Page 136 of Until We Burn
For so long, I’ve been fighting to claw my way back into bàba’s favor and have things return to normal. But this dread fills my gut, like the feeling just before electric shock pricks your hand.
It’ll pass. Ithasto. I have no other option but to show these papers or remain a pariah in the news world forever.
“I’m sorry, Kai.” I rise from the bed to quickly gather my things. “Is there any chance we can talk about what happened last night after I get this mess sorted out?”
“Yeah,” Kai assures. “That’s fine, princess. Next week is reading week, anyway. We have time to talk about it.”
When he pushes onto his feet, his arms wrap around me and my hands rest against his chest. I shut my eyes as Kai kisses my forehead.
Guilt ravages me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“Don’t be. Jonathan and Gregory deserve to get what’s coming to them.” Kai lifts my chin up, his thumb brushing my lip. He doesn’t hold back the ruthlessness in his words, “Go and give them hell, princess.”
CHAPTER 53
KAI
A heavy weightpresses down on my chest when Monday morning comes around.
I fiddle with Diana’s hair clip as the boys and I head into the arena for practice.I shiver in my hoodie. My breath swirls into the cold, morning air tinged with the smell of grilled meat and red chili paste.
Rowan nods at the Pokémon lunch bag swinging from Luke’s arm. “What’s that?”
Luke shrugs. “Wallace forgot his lunch this morning, so I’m bringing it to him before his shift starts.”
Even with the tight knot binding the tote, I can smell Wallace’s homemade bibimbap from where I’m walking. It’s the only thing swarming the air because reading week leaves campus empty and deserted. No cars clog up the road. Only the stray student living in residence strolls around in sweats and sandals, while cradling the iced coffee they purposefully got up for.
As nice as it is to have a week off, I wanted to see Diana today. She’s the reason why Mondays aren’t so shitty.
“Strange art isn’t just paintings of men with elephant tushies,” Mellonbaum soliloquizes. “Strange art invites us to acknowledge how we humansoddly fuss and fret, dream and dread on this floating spinning ball that couldn’t care less if we live or die.”
Diana’s pinky brushes against mine before she leans towards me. “If you squint your eyes, that bobble head looks like Gregory if he was bald.”
I snicker into my hand.
“Mr. Kai Mason-Maiau,” Mellonbaum snaps, “is the concept of symbolic immortalitythatamusing to you?”
“Uh, no, professor.” My smiling lips drop into a serious, flat line. “I just had something in my throat. That’s all.”
“Hmph.” She clicks her pen and goes back to lecturing.
Diana and I smile at each other, fighting to tame back our laughter.
I can’t imagine what she’s feeling right now. She’s about to expose her brothers on the same evening her grandfather comes in from Taiwan.
Not to mention any hope I have of talking to her about us is gone, too.
The CEO vote hasn’t even happened yet and it already feels like Diana is being pulled away from me.
I swallow hard. My worries twist into a sadness that weighs so heavy on my chest.
When I walk through the doors of the arena, the rest of the Griffins are already there with cups of coffee and bottles of Gatorade in their hands.
They’re so out of it that half of them don’t have their student IDs.
“Kuso.”Rowan cups his hips like a stern, disappointed dad. “When was the last time you saw it?”
