Patrick is my guess. He drove her home. I wonder if he set her up to have some fun at my expense. I hope not. It’ll damage her a lot more than it will either of us.
“What do you want?”
“I…?” She swallows and frowns up at me. Without her heels, she’s a full foot shorter. The disparity makes me feel like a giant. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Why did you turn up today?”
If it’s an attempt to drive a wedge between me and Kari, good luck. We’re already standing so far apart that you could throw a thousand-year-old kauri tree trunk between us and never touch the sides.
Maybe it’s to piss off Dad. Never in the best mood, he hadn’t appreciated my date last night. I imagine his face if I bought her home again and have to bite my lips to hide the smile.
It would go down like a cup of cold sick. A delicious treat from my viewpoint but he’d make me pay.
Properly, too. Not like last night’s ten minutes of yelling and posturing before he dismissed me from his sight like I’m a two-year-old child.
George stares regretfully at the floor, lower lip pouting so it looks fatter than her top lip even though the reverse is true.
I remember the sensation of it between my teeth, the way it swelled afterwards like she’d been stung. The skin so thin, I could taste the blood flowing beneath the surface.
Reachingout, I hold her chin and rub my thumb over her lower lip until she pulls away, ducking her head down again to stare at the floor.
“George,” I say in my softest voice. “Why are you here?”
“I told you.” She folds her arms tightly over her chest. “This is my school, too.”
Cameron Wallis, from my English class, chooses that moment to waltz by.
“Hey,” I call out to him, flicking two fingers to gesture him closer. “You recognise this girl?”
His gaze flicks from me to George then back to me again, and he gives a tentative nod. “Yeah. Georgina, isn’t it? She’s in my history class.”
“Thisgirl?”
He nods again, the hesitation more evident this time. Convincing me far more easily that he’s right.
Which brings up some new questions. Such as if she’s not paying who is?
“How the fuck can you afford—?” I break off as the pieces fit together. “You got the golden ticket.” The nickname for the singular scholarship the school awards each year.
She whispers, “Yes,” as though my statement was a question.
Cameron looks nervous, switching his weight from one foot to the other. “You two know each other?”
“That’ll be all.” I wave him away, not breaking my concentration on George for a second. He leaves immediately, footsteps pounding as he runs along the hall. “Why have I never seen you here before?”
She gives a cute little snort, tossing her head back so her hair falls away from her eyes. “Because you don’t pay any attention to the plebs?”
My smile pays a visit again. “Sounds about right. You been going here long?”
“Three months give or take.” She shuffles her feet. “We were up in Auckland before that.”
“Under what name?”
Her hand flutters up to rub at her forehead as she clenches her shoulders in what barely counts as a shrug. “Does it matter?”
“Only if you’re trying to kill my father.”
“Ah.” She scrunches her nose. “Where do I join the queue for that?”
