RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,70
and I didn’t want to be an asshole and flat-out refuse to go. This is a convenient out—no one in their right mind wants to wind up as a third wheel in a movie theater—and Carina looks secretly pleased. In her shoes, I’m sure I would be, too.
“You’re sure you’re not just saying that to give me some alone time with the boy?” she asks.
The boy. She says it affectionately, with a giddy glimmer in her eyes; she’s attempting to hide her excitement about this date, but that really isn’t working out for her.
“Yes, I’m sure. When I get a migraine, I need to curl up in bed and sleep. It’s the only way to get through it. I’ll probably throw up everywhere if I come. You should swing by my room when you get back, though. Tell me how it all went.”
Carina bites her bottom lip, grinning like an imp. “But what if I don’t come back?”
“Carina! You’re gonna sleep with him?”
She shrieks like a five-year-old, ducking out of my reach as I try to slap her arm. “I don’t know. Maybe? I filled out the absence sheet just in case. Does that make me a slut?”
“No! Not at all. If you think he’s a good guy, and he’s treating you right, and you think you’re ready, then why the hell not?”
My friend smiles from ear to ear, though a little calmer now. “Yeah. I mean, he’s really sweet. I have to instigate every piece of contact between us ‘cause he’s trying to be a gentleman. Honestly, I kinda want him to just throw me up against a wall and fuck me already.”
“Carina!”
She laughs. Her expression changes when she sees what I’m holding in my ha—
Ahh, shit.
I’ve forgotten all about the feather. I’ve been absently twirling it around in my fingers, pressing the blunt end of the hollow shaft into the pad of my thumb while I’ve been talking to her.
“That’s pretty,” Carina says, taking it from me. She holds it up to the light. “Wow, that really is beautiful. Where did you get it?”
“Oh, it was out on the lawn. I found it on the grass.” It’s amazing how easily I lie to her. I don’t like doing it, but I’d be a fool to tell her the truth. She’d freak the fuck out if she knew Wren had been up here. She’d cancel her date and spend the rest of the night trying to talk me into reporting Wren for sneaking up onto the girls’ floor. This incursion is the least of his many sins, but Carina will seize it with both hands if she thinks it’ll be enough to get him expelled from the academy.
“I’ve never seen a feather like that before. It’s perfect,” she says, offering it back to me.
I take it from her. “Yeah, it is.”
“You should keep it. Do something pretty with it. I know how to make it into a hair clip. I can show you if you like?”
“That’d be cool.”
She claps, pulling in a deep breath. “Okay. I’m gonna get out of here. Wish me luck! I might have stories to tell when I get back.”
I wait for her to disappear down the hallway and turn the corner before I take out my cellphone and begin to type out a message.
ME: It’s beautiful, but I’m not keeping it.
Three dots appear, almost immediately.
WREN: Liar.
ME: You’ve got to stop.
WREN: Why say something you don’t mean?
ME: What the hell are you talking about?
WREN: You tell me I have to stop. But you don’t want me to stop. That’s the last thing you want.
Goddamnit, this asshole makes me want to scream.
ME: You don’t know that. You have no clue what’s going on inside my head.
WREN: I know it’s Friday night, and you aren’t going anywhere.
ME: Yes, I am. I’m going out with Carina.
WREN: Strange. I just saw her burn down the road in that shitty Firebird of hers. And you weren’t sitting in the passenger seat.
ME: Stalker!
WREN: I notice things, Little E. Sue me. You stayed at the academy because you want to see me.
ME: You think so fucking highly of yourself, don’t you?
WREN: Raw honesty looks a lot like arrogance to the untrained eye.
ME: God, just stop!
WREN: Meet me.
ME: NO.
WREN: Give me one hour. If you don’t come, I’ll have to come to you. Then you’ll see just how much of a stalker I really am.
ME: YOU’RE INSANE! You wouldn’t dare come to my room.
My blood’s almost at boiling point. I can’t believe this