“I—” Bellamy stared back, wide eyed. She cleared her throat and stood up, smoothing over her skirt and she took a shaky breath. “You deserved it.”
Vesper scoffed. “Which part?” Bellamy raised her hand, looking like she might try to hit her again, but Vesper reached out and snatched her wrist. “Why don’t you go back to your side and cool off before I do something you’ll regret.”
Bellamy bit her lip. “You gonna punish me?” She batted her eyelashes and looked down at Vesper like she wanted to eat her. Vesper was going to get fucking whiplash from Bel’s mood shifts.
She shook her head. “I’m not doing this with you. Go sitdown, Bellamy,” Vesper ordered, her voice stern and unwavering. She released Bellamy’s arm and sat back in her seat, watching Bellamy intently. Vesper was absolutely not dealing with this shit.
Bellamy sucked in a sharp breath and Vesper picked up her book, not looking away until Bellamy stalked back over to her side of the trolley and flopped down on the bench.Good girl.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Vesper
“Wanna fight?” Bellamy asked suddenly. Her voice broke the comfortable silence surrounding them and startled Vesper out of the section she’d been reading about interior trolley enlargement magic, a technical branch of Design—anyway, it had been fascinating.
“What?”
“It’s been half a day and we’ve barely moved. We’re stuck in this trolley for another full day. We need to do something.”
Vesper considered for a minute. Fighting usually did not lead anywhere good for them. “Could stretch instead,” she offered. After Bel’s mood this morning, Vesper wasn’t sure if she wanted to touch her at all.
“I wanna fight.”
Vesper laughed. “You’re still upset about the fruit bars.” Bellamy had discovered those about an hour ago. Vesper was thankful she’d calmed down from her tantrum that morning because all she’d done was launched the bar at Vesper’s head and called her a cunt.
“Are we gonna fight or not?” Bellamy snapped. Vesper tried not to smile. She was definitely still sore about the fruit bars then.Vesper straightened up and cracked her neck—shewasstiff from sitting for so long anyway. What’s the worst that could happen?
“Yeah, let’s go.”
For the first time since they’d boarded their trolley, Bellamy smiled. Vesper immediately regretted her agreement. This was a genuine, predatory smile, like Vesper was her prey and had just fallen right into her fucking trap.
Vesper was hesitant at first—it had been a while since they’d sparred together—but when they squared up and got in position, everything fell right back into place. Almost like they’d never fallen out, like nothing had changed between them.
Then, Bellamy sucker punched Vesper in the face, and she remembered that Bellamy was still a bitch who’d ruined their lives with no remorse. The tangy, rich iron filled her mouth, and she wiped her face on her shirt. Bellamy, at least, had the decency to look vaguely apologetic, grimacing and waiting for Vesper to react.
“Fuck you,” Vesper spat and lunged, taking Bellamy by surprise and knocking her over. They rolled around on the ground for a minute, scrambling and hair pulling like they were back in training and not highly-skilled assassins. Vesper pinned Bellamy as she struggled against her, until Bellamy suddenly released her grip on Vesper’s arms, a pained expression crossing her face.
“Ow,fuckfuckfuckstop. Stop!” Bellamy tried to grab her leg, wincing. She squirmed until Vesper shifted off and sat back. She watched Bellamy attempt to massage the back of her thigh. Her hair was unruly and unkempt, and a small bruise was forming above her left eye. Her winged eyeliner was slightly smudged at the edges, and several bright red prints from fingertips bloomed on her arms and shoulders.
Vesper wasn’t sure she was faring much better herself. It was possible they both had a little more pent up anger than she’d realized. She ran a hand through her hair and washed up in thelittle bathroom, wiping the blood off her face and assessing herself in the mirror for visible bruises.
Bellamy was still on the floor when Vesper came back out and rolled her eyes. “Stop being such a baby.”
Bellamy glared at her. “You’d still be down, too, if you had this cramp. Help me stretch it out.”
“Please?”
“Please,” Bellamy whined, laying flat on her back and sticking the offending leg in the air. Vesper sighed and knelt in front of her, pushing the leg back toward Bellamy’s body until Bel hissed in discomfort. Staring at the blank wall in front of her, Vesper refused to look at Bellamy. She tried not to think of how soft Bellamy’s skin was under her rough hands.
“Might not get cramps if you didn’t hate the fruit bars so much,” Vesper said, pushing her leg a tiny bit further down.
“Fuck you,” Bellamy gritted out, her jaw clenched like she might actually be in pain. Vesper didn’t believe it for a second. Still, she couldn’t help but look down. Her smirk immediately fell. Bellamy’s hands were balled up, she was grimacing, and her eyes were squeezed shut, but that wasn’t what made Vesper falter.
Bellamy’s skirt had ridden up, and Vesper’s knee was only inches away from her now exposed underwear. She swallowed and snapped her gaze back to the wall, feeling much less goading. Leaning further into Bellamy’s leg, Vesper tried to get away from the horrible thoughts invading her brain. The ones that reminded her that she knew exactly how flexible Bellamy was. The ones that told her if she hadn’t made that stupid bet, they’d be doing something very different right now.
“Really phoning it in there, Bel,” Vesper murmured when Bellamy whimpered.
“Am not. Fuckin’ hurts.”
