I narrow my eyes. “What a tool.”
The lacrosse team guys head straight for the ladies in tennis skirts, who turn with smiles to welcome them.
“Those are the girls who are off carbs.” The mean girl rises onto tiptoe to kiss the head himbo.
“Yeah,” Honey grimaces. “That’s Sailor. She’s dating the lacrosse team captain, Radley.”
One of the other guys turns, like he’s a shark scenting blood in the water. “We should go,” Honey mutters, keeping her head down. She’s uncomfortable. Because of the PDA? Or those guys?
“Let me just grab my bag.” I leave her with the cronuts and hustle to grab the rest of my things, but I take too long. By the time I’ve returned, the guy and three of his lacrosse buddies have cornered Honey.
“Hey, freshie,” one of them says. “I thought I’d find you here. You left too early last night. Running away?” He leans in, brushing the curls back from her face. She recoils from his hand, her hand rising to slap it away, but he just laughs. Her eyes dart around, looking for escape and gauging the situation, but there are more of them than her.
Except now she has me. “Leave her alone,” I say, using my bag to shove through the group and get to her side. “She’s my friend.”
He scoffs. “Hey, Radley,” he calls. “Pinkie’s got herself a bodyguard.”
Radley and Sailor look our way briefly. I notice that his eyes fall right to Honey’s large breasts. She’s not showing cleavage, but the suit showcases her hourglass curves.
Sailor notices her boyfriend staring at Honey’s chest, and her lip curls. She tugs his shoulder, calling out to the guy harassing us. “Penn, quit slumming with the scholarship kids.”
“But they’re so much fun,” Penn protests. He eyes me. “Hey, kid, when did you escape from daycare? Who’d your daddy have to suck off to get you enrolled?”
The lacrosse guys all laugh. I’m short and young-looking, but it doesn’t matter that these guys are a foot taller than me. It won’t take many bites of a death cap mushroom to destroy their liver and send them into convulsions.
“Fuck off.” I bare my teeth at him, channeling Duffy, the prom queen werewolf on Vampire Varsity.
“Fucking feral,” he mutters, but he backs off.
The other guys wave at Honey, leering. “See ya around, Pinkie,” one of them says.
“Tool,” I mutter loud enough for him to hear.
“Thanks for standing up for me.”
“Of course.”
“Let’s get out of here,” she whispers. She’s clutching the charm on her necklace, her knuckles white.
She’s really freaked out. I think escape is our best course of action, so I let her lead the way out of the hall. Unfortunately, we have to pass right by the tennis skirts to get to a side door.
“Slut,” Sailor hisses at Honey.
I’m tempted to stop and shove a cronut in her mouth, but I keep moving. Why is she being so mean to my new friend? Something’s going on, and I don’t want to make things worse for Honey.
I wait until we’re in a quiet corridor to ask, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. This way.” We slip through another side door and hurry over a black and white tiled floor to a locked door.
“This is a secret,” Honey tells me and tugs her necklace out of her bodice. She shows me the charm—an old bronze key. She inserts the key into the lock on the heavy wooden door, and a thrill goes through me when I hear the snick of the lock.
The door swings open with a gust of stale air. Beyond it is a set of small wooden stairs, like the sort that might lead to an attic. It smells of antiques, too, old wood and lemon furniture polish.
“This way.” Honey leads me up, and we get to a gallery overlooking a reading room. The place is quiet and empty except for the odd employee. In the corner is a man studying a large book that’s in a display case. He’s wearing robes. Black with a cinnamon brown velvet stripe.
“A professor,” she whispers. “Professor of history. You can tell by the colors on his hood.”
We can hear the lacrosse team’s laughter echoing through the building. They’re loud as fuck. The professor looks up and frowns but doesn’t make a move to do anything about it.
