Chapter 32 – Clover
Chapter Thirty-Two
Clover
“This is bullshit!” I yell, kicking the wall outside the dean’s office and repeating the very words that got both of us thrown out. Thomas sighs and sticks his hands in his pockets.
“Does kicking things normally help?”
I am so not in the mood for his ass. I only have a few minutes until dance practice and the dean refuses to help. We only got a meeting after classes and even then, the damn dean shows us the door in under five minutes flat. That has to be a world record for incompetence.
Apparently, the emails don’t originate from a school computer, so there’s “nothing that can be done”.
The dean actually recommends without a hint of irony that Thomas Bainbridge’s family hire a security detail.
For both of us. I would rather die than have a pair of Bainbridge lackeys following my every move around campus.
I’ll take my chance with that weird ass cricket bat and my knife game.
Maybe I can even practice on Thomas, who is really getting on my nerves right now.
“Why aren’t you upset?” I snap at him, even if I’m pretty sure this is just the easiest outlet for my rage.
“No point.”
“No point?! Someone tried to kill me.”
For someone who barely lets me sleep in my room without creepily watching over me, I find Thomas’ calm unnerving and extremely irritating.
“I’m planning. Not losing my cool.”
“You can do both, Thomas.”
“My dad could have security out here but… I don’t want to explain it to him. He watches how we use our money. Closely.”
“I don’t need a damn security team. We nearly caught that bitch once, we’ll do it again.”
“Okay.”
He’s so infuriatingly quiet sometimes. I glance at his face to see if he has any further contributions than his one word answers.
I hate looking at Thomas. He’s far too attractive for a guy who gets on my nerves this much and whenever I look at his annoyingly hot face, my eyes can’t help but darting to his lips.
How does a white guy have lips so sweet and rosy? Ugh.
Finally my staring provokes a complete sentence.
“You’ll be alright during dance practice. I’ll meet up with you after.”
“Are you crazy? So we can field questions from everybody we know?”
“What do you want then?”
“We can meet at the library. I guess. That would be safest.”
“Embarrassed to be seen with me?” He asks.
I fold my arms and tilt my head to the side.
Yes, I am. Haven’t I told his ass that more than a few times?
Thomas publicly humiliated me and then confessed to me that he’d done worse than that in the past too.
I don’t want people knowing that I associate with him.
I definitely don’t want people to know that someone is blackmailing both of us.
Our search for someone with a stab wound or a slash today proved completely fruitless. Everyone wears long sleeves and no one in either of our classes or in the halls looked the slightest bit hurt.
“Will you be okay on your own?” He asks, his voice sounding genuinely sweet.
I try my best not to respond with the abrasiveness of a porcupine fighting a pitbull.
“Yes. I’ll be fine.”
“Guess that wasn’t our last breakfast then.”
“Um. I’ll be eating in the dining hall from now on.”
It’s in my best interest to stay far away from Thomas as much as possible.
Clearly this blackmailer doesn’t want us working together or interacting with each other.
But doesn’t this person get it? The more you try to push people apart, the more they fall together.
The last thing I want to do is to fall into a friendship with Thomas.
“We’ll need to plan in secret. Off-campus is the best place to do it.”
“I’m not getting in a car with you again, crazy ass driver.”
Thomas grins. “I’ll let you drive then.”
I raise my eyebrows but don’t release my stance.
“Are you joking?”
“Nope,” he says, reaching into his sweatpants pocket for a spare key. He unhooks it from his key ring and hands it to me.
“Why are you trusting me with this?”
“Because, Clover Robinson,” he says. “Unlike me, you’re trustworthy. I’ll leave you to it then.”
“Yeah. Whatever. Thanks.”
I stick the keys into my pocket and watch Thomas walk away from me. He has this annoying, cocky strut when he walks that makes his ass look incredible. Not like I would normally look at his ass. He’s walking away from me and it’s instinct, that’s all.
Unfortunately, I’m not left alone outside the dean’s office for long.
Kit Barclay and Jude Fox turn into the hallway from the opposite direction that Thomas just left in.
Shit. I sit on the bench outside the dean’s office and stick my headphones in, pretending to be thoroughly preoccupied with my cellphone.
My heart races as I wonder if either of them could be the blackmailer.
They’re both tall — really tall. Whoever I fought on the dance studio floor wasn’t anywhere near their size.
That would be the easy answer, wouldn’t it? Jude Fox.
My phone finally buzzes with a sweet sweet notification so my fake preoccupation turns into a real one.
Sylvia: SOS - dance studio.
I still have a while until practice, but if it’s an SOS, I gotta get the heck out of here.
I glance up from my phone and unfortunately, the two dingbats I’m trying to avoid hover over my bench and they aren’t going into the dean’s office.
They would both be complete idiots to try anything right outside the dean’s office, so I’m not afraid to get bold.
“What do you want?” I snap.
I don’t know what demonic entity decided that Kit Barclay and Jude Fox needed to attend the same school. Kit sticks his hands into his pockets, but Jude just leans back and plucks a cigarette from behind his ear, sticking it between his lips.
“Will you come over tonight?” Kit asks.
“Excuse me?”
“Do us both, babe,” Jude asks. “Give us a shot.”
Okay. I strongly regret sleeping with Jude Fox and the almost-sex I had with Kit doesn’t count. The audacity that these two have to stand up out here and… you know what?
“I would rather drink a vial of dog blood.”
“Kinky,” Jude says. “I can do that for you.”
Why don’t I always have a weapon?
“Shut up, Jude,” Kit says. “We’re only joking. I wanted to ask you about Halloween.”
I roll my eyes. Halloween. That was the worst time of the year for the channel. My mom always chose the weirdest costumes for me. When I was six, she had me dress up as the Playboy bunny. Things did not get better.
“I don’t care about a dumb kid’s holiday.”
“That’s too bad. I wanted you to DJ.”
“Huh?”
“You and your dance girls. I already asked Kola. She said yes.”
“Since when do you talk to Kola?” I snap at Kit. Kola’s never mentioned him and honestly, I need to make a mental note to her not to touch him with a ten foot pole. In fact, no one should touch Kit Barclay with anything other than a taser.
“I’m not doing it without Sylvia.”
“She said ‘yes’ too,” Jude offers. My eyes narrow suspiciously. I don’t know if I trust either of them and I let them know as much. Then, I see the proof. Damn it, guys… What the hell were they thinking? Maybe that’s what Sylvia’s SOS was about. Ugh.
To get rid of them fast, I agree to DJ too, but only because my friends made a promise. I have to wonder… why the hell did they do that?! Ugh.
“Is that all you want?” I snap, hating that they’re still standing so close to me and purposefully leaning forward so their crotches sit right at my eye level.
“I want to wank into your mouth,” Kit says. “But you seem busy.”
“Kill yourself, Kit.”
“Tried and failed, babe,” Kit responds with a wink. I seriously hope he’s joking.
“Later, Clover,” Jude says, in a shockingly more polite goodbye.
See you assholes never.
I need to get to rehearsal and find out what the hell my friends were thinking agreeing to this mess…
Are they getting blackmailed too?
* * *