Page 76 of The Vengeance You Crave
"PeyPey," Kayden sings, excitedly bouncing in his seat.
"Hey, my gorgeous boy. Did you sleep well?" I ask, dropping down beside him.
"I missed you," he confesses, making my heart ache.
"Aw, I missed you too, baby boy." Leaning over I plant a sloppy kiss on his cheek and ruffle his hair. "See, didn't miss me that much, did you?" I joke when he fights to get away.
"Breakfast?" Aunt Fee asks, pushing from the table.
"Sit down. I can sort myself out."
"Nonsense. You're going to college with a good meal in you this morning," Her eyes drop down my body. "You look like you need it."
I smile at her. I'll be the first person to admit that I haven’t been eating right in a while. Well, not since Mom died and my life got flipped on its head once more.
With a stomach full of bacon, Aunt Fee and Kayden wave me off from the sidewalk as they head in the opposite direction for the store and some winter sun.
My heart is in my throat throughout the entire drive to MKU. I hated to do it yesterday, but I turned up to class at the very last minute and I left the second our professors had finished in my attempt to avoid the grilling that I know is coming from Ella and Letty.
I don't need to have read the messages that were sitting on my cell Sunday when I finally got it back to know that they are both suspicious as fuck as to what's going on.
And now I know that Letty is close to Luca, well… it makes me want to talk to her even less.
It's a shame because they seem like my kind of people. But I refuse to be the girl who puts herself in the middle of friends and tears people apart. Luca might not agree, but ruining people's lives isn't really my MO.
I pull the same stunt this morning, waiting in my car until the last second when I make my way across campus to the Westerfield Building, knowing that I share my morning class with Letty.
Unfortunately, it seems she's caught on to my little plan because when I slip into the room barely five seconds before our professor, I find her sitting in the closest row with a spare seat next to her.
"Good morning," our professor booms through the auditorium ensuring everyone's—bar Letty's—attention turns to him. Letty keeps her eyes firmly fixed on me, her brow lifting as she briefly glances down at the space beside her.
"Nicely played," I mutter when I drop down into the empty seat.
"Can't play a player," she mutters, flipping her notebook and writing down the title our professor has just displayed on the wall.
To my surprise, she doesn't say anything for the entire class. But I'm not naïve enough to think that's not because she's not got a million and one questions. I can practically hear them all spinning around her head.
It's not until our class draws to a close and she picks up her purse to put her things away when she finally speaks.
"You should have told me that you were Luca's Peyton."
"I'm not Luca's anything," I hiss as I throw my books and pen into my purse.
But it seems that my tone doesn't put her off because the second I stand and move toward the exit, she follows.
"The second he stepped up behind you on Saturday night, all the pieces fell into place."
"I'm amazed he never mentioned my name," I mutter, following the stream of students down the hallway.
"He didn't."
"Ouch." But as much as that might hurt, it's exactly what I expected.
"But people talked about you, compared me to you. Apparently, I never quite lived up to the enigma that was Peyton Banks."
"You expect me to believe that?"
She shrugs.
