When I told her about Gracie drooling all over Gryphon, she hadn’t been surprised, just rolled her eyes and cut her out whenever she tried to join us.
The real complication is when Felix and Gabe show up.
For one, they show up together, which instantly loses Felix all of the brownie points I’d mentally given him after Sage’s party. For another, Gabe stares Sawyer down like he’s about to drag him outside to beat him to death when he sees us sitting together.
“We’re all pretty sure Oli is a lesbian, Benson, no point trying to hook up with my Bond,” he snaps but before I have the chance to deflate his ego and remind him that Bond or not, I will never touch him, Sage cuts in.
“If you start shit with my brother, Gabe, I will burn down everything you love. Your bike, your football stadium, your dick… everything.”
I turn to stare at her because who the hell is this badass and where the fuck has Sage been hiding her all this time?
Maybe I am in love with her instead.
Felix glances between them and then shoots me a look. “Are you going to step in or should I?”
I shrug and smirk at him, propping my chin up on my hand, “I’d rather watch Sage murder everyone in this room than smother this attitude of hers today. It’s probably why my Bonds are obsessed with the idea of me fucking her… or maybe it’s a fetish thing, I don’t care enough to figure it out.”
Gabe’s eyes flash at me and I know I’ve hit a nerve but he started it, so he can live with the consequences. Felix looks around at each of us again before pulling out a seat next to Sage, sitting down and opening up his own textbooks. She side-eyes him but when he doesn’t attempt to lean into her or talk to her, she lets it go.
I actually think he’s perfect for her and the world is a terrible place for not fating them to be together.
When we all ignore him for long enough, Gabe finally huffs and pulls out a seat of his own next to me, spreading his books and papers out on the desk until he’s taking over half of my space as well. I’m sure he’s doing it to get a rise out of me but I just do my best not to shift into Sawyer’s space and spoil whatever progress I’ve made with him.
Sage watches all of this with narrowed eyes but I just shake my head at her because fighting with Gabe never actually gets me anywhere. The best I can hope for is for him to get sick of being around me and leaving me the hell alone. I’m sure he can convince North to sign off on it, it’s not like I’ve tried to run away.
Yet.
When our study break is over with and I have to head off to my Torture Training session, as Sage is now calling TT, I pack everything away and pull her into a quick hug, squeezing her for a second and hoping she can feel how grateful I am to have her fiercely protective friendship.
I’m shocked when Sawyer also pulls me into a quick hug, ignoring Gabe’s moody huffing behind us, and then he ushers Sage out, Felix giving me a nod and then following them both out.
I desperately wish I was heading to class with them but maybe an afternoon of destroying my body on all of those torture machines will actually make me feel better. Great, Vivian and his training program has somehow indoctrinated me into loving the feeling of my entire body burning up and turning to jelly.
Gross.
I make it out of the library and into the sunshine outside before Gabe jogs to catch up with me, falling into step instead of the three steps behind me like he usually does. I grit my teeth and ignore him, picking up my pace so I can hide in the locker room in the TT center until the class starts and Vivian will be too far up his ass for him to bother me.
The problem is that something has clearly crawled up Gabe’s ass about me today and he’s not going to let anything go, darting in front of me to block my path, and I have no choice but to stop walking or I’ll slam into him.
I can’t get pressed up against him again right now.
“I’m not doing this with you today. Wasn’t