Shrugging, I replied. “I don’t.”
Storm grinned. “You will after a year in this place.”
Her words had bit into me like bullets. Medical grounds? What the heck did that mean?
“Is Hudson sick or something?” The thought of him suffering didn’t sit well with me at all.
“Not physically. Fucked up in the head is more like it,” Storm raced on, the filter that kept her from sharing other people’s business was slowly unravelling. She would have said more, but a shadow fell over our table. Glancing up, just behind her shoulder stood Reed Prescott.
He cleared his throat noisily, and Storm paled and glanced over her shoulder at the giant looming over her.
“Reed?”
“Summers,” he deadpanned. “Why are you in here shooting your mouth off? Don’t you have somewhere you’re supposed to be, teacup?”
“Not that I know of,” she tutted, clearly unnerved.
He blew out a breath. “Coach Sheldon is looking for you. Something about lunchtime detention?”
Storm’s face switched to confusion and then panic. “Shit. I totally forgot.”
I sat back as I watched the girl flapping around as she gathered her bag, leaving her lunch tray and the food she’d hardly touched.
“I’ll see you later, Molly,” she panted, pushing up from the seat and scurrying past Hudson’s brother.
I wondered why she had detention. Reed followed her departure with a smug smile before lowering his large, rangy form into her vacated seat.
He must have read my thoughts as he said. “It’s her punishment for almost murdering you,” before picking up Storm’s fork and tucking into her salad plate. I wondered why Tate wasn’t going with her. They were both involved.
It was now just the two of us on that table; the other girls there had left just before Storm did. It felt oddly intimate, even with Tate and her posse glancing back and forth from their table across the hall.
Reed shovelled some chicken between his lips and then started speaking with his mouth full. Nice.
“So, I take it she apologised,” he stated, waving his fork towards the door she had left through.
I rested my elbows on the table. “Yes. She did.”
He glanced at me occasionally as he continued to eat Storm’s lunch. “Good. So, she can take instructions.”
My heart sank. So, Storm had beentoldto say sorry to me. God, I was naive.
Reed swallowed, his expression shifting to one of amusement. “Don’t look so disappointed. Shewassorry. Teacup just needed a little nudge to encourage her to tell you that.”
“Teacup?”
“Yeah. You know the saying,storm in a teacup? It describes that woman perfectly. She’s a drama queen and gets worked up over the slightest thing. Overreacting to shit is Storm’s MO.”
I knew my idioms and whatstorm in a teacupmeant, but I didn’t make a snarky comment after his colourful explanation.
Tugging my mask back, my eyes roamed over his handsome features. I wondered ifhewas the boy Storm had been talking about. The guy had a pet name for her after all. But surely, she wouldn’t use her crush’sbrotherto make him jealous. Then again, knowing what I did about Storm and her morals, maybe she would.
The silence stretched, and I was donebeating about the bush. “Where is Hudson?”
Reed’s body stiffened briefly, and then he shrugged. “How should I know? I’m not his keeper.”
“No, but you’re his brother.”
“Not biologically,” he pointed out with a lazy grin.
