“Fine, what?”
“Be in the library during study period today, and I’ll figure out if I can even help you.”
“You’re an angel, you know that? A real saint.” I blow him an air kiss as I stand up to leave, and I swear I see the steam coming out his ears.
* * *
Noahand I share a study period. The library isn’t far from the bathroom where I eat my lunch, so I arrive early and spread my books over a table in the corner to save it for us. Not that any other students would consider sitting with me.
I’m reading my battered copy of Caesar’sThe Conquest of Gaulwhen Noah drops into the chair opposite me. He runs fingers through his dark, wavy hair. At first glance, he’s calm, but I sense just underneath a storm is brewing.
A dark thrill runs through my veins as he looks me over, and that darkness in his eyes flares to life. Underneath that prep-school facade, Noah Marlowe is dangerous. And Jupiter help me, but I do love the bad boys. It’s in my blood.
“All the other tutors in the program are booked solid,” he growls. “So I’m stuck with you. Don’t waste my time, and don’t try to be cute. I’m here to help you pass, and that’s it.”
“Deal.” I lick my lower lip.
“Show me your last assignments. That’ll give me an idea of what I’m working with.”
I pull my history essay from my folder and hold it out to him. Noah stares at it, letting my hand hang outstretched between us.He can’t even bear to risk our hands touching. I drop it on the table, and he slides it toward him with one finger, as if it’s infected.
Noah holds the pages right at the edge, his eyes flicking across the text. That same nervous dance I felt when Ms. Drysdale handed back my paper starts up in my gut again. I want this guy to think I’m smart and clever and interesting, and that’s profoundly fucked up given everything I know and my situation.
When he’s done, Noah tosses the paper back to me. “This is shit.”
“You’re not a very good teacher. Aren’t you supposed to be encouraging me to be all that I can be?” I flash him a fake candy cane smile.
“Why are you here?” he growls.
“Because I know that essay’s shit. But I don’t know why.” I shrug. “Because I need to pass senior year.”
“No, I mean, why are you here at Stonehurst? Did you come here deliberately to fuck with me? Destroying my family wasn’t enough for you? Running away to hide for four years so you didn’t have to face what you did?” Noah’s words drip with venom. He slams his fists on the table. “You had to come tomyschool and fake being stupid just so I’m forced to tutor you.”
“I’m not faking anything.” A lie, but he doesn’t need to know that.
Noah spits on my essay. The glob of saliva lands on the large F scrawled at the top, making the letter appear bulbous and wobbly. “That essay is so comically terrible it canonlybe fake. It reads like you’ve never written an essay in your life. But I’ve been at school with Mackenzie Malloy since I could walk. I know she’s a cold, calculating, clever bitch. Andthis,” he gestures to the papers, “is just another one of her attempts to manipulate me.”
“That’s not what’s happening here.” I long to tell him the truth, that I haven’t been in school since I was thirteen, that I thought all the books I’ve read would help me muddle through this year, but now I see school isn’t about knowing the information but presenting it in a certain way that’s completely alien to me, and I’m freaking out that my inability to craft an essay is going to be my downfall in a horrible and bloody way.
“My brother isdead.My mother killed herself because of what your family did, and you still think all you have to do is bat your eyelashes and the world will fall down to worship you. That shit may work on Eli and Gabe, but not with me.” Noah stands up. “I don’t need this. We’re done.”
“You haven’t tutored me!”
“If you flunk out, I’ll be doing this school a favor.” Noah’s eyes blaze with triumph. “Goodbye, Mackenzie. Have fun failing. I hope this is the last time I have to endure your presence.”
19
Mackenzie
My days at Stonehurst Prep fade together into a torrent of misery. When I first sent in my faked transcripts and signed the enrollment forms, I prepared myself to be ignored. Years living alone in that house of secrets will do that to you. Hell, I built myself a mega-bitch Ice Queen persona to keep the peons away. But I knew now I couldn’t fade into the background – the whispers, the leering looks from the guys, the notes left on my locker describing cruel sexual acts, the Photoshopped pornography tacked to every noticeboard and saved to every lockscreen is only the beginning.Mackenzie Malloy is made of shadows and secrets. She doesn’t fit. We have to destroy her.
Alec LeMarque’s eyes follow me everywhere, devouring my body in a way that makes me squirm. He’s not finished with me yet.
But not even he is as terrifying as Noah – the dark-haired god whose hatred could carve out my heart and pound it to rubble. Loathing rolls off his body in waves, threatening to sweep me away. Hatred like that can be intoxicating – I know, because I already had a gallon of it surging through my bloodstream.
I’ve only seen George once since we ate our lunch together under the bleachers. She was heading down the hall toward the Art suite. I waved and called out to her, but either she didn’t hear me or the wrathful gaze of Noah and Alec as they headed the other way silenced her. She slammed her locker and ran the other way.
That hurt more than I’ll ever admit. I lost a friend before I even knew what one was.
