Chapter 3
THREE
“Can you see it?”
I turn to face Grace and Avalon, and in sync, they tilt their heads to the side, eyes narrowed. My fingers touch the silk scarf around my neck a little, trying my best to cover the nasty bruise.
“No, you’re all good,” Grace nods.
The bruise is in a deep purple and blue shade, with dark, green hues all around it. Soren’s fingerprints are all over my neck and throat, and even the print of his palm. The motherfucker got me good.
“I don’t get why you won’t report it,” Avalon sighs, leaning further against the headpost. She’s on her bed, with Grace sprawled next to her. “He’ll get in trouble, and something like this is actually a good reason to expel him.”
“Because that means I won’t be able to get my sweet revenge on him.”
Avalon groans, and buries her face in the pillow. “You’re nuts,” she mutters, voice muffled by the pillow.
“Don’t listen to her,” Grace grins. “I’m all for getting even. Matter of fact, do something worse.”
I quirk a brow. “Any ideas?”
Grace bites the inside of her cheek. “Well, not at the moment, no. But if the rumour about the affair between him and the professor is proven to be correct, you can always use that.”
“Oh, I will,” I respond immediately. “I’m just waiting for some sort of confirmation on that front.”
“You’ll get it soon,” Grace leans back, laying on Avalon’s lap. “You know what tonight is, right?”
I frown. “Friday?”
She rolls her eyes. “Duh. But not that, the first round of exams is over. With the whole ‘Sophia cheated’ ordeal, the professors didn’t get their little break. Meaning, tonight, they’ll be all in the pub, in the next town over.”
“Isn’t that against the rules? I mean, there should be at least one or two of them around.”
Avalon snorts, looking up from the pillow and tossing it aside. “You need to let loose a little. Is it against the rules? Yes. Do the professors care? No. Neither should you. So, while they’re busy getting hammered, juniors and seniors prepared a little get-together.”
“Where?”
“The library. We just have to sneak past the dorm supervisors.”
I shrug. “Their shift changes at nine-thirty. The halls are deserted for twenty minutes every night. There’s the window of opportunity.”
Grace squeals. “Oh, I just keep loving you more and more! Aiden’s got the booze, and some of the juniors will be bringing snacks.”
“Wait — Aiden?!”
She offers an apologetic smile. “We can’t exactly exclude him, can we?”
“No,” I sigh, glancing back at myself in the mirror. The scarf around my neck serves as a reminder of what Soren did to me, and the more I think about it, the angrier I get. He caught me off guard once, and it will never happen again. “Wherever Aiden is, Soren is too.”
“And where those two are, Kenzo is, too.”
I chuckle. “Still on terrible terms with him?”
“He’s absolutely insufferable,” Grace scoffs. “But never mind that, there’s going to be quite a few people there, so we should be able to avoid them.”
“Does that mean Cassia will be there, too?” Avalon asks, her brow twitching a little.
“Probably,” Grace hums. “You two should really stop letting the bitch get to you. She feeds off the attention you give her.”
Avalon and I have a matching expression — pure annoyance.
Cassia is in our year, and I had the misfortune of meeting her back in high school.
She also happens to be the first girlfriend Soren ever had, and she’s either busy trying to win him back or trying to make my life miserable, and Avalon’s by default.
“She has a very punchable face,” Avalon points out. “Though, I’ll never find out how good it would feel to knock her teeth out because I’d definitely get expelled. The little bitch pulls strings, and she would make sure of it.”
“Maybe we’ll luck out, and she’ll cling to Soren instead of bothering us.”
“I sure hope so,” Avalon scoffs. “Because I can’t handle seeing her face.”
“Hey, Avalon,” I sit on my bed across from the two of them. “Your earring is missing.”
Immediately, Avalon reaches up to touch her ears. Immediately, a look of realization dawns on her, and she springs out of bed, rushing toward the mirror. Her left one is intact, but the right one is missing.
“Oh, no, no, no,” she mutters, eyes widening.
“Don’t worry, it’s just an earring.”
She turns to look at me with a panicked expression. “It was a gift from you!”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“It is! I planned to pawn these off.”
“Pardon?”
She smiles sheepishly. “I mean, if I ever got in such a terrible financial situation that I’d ever need money, you know?”
I snort. “Do you remember where you saw it last?”
Avalon shakes her head. “No, I haven’t noticed it missing at all.”
