“You’ll never believe what just happened,” she announces, swinging her bag off her shoulder as she turns to close the door. We’re congregating in Annabel Lee’s room on the first day of classes, the others having returned to campus at last. I didn’t see them until this afternoon, though I know they were all back this weekend and probably hung out without me. I try not to feel left out. I just met them, after all.
“Oh,” Ronique says, drawing up short when she sees me. “You’re here.”
“Is that okay?” I ask, though it’s clear by her tone that it’s not.
“Of course it’s okay,” Annabel Lee says from where she’s crouched near her crates, coaxing one of her critters to readjust to life in the dorm. “I wouldn’t have invited you if you weren’t invited.”
“Yeah,” Ronique says after a brief hesitation. “Actually, I should be thanking you.”
“You should?” I ask, not sure what she’s even talking about.
“Yeah,” she says. “For putting in a good word for me.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“With your brother.”
“Saint?” I manage, my voice somehow coming out almost normal.
“Do you have another brother I don’t know about?” she asks, glancing at Manson like he might be able to tell her if I’m always this awkward.
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I just didn’t—I didn’t.”
“Well, you must have said something, because he told me to thank you,” she says, a smile breaking over her face as she gives a little shimmy of excitement and turns to the others. “He asked me out!”
“And he thinks you need to thank someone for that?” Manson asks, arching a perfect, shaped brow.
“Wow,” Annabel Lee says, shaking her head. “The ego on that man.”
“Oh, come on, be happy for me,” Ronique says, then skips to the bed and flops down dramatically on her back. “Can you believe it? Saint Soules andme.”
“I really can’t,” Annabel Lee says in the most deadpan voice I’ve ever heard.
“That man is even more full of himself than—than you wish you could be,” Manson says, shaking his head. He came back from break with a new color, his exquisitely styled hair now a striking silver.
Ronique giggles and sits up. “Here’s hoping. For now, it’s just hanging out. But if all goes well…”
She wiggles her brows.
I think I’m going to be sick.
“If all goes well, our little Vero is going to get railed by a Hellhound,” Manson says.
Annabel stands in a swish of black silk, her kohl-lined eyes assessing me. “You good with that?”
“I don’t need permission,” Ronique says, waving a dismissive hand. “She doesn’t own him.”
“Yeah, but you check in with your friend before you date her brother,” Annabel Lee argues. “Common courtesy.”
“Like she asked you before she started dating your cousin?”
“I’m not,” I protest.
“Not what I heard,” Ronique says with a shrug.
I’m going to murder Angel. This is the second person who’s said that. I don’t even know how he got the word around when campus was closed. Unless…
Suddenly I’m filled with the horrible thought that maybe they sent the video around to everyone, and I feel even more nauseous.
