Page 51 of Riot Act
“Jesus. Why are you so mad at me?”
Her eyes double in size. “Really?” She throws down the paper napkin she’s been holding onto her plate. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
The words Wren said to me in my bedroom echo back to me, making me feel…whoa. I actually feel a little uncomfortable right now. That hasn’t happened in, well…ever. I cant my head over to one side, arching an eyebrow at her. “Is this because I didn’t remember nearly fucking you in the forest? Because whiskey does really bad shit to my—”
“Oh my God, Pax! Just fuckingleave me alone!”She rockets out of her chair so fast that the thing falls back and crashes to the floor with a loud bang. Every single student in the dining hall stops what they’re doing and spins around to look at her. Andme.
Chase stands, rooted to the spot, breathing hard, her chest rising and falling. Looking up at her, I don’t see the quiet girl who was always hiding anymore. I don’t even see the blood splattered girl who tried to end her own life. I see something come to life. Something new, and fierce, and feral. Back this new version of Chase into a corner and she won’t curl up and die. She’ll claw your fucking face off.
I laugh softly under my breath.
Her hands ball into tight fists at her sides.“What?”she snaps.
I pick up my burrito and slowly stand. “What changed?”
Her jaw works, and works some more, her eyes flashing with tempered steel. She doesn’t ask me to expand on the question; she already knows what I’m referring to, and right now she’s figuring out if she wants to justify the question with an answer. Half of the students in the dining hall turn back to their meals and their conversations, likely bored. The other half remain glued to the situation, waiting with bated breath to see what comes of this tense Mexican stand-off.
After too long, Chase’s nostrils flare. “I was falling,” she said. “Always. I was falling, and the fear of it happening, while it was happening, crushed me.”
“And then?”
She looks me dead in the eye. “I hit rock bottom. There was nowhere else to fall.”
“So now you’re fearless.”
She shakes her head. “No. Now I just don’t care.”
I glare at her, riding out the storm of electricity snapping between us. “I take back what I said. I don’t want you coming to the house again.”
She gives me the strangest, blankest look. “You sure about that?”
“Yes, I’m sure. You’re a psycho. Why would I wanna screw someone who might hurl herself out of the bedroom window if I say I don’t wanna fuck her anymore? Better to nip this in the bud now. What would your friends say if they knew the truth? I’m assuming you still haven’t told them yet?”
Her face blanks out even harder. I think, no, IknowI’ve struck a nerve with her. I see her detaching even further from the situation. I see the resolve she was speaking with just now falter and crack a little. I could absolutely scare this girl if I wanted to. I could make her care about the fall again and she knows it.
“You swore you wouldn’t say anything.”
“And I haven’t.Yet.”
With the fire dwindling in her eyes, she steps away from the table. “You’re the one who fucked me in the first place, Pax.”
She’s right. Iwasthe one who provoked her into coming into my room. And I was the one who instigated sex between us. That doesn’t mean she gets to sass me like this. She doesn’t get to think she’s invincible, just because I resuscitated her and then stuck my dick in her afterwards. I flare my nostrils, eyes drilling into her as she backs away.“Do not fucking test me, Chase.”
20
PAX
“Heard you had a run-in with Presley today.”
Dash is cooking eggs. The kitchen smells like butter, chives, and toast. Somewhere upstairs, Wren is painting his next masterpiece. I figured, since he fell in love with Elodie and got all fuckinghappyon us (or as happy as Wren Jacobi ever gets), his work would change to reflect the shift in his life. His art is still as turbulent and dark as ever, though. The moody blues, black, white and greys still slash and swirl together to create what I’ve always thought to be depictions of the end of the fucking world.
I dig my thumbnail into the side of my index finger, pressing until the pain registers. “You know me. I could get into a fight with a brick wall.”
Once upon a time, Dash used to concoct the most reprehensible plans to fuck with the girls at the academy. He could look at a girl across a hallway and make her shrink down to half her size with nothing more than a cold, assessing glare and a narrowing of his eyes. As a distant member of the English royal family, he was born with the God-given ability to look at someone and make them feel worthless. Now thathe’swith Carina, after a long stint of pining and denying his feelings, he doesn’t even have the time to look anymore. He only sees Mendoza.
Raising his eyebrows, he stirs his eggs; there’s something just plain wrong about Lord Dashiell Lovett IV being so domesticated. “She pissed you off?” he asks.
“Hell yes, she pissed me off.”
