I wonder why Blaze is vegetarian.
“Oh, hey,” I greet. “You’re grabbing dinner too?”
Carly sits down across from me, and the other woman takes the seat next to her.
“This is Kavita,” Carly says. “I was telling her… I mean. Well, she had some interesting things to say.”
I tilt my head. “Telling her? About what? The movie night?”
Kavita is a bit taller than Carly, with tanned skin and straight black hair that goes to her shoulders. She has a nose stud, and her clothes are so bright, a pop of teal green and pale yellows that I wouldn’t have associated with the greige most of the students here wear.
“Hi,” Kavita says with a slight smile. “You two do movie nights?”
“Sometimes.” Carly takes a bite of her food before continuing. “I like indie stuff. Pandora tolerates indie movies.”
“Hey! That’s not fair,” I complain. “I like your movies.”
I have to like them. If I don’t, I’ll be a bad friend, and Carly won’t trust me, and then she won’t just be date raped. She’ll end up in a ditch or in a dumpster and her pieces will be burning in an incinerator.
Kavita takes her plate from the tray and starts eating too, and at first it’s a surreal conversation about movies and what classes we take and something about trips to foreign countries.
My phone buzzes again with another text.
Wannabe Hot Stuff
Five course meal? You get three, and if you still want to stuff your face after I’ve got a few ideas.
I’m about to reply when Carly says, “That’s Blaze, right?”
I glance up. “Yeah. Why?”
She bites her lip and shares a brief look with Kavita.
What the fuck was that?
“You know Blaze is…” Carly sighs. “I mean. He’s part of the Chaos gang. Hell, he’s the ring leader basically. Even as a freshman…”
“You weren’t here last year, Carly,” I point out. My smile starts to hurt. “What do you know about Blaze?”
“Iwas here last year,” Kavita says bluntly. “And I know all about the fraternities here at Dyschord. Chaos are the worst. Not that the others are better. But there’s a special level of hell for Chaos.”
I giggle. “I mean, duh. That’s why their frat house burnt down. Divine intervention or whatever.”
“Right. Divine intervention,” Carly repeats. “But if it wasdivine intervention, shouldn’t you take that as a sign to stay away from them?”
Something constricts my chest. “Uh. From Blaze? He’s not like the rest of them.”
Never mind that he’s part of the Bouchard family, and that they own half the school, or that he beat up Tate for me and had a guy killed because he was mean to Asch.
What’s a bit of violence and murder among enemies?
“He is,” Kavita says. “He’s probably the worst of them. The entire Bouchard family.” She sighs. “You might not have heard, but Blaze and his friend Asch both used a lot of women. And the entire fraternity has a group chat where they share photos of?—”
The thing constricting my chest tightens.
“I’m aware,” I snap. “But you already know I’m aware.” I glare at Carly. “What the fuck is this?”
Carly takes a deep breath. “You’ve been weird lately, Pandora. Kind of… I mean, you were always aggressive, I know that’s you, but you keep pretending nothing gets to you. You can talk to me about it though. I, of all people, would know what you’re going through.”
