Devil Incarnate (Boys of Preston Prep #4) - Angel Lawson Page 0,74

have to be here if you’re just going to make us walk in water. That’s not a useful life skill! Anyone can walk in water. Some of us have better things to do with our night than—”

I snap, “If you’re not in that pool in ten seconds, I’m giving you detention until you’re forty.”

Georgia rolls her eyes, but unlike Micha, this isn’t the battle she wants to pick. “If I can get credit for walking in water for an hour, then whatever.” She still sulks her way to the shallow end and shoots me a glare as she lowers herself into the pool.

When I’m sure they’re occupied, I finally allow myself to kick back, slipping my phone from my pocket. Earlier, I’d heroically liberated a twenty-dollar bill from a seventh-grader, who’d less heroically liberated it from a sixth-grader, who probably liberated it from his mother’s purse, and that’s how I’d scored the box of Chinese food I pull into my lap. The natatorium is practically deserted, aside from us, so I don’t even try to hide what I’m doing. I load up the network’s app and press play.

As soon as the Lakevale theme starts up, I dig in.

I hear a swish of water, but don’t bother looking up from the screen. Not even when I hear the rapid patter of wet feet slapping against the floor. Not until a drop of pool water falls on my arm, that is.

I glare up at Micha. “Get back in the pool.”

“I knew it!” He’s staring in shock at my phone. “I knew I heard that song! You’re watching Lakevale! Georgia!” He swings his head around to look at her, face agonized. “Georgia, he’s watching Lakevale!”

“It’s Monday night,” I point out, not irrationally. “Of course I’m watching Lakevale. Now go finish your drills.”

“You can’t do this to me,” he cries.

“Yes, I can,” I disagree.

“You know what?” Micha’s nostrils flare as he snatches his bag from the bench, pulling a towel out. “You can go ahead and give me detention. I don’t care. I’m not standing in that pool, listening to the new episode of Lakevale over shitty phone speakers.” He pulls a wireless speaker from his bag next, thrusting it at me. “Sync it up and shove over, asshole.”

It’s straight up insubordinate, is what it is. I should give him detention. I should send him marching right to Collins. I should tell Coach James that he’s flunked—better luck next time.

But the show’s about to start, and my phone’s speakers really are shitty. “Fine,” I growl, thumbing my screen to sync the Bluetooth. “But you’d better sit down and be so quiet that I don’t even know you exist.”

“What?” Georgia says, having gotten out of the pool, too. “The two of you are seriously going to sit there and watch Lakevale for an hour?”

Goddamnit.

I pin her with a glower. “Maybe it’s escaped your notice, but I live on a campus with over three-hundred teenagers. The second I walk out that door,” I point at it for good measure, “someone is going to spoil it for me.”

“It’s true,” Micha insists, ripping off his swim camp. “One time my dance class ran late, and I wasn’t even out of the parking lot before someone texted me about Peyton Nolan being murdered.” He casually explains, “She didn’t actually get murdered, it was just a setup so that her sister Flora could—”

“Both of you shut up!” To Georgia, I say, “Either do your drills, or sit down and be quiet. Your choice.”

Huffing, she grabs a towel from the bench and joins us. But not before muttering, “I can’t believe you’re watching a stupid teen show.”

I turn a slow, dangerous glare on her. “Stupid?”

Affronted, Micha says, “Lakevale isn’t stupid.”

“And it’s not a ‘teen show’,” I add. “It’s a small town political thriller. Its absurdity transcends the bounds of satire all together. Lakevale is a goddamn contemporary masterpiece.”

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this,” Micha says, expression anguished. “But you are being so cool right now.”

Just then, the opening scene starts up, and Micha and I both shut our mouths. If Georgia has something else completely fucking blasphemous to say about it, she does herself the favor of keeping it to herself.

It’s a fucking awesome episode, too—exactly what I needed to wash this shitty day away. Micha whips his phone out during the ad breaks to post his reactions on ChattySnap. Even Georgia seems to get into it, her shoulder brushing against mine as she leans in to see the