Page 18 of Riot Rules
“You’re thefutureking of England’s second cousin, three times removed,” Wren mutters from the couch. He’s already lying down, his arm thrown over his face to shield his eyes from the early morning light spilling in through the windows.
“Why do you even sit down here anyway?” Pax asks. “There are far more comfortable spots to rest your pampered ass upon.”
Wouldn’t it be great, just to get a moment’s peace? Likeone?I sigh.“Because Iamthe future king of England’s second cousin, three times removed. And I don’t want anyone here thinking that I’m better than them.”
“Youarebetter than them,” Wren mutters. “Every last one…”
“Are you gonna share why you’re in such a bad mood yet?” Pax’s prods. He won’t stop prodding until I give him what he wants.
“Alright.Fine, you persistent fucker. My father’s been giving me shit again. I’ve had three emails in the past week and I’m pissed about it. Happy now?”
Pax runs his tongue over his teeth. “For real? That’s why you’ve been so salty?”
“What, you wanna read ’em?”
Unadulterated glee shines in his eyes. A slow, suggestive smile spreads across his face that I don’t like the look of. “You sure it doesn’t have anything to do with a certain girl named Carrie?”
“Carrie?”
“Ahhh, quit it. I saw you talking to her outside the party. You like her, don’t you?” There’s a too-light, too-excited tone in Pax’s voice. He can’t know about the kiss. If he did, he wouldn’t be asking me this question. He’d already be making plans. If I don’t play this carefully, he’s going to figure out that something happened and that’ll be it. As soon as class is over, he’ll turn into a category five hurricane full of vicious plans designed to bring Carina to her knees. Because we Riot House boys? We’re not allowed to like a girl. If one of us develops any sort of warm or fuzzy feelings for a female student at Wolf Hall, then she’s fair fucking game. It’s one of our rules. An attraction to a girl is a distraction from our friendship, as well as a threat to our reign as the undisputed rulers of the school. We made a pact a long time ago that we wouldn’t allow girls to make trouble for us. We decided we’d make trouble for them instead.
When I developed a thing for Sadie Rothmore in freshman year, all three of us terrorized the shit out of her. Her parents moved her back to Wisconsin and enrolled her in apublicschool. Pax’s dick kept getting hard last year whenever he was around Collette Bridger. He refused to admit that he had a crush on her and maintained that his dick was actuallybroken, but he still agreed when Wren and I cornered him in his room and told him Collette needed to be dealt with. He’d played his part without complaint. Wren seduced the girl in the locker rooms and fingered her until she came. Pax then shared the video of the act with everyone on Wolf Hall’s emergency notification list. A list that had included Collette’s parents, for fuck’s sake.
Confessing that I allowed Carina to get under my skin the other night? ToPax? That would be a nightmare. Out of the three of us, Pax masterminds the most hurtful ways to fuck with people. I grit my teeth, focusing way too hard on the notebook that I have balanced on top of my legs. “Alright, dude. Cool it. I don’t have a thing for her. No need to go wasting energy on someone who’s of absolutelynoconsequence.”
Fuck. I think the vein in my temple is pulsing. Pax bites down on his knuckles, trying not to laugh. “Shit, Jacobi. Lord Lovett’s looking guilty as fuck over here. He’s got it fuckingbadfor Mendoza.”
At this, Wren does something that spells certain disaster: he sits the fuck up.
With very green, very interested eyes, he gives me a once-over that spells disaster. Then he smiles the devil’s own smile. “Carina Mendoza?” he asks. “That Carina Mendoza?” He points directly…shit,directlyat the girl in question. How have Inotnoticed her in this class before? She’s sitting on a floral print sofa on the opposite side of the room, next to Mara Bancroft. She’s wearing a bright green silky looking shirt and a brown tie (what thefuck?) coupled with a pair of cut-off jean shorts that show off a vast expanse of thigh so delectable and toned that I want to crawl across the room on my hands and knees and fuckinglickher.
Carina looks up, right as Wren points at her, which is just stellar.
“I thought I felt a frisson of tension between you two at the hospital,” Wren says, waggling his eyebrows darkly. “Wasn’t sure, though. I figured that maybe it was the amount of blood pouring out of your dick. How is that now by the way?”
Pax answers before I can. “Gangrene’s set in.”
I scowl at Pax. “It’sfine, cheers. And there was no frisson of tension. No frisson of anything. I was in a highly compromised position and trying to remember a girl’s name. Fucking sue me.”
“Fair enough.” Wren drops back down onto the couch, resuming his horizontal position. “We’ll go to Cosgrove’s on Friday night. If you don’t bang at least one customer and have her screaming your name by close, it’s game on with Mendoza. Agreed?”
Pax claps so loud, at least three other students nearly jump out of their skin. “Yes!Sofucking agreed.”
Wren’s head lifts an inch off the couch cushion. “Dashiell?”
Fuuuuuuuuck. “Agreed.”
His head drops back down. “Sounds like a perfect weekend to me, either way.”
I glance up, and Carina’s still looking over in our direction. Her eyes—beautiful, striking, wide—are staring straight at me, and they’re full of concern. It’s as if she knows exactly what kind of bomb is about to blow up in her face, and she’s preparing for the fallout.
9
CARRIE
“See,I told you he was interested,” Mara hisses. I look up without even thinking—it’s an automatic reaction—and there’s Wren Jacobi, sprawled out like King Shit on the leather couch by the windows, pointing right at Mara. Only, from this angle, it kind of looks like he’s pointing atme. The last thing I need is Wren Jacobi aiming a digit at me. My gaze flits to the left, to where Dash is sitting in his regular spot on the floor with his back leaning up against the wall, and for a tense, brief moment, we look right into each other’s eyes.
A distant, frosty expression transforms his face from what Ithinkwas worried to what I’msureis annoyed. Part of me has been hoping that he’ll have miraculously developed short term memory loss and forgotten all about what transpired between us on the hood of Pax’s Charger the other night.
