Page 89 of Swallow Your Sorries

“I don’t have anything he’d want,” I say, trying to choose my words carefully.

“I can think of a few things,” Aria says, zoning in on my crotch. “You can keep that leotard, by the way. I’m not interested in being slick sisters.”

My face burns with the intensity of a thousand suns as I nervously sip from the disposable water bottle again. So she’d overheard our exchange. All of his crew probably had, so what’s the use in feigning ignorance? “You’re seriously implying that I should fuck him for lessons?”

“No. I’m saying play with him to stave off the inevitable of whatever the hell it is he’s cooking up. Like an interlude. A pause that you can use to your benefit to figure him out. To keep inching ahead while he’s busy in blissful pleasure. Think about it, he won’t do anything brash while you’re giving him what he’s desperate for, because if he does, he knows you’ll stop giving in.”

I look toward the dining hall. Then the locker rooms. If Gant was entertained enough by me‘playing back’,could I at least get through meals and showers without being harassed? Even if it’s only temporary? Even if I’d have to find a way to get ahead before he inevitably grew bored and bloodthirsty again?

A distraction…

If we take an interlude, that would mean Gant would have to cool his orders about harassing me to his minions…

If the king is distracted, occupied, he isn’t paying attention to his kingdom…That means his people will feel vulnerable. Neglected.Betrayed.

Rin and her bitches’ earlier conversation come zooming to the forefront of my mind again because they’d already planted the seed in my brain and now it’s beginning to sprout.

“There’s no way I’m following a king that gets on his knees to worship trash.”

“Uprisings over bitches aren’t as uncommon as you’d think.”

But is that true? If I let Gant get on his knees to worship my pussy, would his minions really abandon him once they find out? Are they really that fickle? And if they are, and he’s suddenly all on his own, I wouldn’t have to spend the rest of the school year in utter hell because they won’t keep bullying me. No, because then it’d still benefit him.

And without his army of bitches, he’s just one person barring his untouchable lackeys. Still, even they can’t be everywhere at once. At least in the all-girl spaces, I could relax. I could get off my one-woman defence team for a few hours.

Dethrone him. A king is only as strong as his army.

“You already know it’s going to blow up in your face at some point. Just try to stay ahead so it isn’t so disastrous. Let him eat you. Just don’t let him devour you so you lose your head. It’s just borrowed time so you can figure out your next move.”

“Why are you trying to help me?” I blurt. I can’t help it. Even if she lies, I still want to hear whatever bullshit reasoning she comes up with. “First the leotard, now the advice?”

“I’m tired of the war. Stassi is too.”

Really?We’re they starting to feel sorry for me?

“Because it’s affecting us. You stink up our room with that shit people throw on you, and you waste all the hot water trying to clean yourself and your uniform up constantly. I can barely sleep with your stomach gurgles and I’m sick of people constantly passing by our door to catch a glimpse of Gant’s zoo animal.”

Oh…Well, that sounded plausible, at least. Reasonable actually.

“That aside, I just don’t see the logic behind getting kicked out of class and ruining your chances at college, especially after all the bullshit you’ve been putting up with. What would be the point then?”

She had a point. Again.

“Use Gant to keep the peace. Then dispose of him before he can toss you away first.”

As she strolls to the dining hall and I split for the dorm to snack on crackers, my phone pings and I roll my eyes as I look at the notification. I’m in no fucking mood to see what Beaussip’s running her mouth about now. My day’s already fucked as it is. I don’t need to relive some other humiliating event she managed to snag pics of. I’m about to swipe the notification away when I see that it’s not about me at all, her favourite topic for the past month. No, it’s aboutZedd.

It looks like Zaddy Zed-

I gag.

- isn’t so single after all. Turns out, Zedd has a situationship with a mysterious girl and no, we don’t mean one of his many casual trysts. This seems serious. So serious that Zedd’s threatening our mystery girl with a giant red target if she doesn’t bow out of Beaulieu by the end of the term.

Will our mysterious girl take his advice and remain just that, a mystery to us all? Or will she show herself with a giant red bullseye from his truly come January fourth? Only time will tell, and I’ll be counting the seconds right down to the last sand grain.

There’s audio of Zedd and the girl’s exchange, but no pictures of the pair. Just a GIF of Zedd emerging from the greenhouse and storming away. From the angle, I can tell it’s taken from the bushes opposite the greenhouse, on the other side from where I was standing.

That’s where she was hiding.

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