Page 46 of A Scandal in Homeroom
“Ha,” I said. “Everyone needs power in this school. If they’re going to survive it with their souls intact. You should consider the track team.”
“Worried about my soul, Irene?”
I choked back the wordsyou wishbecause they were completely predictable. “I know this is a temporary stop for you, but…”
“Is that why…” he said over me.
We both stopped talking. When it became clear neither of us wanted to finish our thoughts, we both turned and watched the game play out in front of us.
“It’s not that temporary,” he finally said.
“What?”
“It’s not like I’m here for just a semester or anything like that. Croft signed a two-year contract with the university.”
“Does that mean you’re stuck here?” I asked him. “Even if you don’t like it, you still couldn’t go home?”
“No, I can always leave if I want to. My father doesn’t object to me living at his estate or his townhome in London. I simply prefer life with Croft.”
“Estate,” I said. “So you have money, I suppose. You made it sound like that’s why your mom married your dad.”
“Hmm. My family has money. I don’t consider it mine. Nor would I care to. I have little interest in the accumulation of it.”
“Yep. Spoken like a rich dude.”
He laughed. “Touché. Does this mean you’ll like me better now that you know I’m rich?”
I smiled and shook my head. “Nope. I don’t want your money, or what your money can buy for me. I want my own money.”
“My mother might tell you her way is easier.”
“Yeah, well, she has to put out for a guy three times her age…Oh. Sorry. I don’t know, maybe your dad is like a British version of McDreamy.”
That made him laugh out loud, which I took to mean his father was not the British version of McDreamy fromGrey’s Anatomy.
“No, you’re right,” he said, after he caught his breath. “I doubt she entertains him much these days. But surely enough times to beget me. Given I’ve never seen any affection between them, I can’t imagine it would have been pleasant for her.”
That surprised me. “You believe that? In order for sex to be enjoyable, there has to be affection between people?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t?”
I didn’t like to talk about sex. It was always something I implied but never discussed. Something I alluded to but never said out loud. Yet just a few weeks ago, I’d screamed at Locke that I wouldn’t have sex with him after kissing him senseless.
“I don’t know what I think about it. I just thought that most men in general…I mean, it’s not like any of those guys my mom was with had affection for her. They just wanted the sex.”
Then Locke shocked me by reaching for and grabbing my hand. I tried to pull it away, but he wouldn’t let it go.
“What are you doing?” I snapped. I looked around to see if anyone was paying attention, but the flow of the game seemed to hold everyone’s attention.
“You need to stop thinking about sex that way.”
“Excuse me?” I asked, now outraged. “Let the fuck go of me.”
He did immediately.
“You have to stop seeing sex through the lens of what your mother experienced. It will cripple you. Surely, you know that. Tell me you had counseling at Thornfield.”
I stood up from the bench as if I could walk away from him. Like I wasn’t in a class that still had ten minutes left before the bell rang.
