The bell rings and I’m startled out of my thoughts, surprised the time sped past so quickly. I hook a right, grabbing my phone from Seb, curling my lip at him before I spin on my heel and march out of the class.
Ostracism. Some light teasing.
Probably nothing I’ll ever put into practice, but knowing Icouldis enough to restore some calm.
I’m smiling when I walk across to greet Rowena. “Sorry about my freakout earlier,” I say. “Just… I don’t know how to tell you this, but I hooked up with someone at Tarryn’s party, and…”
She groans and lets her head slump backwards, raising a fist at the sky. “Why? Why are all the good ones taken?”
The overacting makes me laugh, winding me back to normal. “Believe me, you can have him back if you want him,” I sputter, shaking my head. “It wasn’t worth the ten minutes. Besides, I freed up Joseph for you, remember? Didn’t you once grumble about there not being enough blonds to go around? Now there are.”
“Oh, please. Now you’re just being cruel.” She shakes her head. “He told me some bullshit about how he wasn’t having sex with anyone because of rugby practice. What a dick.”
Seb walks past, throwing me a confused glare that doubles when Rowena pointedly turns her back. The joy it gives me only fades when I see Joseph across the quad and remember I have news to tell him.
Dammit. And he’ll freak out.
Once I repeat myself for ten solid minutes to get him to understand.
Considering how he reacted once it finally pierced his thick skull that I didn’t want to go out any longer, he won’t take a possible STI in his stride.
“Jesus, girl. You don’t need to look that upset. There’s plenty more fish in the sea.” Rowena hooks her arm through mine. “Mostly floating by upside-down or with a plethora of lice clinging to their gills, but plenty.”
A message comes through to my phone.Seb.“You gave me an STI?”followed by a string of outraged faces.
I immediately shoot back,“You’re the one who stealthed me, arsehole. Take your karma like a man.”
CHAPTERNINE
SEB
Esme’s responseputs me off kilter. During English, I thought I had her exactly where I wanted her—on the ropes. Then she rallied. After stealing her phone in history, scrolling through her secrets, I thought she’d be even more of a mess.
Instead, I catch a feral gleam in her eyes and now she’s gotmeon the back foot.
I’m also uncomfortable that she put my little faux pas into words. Texting her, I’d thought any response would give me another hold over her, but my blood runs cold seeing the word in black and white.
People get sent down for things like that.
Probably not at my age, hell there’s full blownrapistsof my age walking around with nothing more than an ankle bracelet and their wrist smarting from the slap.
Maybe not a big deal by legal repercussions, but I bet Kingswood would drop me like a torn bag of dog shit if a case against me ever got to court.
I’m rather late to the discovery that the problem with being given an opportunity, is that it can also be snatched away.
Shit.
And I’ve got a dose of medication to look forward to. Not for certain yet, but given the trajectory of my day, I’m guessing the next text the clinic sends out will be to me.
It’s harder to admit it’s not the infection that upsets me. More that I haven’t touched anyone since our last time together but apparently that didn’t cut both ways. While I’ve been obsessing over her betrayal, she’s been out, fucking other guys.
The stupidity of that thought makes me grind my teeth.
Luckily, my day improves markedly when Coach sends out a call over the internal intercom. Halfway through recess, I visit his office in the back of the gymnasium and take a seat.
“Maxwell Antigua. Heard of him?”
I rack my brains but have to shake my head in the end, wondering exactly where this is going. “Is he from the Crusaders?” The district rugby team for Canterbury.
