Bully King - J.A. Huss Page 0,76
all ten of them?
This makes me laugh.
“What’s funny?”
I look up and shield my eyes to see Lars. He steps in front of the sun glare and creates a shadow. “Just thinking about Mona’s bodyguards at Dante’s house tomorrow night.”
“What makes you think she’ll be at Dante’s house?” He sits down next to me and slips his feet into the water.
“Won’t she?”
Lars shoots me a sideways grin. “No spoilers.”
“Hmm. Now I’m curious.”
“You don’t need to be, Cadee. You’re out.”
“Right. I’m out.”
“But you’re OK, right?” He pauses. Squints his eyes a little as he looks at me. “He didn’t bother you, right?”
“No.”
“And you’d tell me if he did?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“I’ve heard a rumor, Cadee.”
My stomach sinks. “What kind of rumor?”
“That someone…” He pauses, sucks in a deep breath. “Never mind.” Then looks away without asking.
There is a part of me that wants him to ask. A part of me that wants him to know what happened that year. If that’s the rumor he’s talking about. And what other rumor is there?
But that part of me isn’t brave enough to push the issue.
“I’m sure it’s just a stupid rumor,” Lars says. Then he smiles and looks at me again. “Forget I mentioned it. And anyway, you’re free now. Are you excited to go home?”
“Home? Hmm. You mean Cooper’s house?”
“It’s not a bad place to belong.”
I sigh, then flick water with my toes. “Yeah. I guess. I’m looking forward to it. At least I’ll get to see Mona again.”
“Do not smoke with her again.”
I laugh.
“Not because of you, Cades. It’s her. She can’t. So… if she asks you again, discourage her.”
“You act like we’re friends or something.”
“I think you are.”
I don’t reply, but yeah. I think we are too. Even though we haven’t seen each other since that night two weeks ago, I have been thinking about her a lot. Maybe even missing her.
“You wanna hear something funny?” I ask.
“Sure.”
“My original plan when I figured out I was going to be working at the Swan Camp—”
“Swan Camp?”
I laugh. “That’s what I called it in my head all these years. But when I first realized that’s where I was going I made up this big, grand plan to make Mona my best friend and together we were going to oust Isabella and take her Cygnus crown.”
“You? The queen?”
“Not me.” I punch him in the arm. “Mona was gonna be queen. I was just gonna—”
But I stop. Because I suddenly remember what my part of that deal was.
The truth. I wanted everyone to know the truth about what Cooper did at the end of his senior year at Prep.
“You were gonna what?” Lars pushes.
“Nothing.” I sigh, then lie. “Just… be one of her minions.”
“Is that what you want?”
I look over at Lars and find him to be… way too serious for this conversation. “No. Not really.”
He puts his arm around my shoulder and pulls me into him. “Good. I don’t want you to be a minion either.”
I pull away a little and look at him. “What’s going on with you, Lars? You’re acting weird.”
He just smiles, shakes his head a little, then gets up and extends his hand. “You ready to go home?”
I take it and let him pull me up. Because I don’t want Lars to think too hard about any rumors he might’ve heard about me. “Sure. Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Go change and I’ll walk you. Cooper and Isabella already left. And Ax is—” Lars scans the pool. That’s when I notice only Elexa and Ivan are still here, having a private conversation over in one of the huts. I guess everyone was eager to go home for a night of freedom. “Gone, I guess.”
I go inside and slip my shorts and t-shirt on over the bathing suit that Sophie let me borrow. And then I stop to smile about that. Because they’ve all been pretty cool to me these past few weeks. We’ve been hanging out every day. We didn’t spend all our time with the boys. And I got away from Dante every chance I could. And every morning when I go into the server’s locker room, there has been a bag of clothes for me. Each of them went through their closets and found things they didn’t want and gave them to me. And OK, they’re not really my style, but when you literally have nothing, who cares. It’s truly the thought that counts. And they have all been thoughtful. Even Isabella has brought me clothes from her closet. And lots