Page 5 of Gingers Can Do Maths

I stare at her thick lips impatiently. I’ve been waiting all day for this.

“Hmm?” I bring the spoon to her mouth, feeding her a bite and biting back a moan of sheer pleasure as I watch her lick it clean. Not even a second later and I’ve dunked it into mine before doing the same.

I’m about to do it again when she says, “About Ennox...”

The word pulls me from the fantasy I’m already creating in my mind and jerks me back to reality again.

Ennox.

I drop the spoon.

¨You got your letter too?” I ask, hating the way my voice grows high and cracks with excitement as I turn around to grab an envelope out of my backpack. I'd been working on keeping that babyishness at bay, despite Sin's coos and comments of adorableness every time I reached a pitch high enough to crack glass. I'm nearly sixteen, voice cracking should be a thing of the damn past.

I don't want to be adorable to Sin. Something cute and innocent she runs towards.

I want to be someone who stirs something so intense in the pit of her stomach, that she wants to run away with the secret hope that I'll chase and catch her.

When I face her again, I’m met with a letter grasped tight between her fingers.

Ice crawls my spine like a tarantula as my eyes flicker from the creamy paper and sprawling golden header to the prettiest smile known to man.

Sin’s white teeth, set against her dark skin are dazzling, as are her big chocolate brown eyes that are filled with so much excitement, they’re shining with tears.

Happy tears?

“What’s this?” I ask, though I know. We both know because we can both read.

Our letters are both acceptances, but the headings are different. The papers are different.

The schools are different.

Sin’s smile falters. “I got into Hortace.”

“I can see that.”

Her eyes fall to her lap, as does the letter. “Well, aren’t you happy for me? You know I applied.”

Happy?

I’d been pissed when Sin told me she was applying for Hortace, a school my entire gender is banned from. I still can’t wrap my head around why it was even an option for her if I couldn’t go too. Any school that barred Sin is a school I won’t step foot in, and yet, it’s obvious the feeling’s one-sided.

I stiffen, my intestines suddenly free-falling. “Did you get your letter from Ennox yet?”

She hesitates for a moment then nods. “I did. I got in.”

Immediately my organs shift back to their rightful place, the bile in my throat settling back into my stomach. The uncontrollable need to be as close to her as physically possible overwhelms me, and I slide against her, so our thighs touch.

She hates it when my thighs are next to hers because of the size difference, but there’s nothing I like more. My favourite is when she wears shorts and that deep crease between her hip and thigh swallows the fabric whole.

“Sinny—”

“But I’m not going.”

Time slows as she averts her gaze to look down at the Hortace acceptance letter again.

At her knee-high socks.

At her platinum platforms.

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