I look up at the number above the door in front of us. This is my next class. Without another word, I push past Ares and walk in. The teacher stops and stares at me. “Miss McKinley, I assume? You’re late.”
“Sorry. I got lost,” I say.
“Find a seat.” She glares at me. Guess being late reallyisn’ta good first impression.
Searching the room, I find an empty desk in the middle. It’s between two guys. I sit down and drop my bag onto the floor, doing my best to not look up as both Ares and Constance enter the classroom.
“You’re right. He is an asshole,” Constance says as she passes me, moving towards the back.
Any hope that Ares was going to follow her goes out the window when he stops right next to me. I watch as he raises a single brow, his head tilted at one of the boys in the seat next to mine. He doesn’t even have to say anything for that boy to start collecting his things as he vacates the chair.
“We need to stop meeting like this, P,” Ares says, slumping down into his new seat.
I glare at him. I don’t know why he’s doing this. Why go out of his way to annoy me? We’ve had a good thing going over the last couple of years, avoiding each other at any cost. My heart has a way of picking up speed when he’s around. I hate it. I also need to contact pest control and see if they can do anything about the swarm of bees buzzing around in my stomach. Again, only something that happens when Ares is paying attention to me.
Don’t even get me started on that stupid nickname he calls me. P. I know what he means by it. Princess. When we were younger, he’d say the whole thing. He dropped it to just a single letter when we became teens and Ares became way too cool to say full words. I hate the name. He knows I hate it, which is why he uses it.
“Why?” I ask him in a hushed tone.
“Why what?”
“Why are you pretending we’re friends? We are not friends, Ares.” I grit my teeth.
“Ouch, P, that’s harsh.” The idiot rubs a hand over his chest. “You’re wrong. We’re the best of friends. We go way back.”
“Our families being friends does not make us friends,” I tell him. As nice as it would be to have a friend here, it can’t be him. I’m not sure I could ever bejust friendswith Ares.
Turning my attention to the teacher, I refuse to acknowledge Ares again for the rest of the class. It’s no easy feat. I can smell him. He smells like a mixture of weed and mint. I can also feel his gaze on me. I know he’s looking at me. That just means I have to work hard to not let my thoughts wander to the dark place they usually go when I’m bored in class. At my last school, no one ever paid me too much mind, not the way Ares does. And if he saw me go to that place, he’d know.
By the time lunch rolls around, I’m exhausted. I just want to find a spot and hide away where no one can see me. I’m on my way to where my map says the library is located when I’m stopped by Constance.
“Zara, I was looking for you. You ran off so fast after class I lost you.”
“Ah, yeah, sorry.” I have no idea what to say to the girl. I ran out to get away from Ares.
“It’s okay. I get it. If I had to sit and endurehisattention that intensely, I’d run out too.” She sighs.
I can’t tell if she likes Ares or hates him. A surge of jealousy rushes through my veins at the thought of her liking him.
“He’s one of my brother’s best friends. I’ve known him forever, and you were totally right. Like I said, the guy really is an asshole.” She shakes her head. “And to put your mind at ease, I don’t like him. I prefer vaginas over dicks.”
“I wasn’t thinking… I mean, I don’t care if you did like him.” I try to sound unaffected.
“Sure, come on. You can sit with us.” She doesn’t give me an option to refuse her offer. Linking her arm through mine, Constance guides me out of the building and to a table with bench seats, already filled with people. I guess I’m not going to find a quiet place to be alone today.
Chapter Four
She hates me, or at least she wants me and everyone else around us to think she hates me. Which only makes it more fun to play the game that we’re close friends. I asked Constance to look out for her. She quickly told me to go fuckmyself and insisted that I’m not the boss of her. She then said that she likes Zara and was planning on looking out for her anyway.
Constance being Spencer’s twin sister gives her a lot of fucking leeway with how I let her talk to me. Anyone else would find themselves on the other end of my wrath.
On my way to the table where all my friends sit for lunch, I pause at the sight of a long blonde ponytail wrapped in a huge pink bow. She’s here. Constance is next to her. I contemplate turning around and walking away. I’ve bothered her enough in class. Word has already gotten around to everyone that I know her. I won’t have to threaten anyone. They just have to know that she’s one of us. And having her sitting at our table for lunch lets the whole fucking school know where she belongs. At the top of the pecking order, like the queen she is.
I’m about to turn around when Zara’s face shifts towards me. Her smile drops, but it’s not because she’s seen me. She hasn’t. It’s because she’s taking a reprieve from pretending. I’ve seen her do this many times when she thinks no one is watching. I count to five, and sure enough, the smile is back on her face as she returns her attention to Constance.
I feel a pang of something in my stomach. Guilt, I think. I know she wants to be alone. She hates crowds. She hates having to put on a happy façade. What I don’t know is why?
Why is someone like her, a girl who has everything she could ever want at her fingertips, not happy? And why am I the only person who’s noticed just how fucking sad she is all the time?
