girl. She's been too sad these days, but she also won't come hang out with me to cheer the hell up.”
I glance at her and then Sage but Sage's eyes are fixed on her brother. I stick with loyal bestie vibes. “She's my best friend, I'll always be here for her."
Sage startles, her eyes hitting mine, and then she grins. "You're the one risking a TacTeam to hang with me, I think you deserve a little thanks."
I roll my eyes. "Don't remind me. So, Gracie, which one is Felix? I just barely have the rules straight, I couldn't pick out players to save my life."
She laughs and points out the quarterback, the same one from the locker room earlier. "That's him. Did Sage tell you he's obsessed with her? He's been trying to get her to date him since Riley became the world's biggest asshole, but she’s become a ghost.”
I look over at her, shocked, but Sage shrugs. "I don't want a pity date. I get that he's Sawyer's friend and cares for me, but I'm not going to make a bad situation even worse.”
Gracie rolls her eyes, a mirror of my reaction. "He's been obsessed with you for years. He tore the training room apart when he found out you and Riley were Bonds. This has absolutely nothing to do with Sawyer."
I glance between them but Sage seals her lips shut and refuses to say another word, even after Gracie says a sad goodbye and leaves us again.
It's not until way after Gabe and his team win the game and we're waiting by the locker room for him to take me back to my dorm room that she finally speaks again.
"Someday, he's going to find his Bonds, and I can't take losing someone else. A long time ago... I once thought that maybe I was the Central Bond and I'd get to have them both. Stupid. I try to stay away from Felix now because even if we're not Bonds, seeing him with someone else is going to hurt. I can't know what it's like to have him and then lose him. Riley is bad enough."
I nod because I get it. I get it better than anyone else ever could. Being around my Bonds now, the best protection that I have is their anger and hatred of me. If I didn't have that, I'd crumble under the weight of everything we have against us.
I'd break.
Chapter Nine
My life finds a weirdly normal pattern.
It’s all so freaking strange to notice the mundane patterns that start to take over. Studying with Sage, going to classes with Gabe as my shadow, dying during my TT classes, and sitting at the table in North’s mansion in an uncomfortable silence during the torturous dinners. I’m not at all complacent about trying to get the hell out of this place but when I wake up every day and know exactly how my day is going to go, I start to think that I’m going to be stuck here… until my past finds me and everything I’ve been running from for the last five years will finally swallow me whole.
I’m busy enough not to think about it too often.
When my first paper comes back from my Econ class with a B+, I want to scream from the rooftops because I’m that freaking proud of myself. Sage hunts down a couple of cupcakes with giant swirls of icing on top to celebrate over lunch, and even Gabe manages to grunt out a ‘well done’ to me as he munches through his rabbit food.
I do what I can to stay off of my Bonds radar, the tentative peace that we find has everything to do with our ability to stay the hell away from each other. I see Gabe every day and Nox during class but I only see North and Gryphon during the dinner once a week and that is A-OK with me.
I get complacent.
I start to forget just how much they all loathe me.
The knock at my dorm room door after classes and dinner rocks the boat. I open it to find Gracie standing there looking hot as hell in a pair of cut-offs and a tiny tank top, a sheepish grin over her face as she looks me up and down in a kind but assessing way that attractive girls do. I look like a pile of shit in an old pair of sweatpants and a cable knit sweater that is three sizes too big for