of Zoey’s friends? I’m going to fucking kill—”
“You’re not going to kill anyone—”
Sawyer cuts in, “The two of you better not start fucking on the table here in the dining hall because this all feels like really angry foreplay to me and, honestly, I just want to eat my pizza in peace.”
I shoot him a look but almost instantly I have to shift my focus back to Gabe who is about to flip a table over this. I guess this is cutting a little too close to whatever the fallout of his Bond disappearing was and now he’s out for blood.
“Just forget about it. I honestly don’t give a shit about what some petty, jealous girls think of me. As long as it doesn’t cause me any grief with the Dravens, I don’t care.”
Sage winces again, mostly because both North and Nox terrify her, and I shoot her a grateful look. I’m thankful she’s here, listening to me whine and not judging me for being a grumpy fuck about it all.
Gabe shoves the last of the grilled chicken from his plate of sadness into his mouth and says, “Gryphon will clear it up with North. Nox might still bring it up because he’s… like that.”
I shove my bag on my back and stand up, ready to get this day over with. “That a nice way to say he’s a total asshole who’ll bring it up over the dinner table for the next fifty fucking years.”
We make it through the day and even though Sage invites me to her place for tacos and textbooks, I bail on her, my stomach still a bloated, aching mess. I just want to mope around in my room and hate my life quietly for the night. She gets it, because what girl doesn’t, and leaves me behind with a hug and a promise to check in on me tomorrow.
I eat dinner early and then head back to the dorms to shower and get into something comfortable. I text Atlas back, just a general text to tell him about my day and let him know I’m okay, and then I hit the books hard.
A little after midnight, I’m still pouring over my textbooks for the next assignment Nox has us doing when my door unlocks and Gryphon steps through it, a bag dangling from one hand.
“You’re not even going to attempt to knock at all anymore?” I say, my voice tired and my hand shaking a little as I take notes because I’m so ridiculously freaking tired. I should have stopped hours ago but my brain doesn’t want to stop yet.
“I was expecting you to be asleep, not cramming. I didn’t think exams were for months.”
I shrug and watch as he kicks his shoes off. I have no fucking clue of what’s happening right now. “I’m a high school dropout, remember? I have no choice but to spend all of my spare time with my nose in my textbooks.”
He pulls his jacket off and throws it over the peg on the back of the door, covering the cracked and shitty mirror. I watch as he pulls his hoodie off as well, standing there in his low-slung jeans and a soft black tee, looking like sex on legs.
Shit.
“Are you hungry? I brought a burrito, but I can split it.”
There’s literally a Twizzler hanging out of my mouth so I shake my head at him. Honestly, I’m still trying to get my exhausted brain around what is happening right now. He’s here, in my bedroom, offering to split food with me without any sort of a reason that I can tell.
It feels like a trap.
“Stop staring at me like that, Oli. I’m here to make sure you’re okay. You sobbed in my arms for hours last night, even after you fell asleep.”
Oh God, that’s embarrassing. “I’m fine. It’s better with the drugs and you made sure I have a great supply of those. Seriously, go home and forget about me.”
He grunts at me and parks his ass on the floor, a mirror of Gabe only a few weeks ago, and he tears into his food. I shift my focus back onto my books and lose myself into the history of the blood tests, and how the Bond markers were discovered.
The next thing I know, I’m waking up to Gryphon’s hand gently moving me onto the bed. I try to mumble a thank you, but it comes out as a garbled mess. He huffs at me, pulling me into