4. Talon
Talon
I watch her leave the cafe and see Henry shake his head after she leaves. I’ll have to find out exactly what he said to her. He’s been weirder than usual lately.
New girl is going to be a thorn in my side this semester, and I promised Fern I’d be good. We all knew that was a lost cause, but I’ve been trying. A whole semester under my belt, and I haven’t murdered anyone yet for being an imbecile.
Fern is the mother figure I never had growing up. I’ll never admit this to her, but she’s grown on me, and I’d hate to disappoint her. Though, the things I have planned for our newest little sewer trout might just strain that bond a little.
Do I have a reason to hate Cin Morgan? No.
Do I hate her anyway? Yes.
With her ripped sweater that hangs off one shoulder when she moves a certain way, and the leather skirt she wears that barely covers her round ass. I don’t care that she wears those ugly green tights underneath, Ravard isn’t the place for trash like her.
I know her type, mommy marries rich, and suddenly she and her daughter aren’t whores anymore.
Wrong.
Once a gutter slut, always a gutter slut.
If any of the girls my brothers and I have dated–which admittedly is a low number–have taught us anything, we learned the hard way that money talks, and not kindly either.
Do I blame any of the girls who had next to nothing and sought to hook their claws into someone with means? No. Doesn’t mean I trust them though.
Plus, Zach told us everything we needed to know about little Cin. Her slummy mother found her way into his dad’s pockets, and in less than two months, they married.
If she looks anything like her daughter, I can understand the appeal. She is a little taller than average, with prominent shoulders, medium size breasts that the chat was currently betting on size wise. Her stomach isn’t flat, I can tell by the way she carries herself that her torso isn’t lean and trim, but rather long and chubby.
Her thighs are thick, the green material stretched over her like a second skin. Thighs like those mean more trouble.
Reminding me of our first encounter and her being trapped in the elevator.
I want her gone, and I’ll see to it personally.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket I dial my brother's number.
“Yeah,” he answers.
“Are you on campus?”
He sighs, knowing exactly what I’m asking, “I’ll meet you in ten.”
He ends the call and I stand there, watching her walk around the grounds. Something about her feels off, like she’s a walking bomb just waiting to detonate, and I can’t wait around to be impaled by the shrapnel.
I follow her, watching how she sways instead of walks in those combat boots. It shouldn’t look graceful, yet the way her hips swivel with each step makes me wonder just how innocent she is.
She takes the steps at a bounce, her skirt flouncing with each push of her toes. I watch her unlock the girls’ dorm and walk straight to the elevator, ignoring the few girls who’ve trickled in to start the new semester tomorrow.
Spinning on my heel, I walk toward the boys’ dorm to meet my brothers, minus Henry, who won’t be back for another hour or so after closing the campus coffee shop.
After working with Fern for a while at the bakery back home, Henry chose to work at the one here. Not that he needs to, we have everything we could ever want.
The world at our fingertips, if you will.
Banging open our door, I pace to my bed and sit, bouncing my leg against the soft mattress. I need a plan to get her gone.
Coming through the adjoining door running a towel through his hair, Banks chuckles, “new girl really got you riled, huh?”
I cut my eyes to him, ready to explode. He hasn’t seen her yet. He hasn’t felt her hateful brown eyes searing his soul.
Toby comes through the dorm, saving our shit head brother from a verbal beat down.
“You rang?” He drawls.
“She needs to go,” I tell them, eyeing both of them from my seated position, “she doesn’t belong here.”
Toby gawfs, “ we didn’t belong here… until we did.”
He’s referring to the fact that we’ve only been here since the start of our senior year. Our fathers’ decided, collectively, it was time that we finish our high school diploma after Banks’s mom was killed a year ago. Leaving the four of us with just our dads, living in a mansion with Creed, the man who we all consider our uncle.
Even though mine and Toby’s father, Nile, isn’t blood related to Creed, he’s been there since our mom took off. Since she’s been gone, we’ve lived with him, grown up under his thumb, as well as our own father’s. Banks’ dad however, Diego, is our uncle by blood. So technically we’re cousins, but the time we’ve spent as a unit makes us more like brothers.
