I reach for the little pocket on my backpack where I keep my lipstick tube—the one with the little compartment that I know has two pills inside. But before my fingertips can even make contact, I yank my hand back.
No.
I won’t let her fuck with my head, and I’m certainly not breaking a promise to Reyn over it. I will not let her drag me back to that place. She’d want that, is the thing. She’d prefer the old Vandy who relied on her. The sad girl who walked at her side, whose whole life revolved around her. The girl who made Sydney feel superior.
I start down the hall, away from Sydney and her drama, steeling myself against the lure of oblivion. It’d just hurt so much less if I had it.
A hand cinches around my waist and drags me behind a pillar and stone bust of one of the founding fathers. Reyn towers over me, fingers pressing into my hips. He kisses me before I can say a word, and it takes my breath away.
This isn’t a tender kiss. It’s full of teeth and tongue and a desperation that I don’t quite understand, but meet all the same. I tangle my fingers into his hair and hold him close, kissing back with a startling kind of abandon, and all I can think is mine. This man and the way he kisses me, it could never belong to Sydney. He could never surge into her like this, like he’s magnetized and so hungry for it that his movements grow jerky, barely restrained.
He pulls away with a hard punch of breath, green eyes blazing into mine. “Come on,” he says, tugging me to the side, into the little alcove beside the industrial air conditioning units. It’s louder here, difficult to hear the students milling around on the other side.
Reyn casts a furtive glance around before cupping my face in his hands. “Hey, they said you were crying.”
I reach up to touch his wrists, hypnotized by the way he’s looking at me. “Who said?”
“Everyone is.” His jaw ticks. “Apparently some dick hit you in the hall? Your brother is on a fucking rampage.”
I can’t help it. I laugh. Sebastian really had it right before. So much bullshit goes around this place. “He knocked my books out of my hands, and yeah, he was a jerk to me. But it really wasn’t as violent as all that.”
Reyn’s hands slide away. I tangle our fingers together as they drop. “Sebastian Wilcox to the rescue again?” He looks away, scowling, but I strain up on my tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek.
“I didn’t need to be rescued.” Even Dr. Ross was right there. “But yeah, he put the fear of god into him, I think. It didn’t mean anything, if that’s what you’re worried about. We’re just—”
“Devils, friends,” he says, meeting my gaze. “I know. And I know you don’t need to be rescued. It’d just be nice to be the one who gets to do it every now and then.” Despite knowing that, he probably also heard about us disappearing into the bathroom together, he doesn’t look worried. He just looks pissed off.
Because I promised.
And he trusts me.
Suddenly, I feel so stupid. “No one rescues me as much as you do, Reyn.” He rolls his eyes, but I can see some of that tight tension leeching away from his eyes. “Also, it was nice of you to give Sydney a ride home yesterday.” I’m not even digging. Not prodding. I already know in my bones that there’s nothing to find.
His face screws up. “Yeah, I probably won’t do it again. I know she’s your friend, but honestly?” He gives me a vaguely questioning look. “I’m not entirely sure why.”
Instead of answering, I give him a kiss of my own. This one is slow and sweet—an apology for letting her get into my head.
“Think you can get away after school?” he asks. His fingers are playing at the hem of my skirt again. It always drives me crazy. “I got all that stuff we talked about.” He smiles at me so softly when we’re close like this, faces tipped together, that it’s a physical impossibility to not smile back.
“I’ll be there at five sharp.”
28
Reyn
“What’s all this?” my dad asks, walking into the kitchen. I can tell from the way he’s dressed, pulling on a jacket, that he’s about to leave for the night. It used to annoy