The metalhead disappeared, then I saw him at the buffet piling his plate and shooting a sinister, warning glare at anyone who approached. Peculiar guy. Quite fascinating, though. Before I sat down to talk to Mila, I looked around the hall for the Warwicks and felt relieved when I couldn’t see them.
“Hi Adina, I mean, Addie,” Mila said so sweetly, and immediately I noticed the dried blood cuts on her lips, and guilt scoured my body.
“Hi Mila, gosh, they look sore,” I said, genuinely concerned. “Can you eat with them?”
“Yeah, but they kept cracking and bleeding,” she replied, placing her fingers over the cuts and blushing in embarrassment.
“God, I’m so sorry,” I said again, ignoring the looks from her friends as the room grew even more suffocating. “If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.”
She waved her hand dismissively, not wanting to turn it into a big deal, but I suspected that it was her protective friends who were pulling the strings.
Um, well, when I told my parents… Oh no, she told her parents, the Wolseys. Guilt stirred, even making me feel sick. They suggested we should sue the faculty because everyone received cupcakes as their welcome gift for the new term, but there weren’t any other cases of anyone finding metal or whatever in them, and—
The blonde girl interrupted, the one who seemed the most aggrieved about my presence. She was making a non-verbal statement about me sitting at their table. It was wise to find out her name and where she lived because she might become a problem. “Why would a cupcake bakery need razor blades?” She shot me an accusing look, looking her nose down at me, “Seems like a setup to me.”
I nodded in agreement, “If it was a setup, then the razorblade was meant for me since it was in my cupcake,” I educated her.
“It was me who suggested we swap,” Mila added to stick up for me, but the blond girl didn’t believe me. “I already told you.”
I exhaled and shot the blond my most sinister scowl before I announced, “I need a coffee,” and walked away from the table, imagining them gossiping about me, but I didn’t want to look back to confirm my hunch.
Once at the buffet table, I looked around the hall again for the metalhead because I’d rather have him for company than Mila’s friends. I accidentally locked eyes with a handsome guy whose bright blue eyes were fixed on me with curiosity. Turning my back to him, I grabbed a black coffee, which I don’t usually like, but I needed a good caffeine boost to get through the rest of the day, and a slice of toast with strawberry jelly.
When I glanced back at the blond guy, he was still looking my way, just like the other guys with him. Naturally, I lookedbehind me to see if they were staring at someone behind me or just gazing at the buffet table, maybe thinking about filling their plates again. Yeah, that’s it, they’re drooling over the buffet.
Gosh, he was very handsome, though. Like cleaner and more polished than the Warwick pricks, like his mama brought him up correctly.
Reluctantly, I sat back down at Mila’s table, even though I’d rather be anywhere else. But I needed to ask her about the Warwicks because she had an inside source with her older sister in the ‘popular jocks club.’
They huddled together whispering, and immediately stopped when I arrived, pretending I hadn’t noticed. “So, Mila,” I started, glancing back at the blond guy’s table, and he was still watching me. I was tempted to take my cap off so he could see my face clearly, but I didn’t want to look like a jerk if I was wrong about him. “Do you know where the Warwicks live on campus?”
“Why?” the blond girl snarled.
I turned to her, staring her down because she was pissing me off. “Got a name?” I asked her.
“Sorry,” Mila stated bashfully, “I’m so rude I hadn’t introduced you. This is my old buddies from music class. Erin,” she pointed to the brunette, “and Carrie,” the mean girl blond.
“Carrie?” I repeated, “Like the Stephen King novel?”
She rolled her eyes. “Wow, we’ve got an original one here.”
“No, but, seriously, were you named after the Carrie character?” I asked to clarify, as it was annoying her.
“No. I was named after my grandmother,” she spat.
“Cool story,” I stated, then turned my attention back to Mila. “The Warwicks. Where do they live?”
She pointed skyward. “The Lud. On the hills.”
She was speaking in tongues to me. Okay, I understood what 'on the hills' meant, but which hill? Hills surround us. And what did 'The Lud' mean?
I was about to ask her for more information when the girls at the table's eyes widened as someone approached us. “Adina?” a man’s voice called, and I really wanted it to be the metalhead, but no, it was the blond guy. “Adina Boelyn?”
I swallowed over a lump in my throat. How did he know my name, and gosh, he’s far too handsome to be standing next to me. “Yeah,” I admitted precariously as my cheeks burned. Damn.
“Huh,” he grunted, nodding his head. “I thought so. We were waging a bet.” I looked back at the table he came from, and all the guys were watching curiously. Jeez, was there a Swedish man-making factory around here?
"What... er... and you are?” I exclaimed, feeling as if I was being left out of the little secret. Mila and the other two seemed to know who he was based on their expressions. Was he famous or something? A movie star or TikTok influencer?
