I pinch the bridge of my nose as delicately as I can without smudging my concealer. “He’s... a special case.”
“Two days then,” she promises. “I have to pop into the studio tomorrow to record this new song—it’s about cheeseburgers instead of sandwiches this time, and like, to be so real with you, I have super mixed feelings, but the team’s confident it’ll go viral—but after that, I’ll get on to it.”
“Okay, you’re a lifesaver, oh my god. I’ll treat you to malatang after.” I lean against the back seat, watching the cars crawl along the highway, exhaust fumes spreading through the air like smoke from a fire.Two days.That’s enough for me to carry out step two of the plan while I wait. “And good luck with the cheeseburger song.”
“Thank you,” she says seriously.
Step two: Grab his attention.
The most obvious strategy here would be to wait until my first peer mentoring session with Ares, but he hasn’t reached out about a time and place yet, and I want his attention to be onme,not how badly I’m struggling with basic calculus. So instead I resort to my usual tricks.
In the cafeteria, I make a huge show of struggling to openmy water bottle, and hold it out just as Ares is passing. “Ares, can you help me with this?” I ask, smiling innocently up at him.
He just stares at me, those unnerving black eyes roaming from my face to the water, like it might be poison. I stare back, and notice the bruise blooming over his cheek. As if sensing my attention, he abruptly turns his head away. “My hands are occupied,” he says, his hands in his pockets.
“I can help you with that, Chanel,” someone calls out from the cafeteria line.
“No, let me help you,” another guy from science offers, almost lunging for the water bottle in his eagerness to prove himself. “I’ve got it—”
“Looks like you don’t need me for that anyway,” Ares says, and walks right off, while four guys make a collective effort to twist open a water bottle cap.
In the library, when we’re all meant to be studying, I move into Ares’s line of vision and stand on my tiptoes before a bookshelf, stretching and straining to reach a book I’m never going to read in my life. After a few minutes of this, I turn toward him.
“Would you mind getting that book for me?” I ask.
He glances at the book above me. “That’s the one you’re looking for?”
I nod.
He still doesn’t move but reads the title out loud. “How to Avoid Stray Turkeys and Other Birds.This is the book you plan on reading?”
“I’m scared of turkeys,” I improvise. “I would very much like to know how to avoid them and... other birds. Can you...”
Before I’ve even finished talking, he starts walking away.
“What the—” I twist around in indignation. “Where are you going? Hey.Hey—”
But he’s already gone.
In the corridors, I deliberately drop my wallet right by his feet and wait for him to pick it up for me. He doesn’t. He merely glances down at my wallet, then up at me, his expression unimpressed.
“I know you’re rich, Chanel, but I still wouldn’t recommend throwing your money around. At least donate it to a charity or something.”
By the time we head into gym for basketball, I’m desperate and more convinced than ever that Ares has been sent to destroy my life, with the fire or without it.
There’s only one tactic I haven’t tried yet, but clearly, I need to do something drastic—and soon.
I time my next step well. I wait until Ares has the ball in his hands—then I run up to him, arms lifted in defense, and in the half second before he aims to shoot, I knock my shoulder hard against his and pitch myself onto the gym floor.
I make sure to fall on my hands first. There’s no cute way to land flat on your back, and the chances of actually hurting myself or gaining an unflattering bruise are too high for me to risk it. Once I’m down, curled up elegantly on my side in fake pain, I let out a dramatic yell, like an animal whose tail has just been stepped on.
Ares misses his shot and twists around.
Everyone else freezes. And then they all crowd forward, their concerned voices echoing off the vaulted ceiling.
“Chanel?”
“Oh my god, are you okay?”
