Do you think they make jewelry shaped like blood pythons?
Blaze
No.
Where are you?
Pandora
Caf. I’m having your tofu salad!
Another picture pops up, this time with her dinner. It’s an entirely vegetarian spread: tofu salad, edamame, and a portobello mushroom burger.
Blaze
Don’t move.
Pandora
At all? I’m kind of hungry. I’m going to bite into this mushroom and pretend it’s your dick. Y’know, limp and sad.
I swallow a laugh, even though I’m supposed to be mad at her, even though I need to get her to hand over everything she stole.
I jog to the cafeteria, all the while reminding myself that I hate her, that she deserves everything she gets, that there’s no reason to want to see her smile.
Only she isn’t sitting alone when I spot her. She’s with that Carly girl from the first night I’d met Pandora, and a very tall guy. I don’t know his name, but I think he’s in the Nu Rho Kappa Upsilon fraternity. The NRKists.
My mood crashes.
Why the fuck was she flirting with me if she’s hanging out with another man?
I storm over to them and slam my hand on the table. “What are you playing at, Pandora?”
Carly flinches, but I ignore her. I don’t care about her.
Pandora, of course, doesn’t even react. If anything, her smile gets wider. “Playing at? I’m having dinner, Blaze. You want to join us? I got only things you can eat too.” She glances at the other two. “Blaze is vegetarian. Unexpected, right? Big bad frat boy like him, not eating meat.”
I bite my lip to prevent myself from lashing out. It’s nobody’s business whether I eat meat or not. I don’t like the taste, and even if my dad had gotten on my case for being ‘picky,’ I’d managed to assert myself on that.
“I don’t want your leftovers,” I sneer. “But you need to explain a few things to me.” I grab Pandora’s wrist and pull her out of the chair.
As soon as I do, the other guy at the table stands up and grabs my arm. “Let her go, Bouchard.”
I glare at him. “Do I know you?”
Now that I’m looking at him, he does feel familiar somehow. He’s taller than I am by several inches. I’d peg him at 6’6”, even. Not that I’m intimidated by his size or his muscles. Men bigger, far more powerful than him, have tried to intimidate me and failed.
“Reaper,” the guy says. “Let go of my friend.”
Friend.
Like Pandora is allowed to hang out with other men.
I smile at Reaper. “No. And if you don’t release me, I’m going to have a chat with some people about how you tried to manhandle me. You think you can go up against a Bouchard?”
The hand on my arm tightens. Reaper’s glare gets darker. “You think I give a shit? We all know what kind of man you are. If you think?—”
“Okay!” Pandora says. She slides closer to me. “Reaper, it’s cool. I was just thinking that I needed a sad, limp dick to jump on. It’ll be a nice change of pace from all the long, hard objects I’ve been sticking in me lately.”
