending further toward me with an almost feral look in his eyes, just as a hand reaches out and smacks the back of his head.

Annex whips around, a widened look in his eyes before they narrow at Ezra.

Ezra shrugs, a small smirk stretching his cheeks. “Gotta treat a girl with respect, bro.”

“Girl?”Annex almost chokes on the word, his brows reaching his hairline as he stares at Ezra before he turns toward me.

A sinful expression quickly takes over his face as he watches me. His eyes slowly trailing down me before finally landing on my lips. “I don't see a‘girl,’ Ez.”

A heat begins to creep up my neck and into my cheeks with his words. The dark look in his eyes catching me off guard and wrapping me in its intense thrall.Maybe we weren’t talking about food.

A throat clears from my left and pulls our attention back.Creed.

“Funny,” he calls, leaning further back in his seat and propping his feet on the nearest chair.“All I see is an annoying chick who has issues sharing…” he flickers his gaze toward my empty plate and then to the chair below me, “ And is a little psychotic about where she sits.”

I scoff, turning toward the smug asshole.

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