Henry moved in with his dad, Luca, long before we did. His mom died during childbirth and Luca took it hard. He was a wreck. I remember vague memories of my dad and Creed dragging him into the house while a sleeping Henry lay on Diego’s shoulder more times than I’d like to admit.
Love does strange things to men, people if I’m honest. I want no part of it.
“There’s something off about her.” I stand, shoving Banks out of the way and pushing into his and Henry’s side of the rooms.
We agreed to come here if we could have one room, however, since the rooms are little more than closets, our dads had to improvise. Cutting a doorway between two rooms and splitting us.
Toby and me in one, Henry and Banks in the other.
The setup works nicely enough, even though Banks and Henry keep the liquor on their side. I pour a shot of whiskey into a cheap plastic cup and throw it back. Letting the burn soothe the part of me that wants to do… unsavory things.
“You know nothing about her, except what Zach said,” Toby states, “and that asshole will say just about anything to get to lick yours.”
They laugh together at the insinuation of Zach having a crush on me. I know he’s bisexual, and he knows that I am not. Even though I don’t love women, they do serve a purpose.
“He told us enough to know that she’s a snake's spawn,” I growl.
Toby shrugs, “I don’t know, I kinda like her.”
He smiles and winks at Banks, and I’m not entirely certain it’s not just to get a rise out of me. I think he means it, in the two seconds he spoke to her.
“You have to be kidding me,” I grumble.
Toby walks over to pour his own shot and smacks his hand on my shoulder, “let’s enjoy our last semester, okay?”
“I’m going to find all of her dirty secrets,” I promise, “and when I do, we’re going to bury her so deep in them, she’ll have to claw her way out kicking and screaming.”
Toby’s alarm clock blares from his nightstand, and blares, and blares.
“What the fuck?” I shout. Along with Henry who's saying, “Tobs, turn it off, man.”
Banks could sleep though a fucking hurricane. I can hear his snores through the open door of our conjoined rooms.
I sit up, slamming my fist into the pillow by my legs. Scanning my twins’ bed for him, of-fucking-course. He isn’t here, probably out fucking Gemma and whoever else they let into their bed.
Throwing off the covers, I stomp over to his nightstand and hurl the offending device into the wall. The plastic crashes and crunches against the sheetrock, exploding into shards of useless plastic.
“Damn,” Henry says, leaning on the doorframe with a yawn, “Tobs is gonna be pissed.”
“I swear, if he gets caught in the girls’ dorm again, I’m going to castrate him myself.”
Henry chuckles and wipes a hand down his chin, “Banks told me about your little run in with the new girl.”
Turning to face him, I scowl, sure my face tells him everything he needs to know. The chick had the balls to push me off her and then escape into the waiting elevator. Leaving me stunned and pissed off.
Granted, if someone were touching me without permission, I’d probably react the same way. It was her saving grace then, her free pass.
“Yeah,” I nod, “and what did you tell her, Fancy?”
Henry bristles at the nickname he earned when we were all kids and scoffs, “the truth, I showed her the text thread around campus.”
I huff out a breath, of course he did. He’s always had a soft heart, especially for strays.
“I’m gonna shower.”
Stomping into the bathroom Toby and I share, I slam the cabinet after pulling down a fresh towel. Turning the knob in the shower to icy cold, I step in and enjoy the way it feels like ice pelting my skin.
The sting reminds me that I’m in control, that I can choose to stay in the cold water, and suffer. Or that I can simply turn the knob to bask in the warmth of a more comfortable shower.
Perspective.
Choice.
Control.
Another reason I contacted Creed’s brother, Mack, yesterday. I needed to know everything I could about the new girl. Of course, I knew her name, but Cin doesn’t have the same quality to it as, “New Girl”.
The same gravity. I don’t want anyone calling her by her name, taking it away is just the start. I’ll have her gone in two weeks, tops.