She shrugged, but a sweet smile had claimed her lips. "You deal with the solid and flat ones. I'll stick to the soft and curvy."
"Nope," I said. "I'm splitting my time evenly between both, because I like soft and sweet just as much as hard and tough."
"Go!" she groaned, nudging me back. "You're going to make me blush."
"Going!" I said, lifting both hands in surrender. "And don't let them give you shit for being a pureblood, Aspen."
"Never," she said, stepping back. "And I think that's exactly what I needed to hear."
Chapter Forty-One
RAIN
Sadly, the rumors didn't stop after I confronted that boy in class. Instead, they got worse. Over the weekend, a group of college guys did the fae equivalent of spitballs in the atrium. Instead of blowing or flicking gross wads of paper at Torian, they dropped sap-covered leaves into his hair. Even worse, there was nowhere in the atrium he was safe from the torment.
Aspen grumbled about Summer idiots, but not even she could stop it. The spell wasn't the sort of thing that could be blocked, and there were too many leaves for Keir to shield them all. Needless to say, it didn't take us long before we headed up to Wilder's room, where we hung out for the rest of the weekend.
But spending time together like that made the tension between Torian and Keir obvious. It felt like they kept trying to one-up each other. If Keir was nice to Aspen, then Torian had to be nicer. If Wilder laughed at Torian's joke, Keir tried to tell another. In truth, it was exhausting, but I didn't blame Keir for it. He should've called Torian's ass out.
Monday, in my detention class, I asked him why he didn't. That made Hawke laugh and turn away. Keir just sighed. Right when I was sure I wouldn't get an answer, he proved he was an even better person than I'd thought.
"Everyone is giving Torian shit, Rain. Of course he's pissed. Wouldn'tyou be? So if he wants to scream at me? Fine. I can take it, and it won't make things worse."
Famous last words.
Because when I made it to the cafeteria on Tuesday, the jesters were at it again. Sadly, their group wasn't made up of only Advanced Placement kids either. Nope, it felt like more and more of the college-aged students had been converging on their table. Well, tables. I was pretty sure they now occupied two, just based on the people talking between groups.
"Idiots," I grumbled as I shuffled along to pick my meal.
"Court," Jack muttered, shaking his head.
I huffed something like a laugh, because I was pretty sure Jack was saying they weren't as cool as our friends. I could've been wrong, but my bird was starting to get his tone right, making meanings a little more clear. Then, with a crow on my shoulder, a meal in my hands, and friends waiting, I headed for where I usually sat.
"Rain!" a guy at the jester's table called out. "Hey, c'mere."
"Huh?" I gave him a look like he was insane. "Why?"
"Just figured the Morrigan should meet some Summer folks." He jerked his chin at me in the creepy way guys always seemed to think was sexy. "I saved you a place."
Caw!Jack bellowed.Caw, caw, caw!
Which made me tilt my head - since I couldn't shrug with him sitting on me. "Gonna guess that's a no. Sorry!" Then I turned and hurried to my usual place.
"What was that?" Keir asked as I got close.
"If you'd been with her, you could've stopped it," Torian grumbled.
"Enough!" I begged, sliding into my seat. "Guys, please? Can I just have a good day for once?"
Jack hopped off my shoulder, claiming an empty chair for his perch. His beak was whipping between Torian and Keir, those dark eyes sparkling. I couldn't tell if it was annoyance, worry, or simply his intelligence.
"What, you want to sit withthemor something?" Torian asked me, disdain dripping from every word.
"Tor..." Hawke said gently. "You know she doesn't."
"She isn't required to be stuck with us," Torian shot back. It sounded like that wasn't actually directed at me.
Pulling in a deep breath, I reminded myself how much it had sucked when Harper had come at me. Then I let it out, thinking about the dayAspen had followed me outside to offer an orange. Such a little thing, but it had made all the weight of those words vanish for a few minutes.
