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With a sigh, I set my tray down next to her because it would be rude not to.
“You’re up early,” she comments with a wry smile. “I assumed you were still asleep when I knocked on your door this morning.”
“Maybe I’m just trying to follow in your sterling example.” Relief shoots through me when I realize she doesn’t know I never made it back to the suite. “Sometimes it’s nice to be up before dawn.”
“You following in my example? Ha. That’ll be the day,” she says with a laugh. “Although if you’re in the mood for some advice, I’m happy to provide it.”
I open up my yogurt and lick the top. “Shoot.”
“Well…Drake dropped by the suite yesterday looking for you.”
Considering everything that happened, the month of winter break felt closer to a year. In her mind, Drake remains the asshole who thought it would be hilarious to play a girl’s sextape and then break up with her in front of everyone. Anya has no idea how much has changed between then and now.
“Did he say what he wanted?” I ask, as casually as I can manage.
“I didn’t give him the chance. I’m pretty sure my end of the conversation consisted mainly of fuck and off.”
I take a bite of yogurt that might as well be sawdust for how little I taste it. “I’m still waiting on the advice part.”
“That’s the advice. Unless he is planning to do some major groveling, and probably not even then, those are the only words you should share with him. I know panties light on fire in his presence, but don’t just let Drake off the hook for the crap he pulled. Make him work like hell for it. Like, a public humiliation level of work.”
My eyebrows go up in surprise. “You say that like you think I’m eventually going to take him back.”
“I think,” she hesitates, as if choosing her words carefully, “that I’ve seen your expression when his name comes up. I’m just saying that being able to forgive isn’t a weakness, but you better make him work for it after what he did to you.”
My reply is noncommittal. “I get it.”
“And I heard a crazy rumor that you’re technically a Havoc House pledge now. I didn’t believe it the first time, but then I heard the same thing from about a dozen more people.”
I can’t tell from her tone whether she is surprised or judging me. I must be giving her emotional whiplash at this point. “A lot happened over break.”
“Obviously.”
None of the Havoc Boys have come to breakfast yet. I’m hoping that means they won’t show up before we’re done. Every time the double doors open, I can’t stop my gaze from moving in that direction. People have been steadily trickling in, but Drake and his friends haven’t been among them.
Anya’s confusion definitely isn’t unique. I’ve sensed the mingled interest and shock of other students since everyone came back. No one has been brave enough to say anything to my face, aside from a slut or whore whispered so softly as I pass their tables that I can’t be absolutely positive I heard it. Most of them don’t acknowledge me at all, even when our gazes meet.
Becoming a pledge of Havoc House is obviously not enough to make people forget about that sextape.
We sit at the last empty table on the far side of the dining hall from the doors. It’s impossible not to notice that no one has taken any of the empty seats at our table, even as the dining hall fills up. Anya is popular enough. But it definitely seems like I’m one step removed from a total social outcast.
That shouldn’t bother me as much as it does.
A flurry of movement and sudden increase in volume drag my attention to the doors. Olivia stalks into the dining hall with a practical entourage behind her. If life were a movie, this would be a point when the camera did a slow-motion pan and pop music played in beat with each clack of her high heels.
Anya sets her coffee cup down a little too hard, the loud bang enough to startle me from my thoughts.
“I still can’t believe it,” she says.
Obviously, I know exactly what she’s talking about, but a perverse part of me still wants to make her say it. “Can’t believe what?”
She looks at me like I just asked what year it is. “You have a sister. An identical twin sister who you never mentioned to anyone before she showed up completely out of the blue.”
I shrug and turn away from the sideshow that has become my sister’s sudden appearance in the dining hall. “It never came up.”
“How does something like that not come up?”
“It’s not like we spend tons of time talking about our families. I don’t know if you have any siblings,” I point out.
