RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,172
now. Still, even covered in dirt and looking like she just fought in a war, she’s beautiful. She smooths her hands down the front of the skirt, little good that it does.
“Yeah, well. I admit I didn’t actually take very good care of it at the beginning of the night. And after things went to shit with Fitz, well…” She shrugs. “I’m sorry it got ruined.”
I laugh down my nose, wincing when a snap of pain lances through my body. “It’s okay. You don’t need to apologize. You’ll be pleased to know that there won’t be any more Riot House parties for the foreseeable future. Dean Harcourt was here before. She said that we would all be expelled if we even thought about it.”
“Can’t really blame her,” Elodie says.
“No, I don’t suppose we can.” I take a beat to look at Elodie, feeling…feeling for the first time like the future might not be so fucked up after all. “I didn’t get to tell you that I liked your hair,” I tell her.
“Really?” She ducks her head, touching her fingers to it. “I thought you liked the blonde.”
“It doesn’t really matter what color your hair is, Little E. I’ll love you all the same, no matter what.”
She sighs, pushing away from the wall. She makes it to the foot of the bed, which is where she stops, resting her hands on the metal frame. “I’m surprised that you can still say that. That you love me. I feel like shit for thinking you’d have done something to that girl. I just—everything got so confusing—”
I brace myself, sitting myself up a little straighter. The thick gauze they taped over the stitches at the base of my neck pull tight, but I grimace through the pain. “I’m not angry with you. Anyone would have thought the same thing. I left that sweater in the gazebo, the night I told Wes I wanted nothing more to do with him. He must have kept it and given it to Mara later. He’s just as obsessed with poetry and Edgar Allen Poe. So long as you know now that I’m innocent—” A flash of panic makes me break out in a cold sweat. “You do know that I am innocent now, right?”
“Yes! Oh my god, yes! That’s why I feel so terrible.”
I hold my hand out to her. “Come here, then.”
She’s hesitant at first. As soon as she’s within reach, I taker her by the hand and I pull her closer so that she’s sitting on the edge of the bed beside me. “If I’d just explained everything with Mara and Wes in the first place, then we wouldn’t have ended up in this situation to begin with.”
She cautiously studies my face; I can see her thinking about what she wants to say next. “Then why didn’t you?”
“Because I was stupid. Because I thought everything would be fine, if we kept our mouths shut. I figured, as soon as graduation was over, we’d be free of the academy and free of Fitz, too. I didn’t want to have to tell you that’d I’d gotten mixed up with Fitz, of all people.”
“Why?” She gives me a teasing sidelong glance. “Because he’s a guy?”
“Hah! No. Because he was a member of fucking faculty, and the whole student/teacher thing is just so fucking cliché. I like to pride myself on having some originality.”
“So…you don’t like guys?”
I can’t read her expression very well, but…well, shit. It looks to me like she’s feeling a little insecure. Shifting on my side, I—oh shit, nope, that’s not gonna work. I lie back against the pillows, humming with exhaustion. “I’ve always been attracted to people, Little E. Their gender never really mattered. But that’s all irrelevant now, anyway.”
The bridge of her nose crinkles. She toys with my fingers, stroking her own over mine, frowning ever so slightly. “Why?”
“You know why. Because I’ve found my person now. In case you haven’t realized it yet, you are endgame for me, Elodie Stillwater. And everyone else in the entire world can go and eat a dick.”
EPILOGUE
WREN
Two weeks later
“Are you sure about this? You can always change your mind,” Pax grumbles. He’s been sitting in the car for the past twenty minutes, trying to talk me around. I’m not quite sure where all of this resistance is coming from, but I’m pretty sure he’s allergic to change. Everything’s been the same for years now. Just the three of us. And even though we’re all still going to be