Page 9 of Friend
It wasn’t long after Mrs. Miller followed them, leaving the rest of us to watch them with their mile, before the talking began.
It’d gotten worse—the way they’d talk about the girls. And I probably would have been interested, at least a little. But what was the point?
“She’s got some nice tits now.”
I sighed. That was just great; Cory was already up to his shit again. Outside of being a douchebag, he’d been going through the girls in our class, one by one, and bragging about the details.
I loathed the sound of his voice.
“And those legs,” he was saying, his voice grating, moving his hands in a long curving motion. “Ilovethese new uniforms. Did you notice the skirts are shorter than before?”
The others were mummering in agreement, and I, once again, contemplated emailing dad, just to get them to shut up.
“She looks flexible—look at how she can touch the ground,” he continued, pressing his face against the chained fence. The handful of others who’d been following the conversation did the same, and before long, everyone was gaggling at the girls.
Idiots.
I pulled out my phone—which, technically, wasn’t allowed, but who was going to tell—and began to go through my email as Drew, whom Bianca had dubbed Public Enemy Number Three, spoke. “Do you think you have a chance?” Surprisingly, he didn’t sound very confident that Cory could nail his newest target. “I mean, sure she’s hot, but you’ve hated each other since elementary school. I don’t think she’s going to give it up for you.”
I froze, the words on the screen blurring together as my other senses sharpened.
“It’sfine.” Cory was still looking through the chain-linked fence with a predatory smile. “Chicks dig the enemies-to-lovers trope. Besides, look at that ass. There’s no way she doesn’t need this too.”
I followed the line of his gaze, and what I saw validated the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach.
Bianca.
And there was no question it was her they were drooling over. She was standing apart from everyone else yet was still half-heartedly—and while grimacing slightly—following the warm-up exercises. She’d pulled her hair into a high bun above her head and tightened her shirt in a knot around her stomach. When she lifted her arms to stretch, the fabric lifted, showing off a sliver of skin above her high-waisted shorts.
“I’m going to ask her out after class,” Cory was saying. “Can you believe it? Who’d ever thought I’d nail a faery.”
Drew began to grow visibly anxious at his friend’s words. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You really don’t know much about her.” The redhead glanced between Bianca and Cory, then tugged his ear nervously. “You know she’s adopted, so who is herfaefamily? They could be important people. I’m just saying, you don’t want to do something stupid. It’s one thing to annoy her, but the fae don’t like others fucking with their women.”
“I’m not worried.” Cory shrugged and stretched as he cracked his neck. “If she was worth anything to them, she wouldn’t be growing up with witches. She’s probably defective. Who cares though? I’m not interested in much else.”
“Besides,” Adrian chimed in. He’d stretched his arms behind his head as he smirked in Bianca’s direction, “she’s not very smart. She’ll be easy.”
My finger slipped and my phone screen cracked under my fingers. The pinch of glass cutting into my skin pulled me from the red haze that had taken over my vision. My hands were shaking so hard that when I tried to slip my phone back into my pocket, I almost missed.
“We talked about this, Moore.” I forced my voice to remain calm as I stepped toward the fence. They backed up as I moved, and by the time I reached them, no one had noticed that I was now standing between them and Bianca. “I told you to leave her alone.”
Cory was in a mood, still not backing off even though he’d already lost once this morning. It only took a second for him to gather his courage, and his mouth curled up in an evil smirk.
“Why though?” he asked. “Are her happy endings really so good? Come on, Abernathy. Why don’t you be a team player for once?”
The question stung me. It was something my quintet asked me every meeting. It was the reason Norman trash-talked me to Damen.
But none of them understood.
But sometimes being a team player didn’t mean working together on every project. Sometimes, in order for the entire team to make it, one or two individuals had to carry the load themselves for a while.
Cory’s smile widened as he stepped forward, hand outstretched. “Did I strike a nerve? Does that mean you’ll back off and give everyone else a chance?”
He was a fraction-of-an-inch from touching my shoulder when I grabbed his wrist. “No.”
Cory’s features twisted; slight panic that was barely hidden beneath his annoyance. Instinctively, he knew not to mess with me. I was an onmyoji, and he didn’t even rank yet within his own pack. Never in a million years could he hope to win in a fight against me.
But he was also an idiot, and all the boys in our class were watching. He’d never live it down if he backed off now.
