Page 62 of Brat Baby
His eyes soften and his lips turn down. “We all knew you were there. The front desk sent us a message.”
I narrow my eyes and stare at him, not sure what I want to do with this information. They all knew I was there, alone, and to be honest, pretty fucking sad at the end, and they still didn’t show up?
“I’m sorry, princess. I know it’s fucked up. You just need to give Derek time.”
“Time for what?” I demand, because I’m so fucking tired of not knowing what the hell is going on.
Darcy shakes his head. “I know you want to know, but as much as I don’t give a shit about losing my job here, he does. Same goes for Hudson. Xavier is… Xavier.” His expression morphs into a cheeky smile. “Do you know that Derek punched Xavier?”
My mouth drops open. “He did not!”
Darcy nods, grin wide. “Yep, right in the jaw.”
“When?”
“Right after we left you in the quad.”
“But why?”
“I can’t tell you that, not without fucking everything up. That’s what Derek is trying to work out right now. Just give him time, okay? He’ll come around. I know he fucking misses you. I’ve never seen him as… messy as he is right now. If I didn’t know what the plan was, I would have been sitting him down for an uncomfortable conversation about feelings.” He pretends to shudder, but there is still a smile on his face. “Up until now, Ididn’t even know the man had feelings like the rest of us mere mortals.”
I stare at him. And then I stare some more. And the whole time, internally, I’m screaming,Are you fucking kidding me?”
But what I hear is that there is a plan. Or something. Something is happening, and I need to give Derek time?
Sure, I can give him time. But I don’t have to make that time easy on him.
Pulling out of Darcy’s arms, I turn so that I’m walking backward toward the door. “To answer your question, yes, I’ll be at the apartment this weekend. I’m going after my last class tomorrow.”
Darcy folds his arms over his chest as I make it to the door. “A package was delivered to the apartment today. You’re welcome to play with it if you like.”
Interest piqued, I grin back at him as I push through the doors. “I might just do that.”
Chapter 33
Emery
The rideshare I ordered is still over thirty minutes away, and after having paced the dorm room for the millionth time, and with no Oakley to distract me, I flop down onto the couch. Opening the student forums app on my phone has become such a habit that I think I might be borderline addicted.
Within seconds, I’m in the subthread for The Monarchs, and I scroll down to see if anything new has popped up in the last hour. Nothing. The last post was from earlier today.
It’s an image of Xavier carrying a gift bag with pink tissue paper hanging out of the top with the caption, “Does the Knight have a fair lady?”
The comments section is completely unhinged, and I fucking love it. Because, yes, he fucking does have a fair lady. Me. I’m the fair lady. But the speculation, oh my god. The girls on campus are feral for my daddies, Xavier in particular.
There are new comments, and I scroll through those, giggling when I see a few about getting down on her knees and another promising she knows how to beg prettily. Absolutely zero shame.
I’m super tempted to take a screenshot and send it to him.
Or maybe I can show it to him when he sneaks into my room again.
Options, options, options.
I leave the forum and go in search of the Club Obsession website. This is something I have been meaning to investigate for the last few days, but with classes, studying, and my general brat-behavior plotting, I haven’t really had a moment to tick it off my list.
The website has an overall black aesthetic, with a pattern that reminds me of fabric wallpaper. The logo is pretty cool, though. A golden three-way yin-yang symbol. But where you would expect the lines that separate the sections to be smooth, they are actually sharp and edgy, kind of like a scythe blade.
The O of Obsession is a solid collar with a single link hanging from the front of it. Even without the logo, it’s clear what the website is for.