For a moment, I debate whether or not to tell her where her other earring is. However, I decide against it. I need to make sure my theory’s true before bringing it up with her because out of all the people in this school, I never thought it would be Avalon banging the Dean.
I mean, good for her, the man’s delicious-looking.
With a groan, Avalon slumps back into the bed, a worried expression on her face.
Grace stretches, her shirt rising. Her entire stomach is covered in ink, in different colors.
She looks so good that I can’t help but be a bit envious of the freedom she’s found and the way she’s expressing herself.
In comparison, I’m as bland as they come.
“Never mind that,” Grace interjects, sitting up. “We should start getting ready. I’ll go to my dorm quickly, and heads up, Lila might be joining us, too.”
I smile. “That’s okay. I like her.”
Grace lifts a brow. “You do?”
Lila is Grace’s roommate this year, as the one from previous years has suddenly dropped out.
Lila’s rather shy, and she’s struggling to fit in with Grace, because no matter how much I love Grace, she can be quite the menace sometimes, and unless you know how to handle her, it can be a hassle to be around her.
“She’s quiet, but she did ask me to tutor her at the beginning of the year. She’s smart, just very lazy.”
Grace narrows her eyes. “You actually tutored someone? We’re in university, not high school.”
“Yes,” I drawl out. “But she needed help, so I helped. What’s the issue?”
“The issue isn’t that she asked,” Avalon quips. “The issue is that you actually said yes.”
A frown etches on my face. “What’s so weird about that?”
Avalon and Grace exchange a look, and it lasts for a few seconds before they look back at me. The silence is starting to irritate me, and I cross my arms, waiting for an answer.
“How do we say this…” Avalon chuckles, avoiding my eyes all of a sudden. “You can be quite a bitch.”
“Pardon?”
“Well,” Grace clears her throat. “Just remember, we love you for who you are, okay? But remember back in our first year, when Owen asked to borrow your notes because he was sick for a week and didn’t attend class? Yeah, you went off on him. The poor guy looked like he was about to cry.”
“Wait — who?”
“And that’s precisely what we’re talking about, Soph,” Avalon winces. “You’re terrible with people unless it’s your people.”
“Am I that terrible of a person?”
“Yes,” Grace says.
“No,” Avalon whacks the back of Grace’s head, but she remains unfazed.
“Really? I’m that terrible?”
“You just don’t understand the concept of the world not revolving around you sometimes.”
“My world revolves around me,” I shrug. “I don’t care about anyone else’s, though.”
“She’s a lost cause,” Grace mutters, and Avalon smacks her again.
“Look, you just need to work on your people skills. And you need to get some anger management, because you’re a ticking time bomb.”
“Okay, I feel like you’re just attacking me right now.”
Grace groans, then stands up. She stretches, lifting her arms above her head, and yawning a little. “Alright, I’m off to take a nap, then get ready. What time should we meet, and where?”
“The stairs, nine-thirty sharp?” Avalon offers.
“Alright, we’ll be ready. See you there, and dress slutty!”
◆◆◆
The party’s in full swing by the time the four of us successfully sneak past the dorm supervisor and leave the girls’ dormitory undetected.
All juniors and seniors are scattered throughout the massive library; drinking, eating, and chatting with one another.
The music isn’t blasting as loudly as one would think for a party, simply because we don’t want anyone to notice.
I’m sitting on the floor, with a small cushion under my ass to keep me from getting cold. I’m careful how I position my legs, because I was stupid enough to wear a tight mini-skirt, meaning, one wrong move, and I’ll flash everyone here. Currently, it’s a circle of ten people.
Grace, a handful of juniors whose names I don’t care to know, Kenzo, Damien — another one of the people in our year, myself, and Lila.
We’re playing poker, and instead of betting money, we’re doing dares.
The person who wins dares the losers to do anything, and they have to do it without a second thought.
Poker’s always been my strongest game, simply because I can bluff extremely well, and this is the only game I allow myself to cheat at. It’s not difficult once you figure out how good or bad your opponents are, and my biggest concern at the moment would be Kenzo.
If he were in the same major as Soren and me, he’d definitely be at the top of the class. Luckily for me, I don’t have to fight for the first spot with this one, too. Soren and I are taking economics, with a minor in business management, whereas Kenzo is in IT.
It pains my ego to admit it, but he’s really intelligent. He’s the quiet, reserved type, and likes to do art in his spare time. From what I’ve gathered from Grace — her arch nemesis, for whatever reason — he’s currently doing portraits, and looking for a nude model.