I wonder what she knows, or if she’s helping Pandora because shewants to. The Pavones and Voronkovs have been friends for a long time, and Anastasia is only a little younger than Pandora.
“No idea,” I say. “But whoever did this to Keegan has balls of steel, never mind sending it out to everyone on campus. He must’ve really pissed someone off.”
Somebody in the tunnel approaches me, and I immediately tense. Bobbi subtly gets into a fighting stance, too.
It’s a student I know from my engineering classes. He waves his phone in front of my face. “This is Keegan, right? Your frat brother? Is this for real?”
“It looks pretty real to me,” I tell him. “Poor guy.”
“Poor guy?” another student asks, smirking. “Keegan had it coming. Just wish I could’ve seen all of it.”
I wonder how many people Keegan has pissed off.
It seems like the Kappa Alpha fraternity is pretty good at making enemies.
“As interesting as this is,” Bobbi says, “I probably can’t use it as an excuse for being late. Although good luck keeping this next class focused.”
“Yeah,” I say, glancing back down at my phone before shoving it in my pocket. “Let’s go.” I lead us to the next turn through the tunnels, where foot traffic has slowed to a crawl as everyone checks their phones.
The song keeps blaring, over and over in a strange choir as everyone plays it. Some people start humming it too, laughing as they do.
We’re near the biology building when I hear somebody running behind me.
“Oh! River! River!” Pandora calls out. That’s all the warning I get before she half-tackles me from behind and wraps her arms around me.
I grunt, nearly losing my balance. “Pandora,” I say. “Did you see the pics of Keegan?”
“Hmm?” Pandora shakes her head. “What pics? Did something happen?”
Bobbi lets out a small, disbelieving laugh. “Did you forget your phone? They got sent out to the entire student body.”
Pandora steps away from me and pats her hoodie pocket. “Huh. Shoot, I think I did. River, call Samantha and ask her if my phone is there.”
I roll my eyes and don’t even pretend to follow orders.
“Somebody must have really hated him,” Bobbi says. She shows her phone screen to Pandora. “This is nasty.”
Pandora wrinkles her nose. “Oof. Yeah, sending out naked pics of people is just not cool.” She grabs my hand, her pinky directly over the stump of where mine would have been.
I try not to grimace at the stark reminder. It’s not like I need to be warned about what happens to people who piss off Pandora Pavone. She’s been going full throttle since the night at the gym, and it doesn’t seem like she’s going to back down any time soon.
Maybe after we deal with Ezio, some of the need to lash out at the world will abate, but until then… I pity the people who get in her way.
“Never mind the rats,” I say. “He really did piss off the wrong person.”
All of us did.
“I didn’t realize you were a student here,” Pandora says to Bobbi, her hand tightening on mine. “And now you and River are… friends?”
The possessiveness of the gesture takes me off guard, and I wonder if I’ve done something to make Pandora think I’m interested in Bobbi.
Never mind that Pandora would cut my balls off if I strayed.
“Yeah, we are,” I confirm. “I was just walking her to class so she didn’t get lost in the tunnels. It’s too damn cold out there.”
“I would have been miserable out there. But, sorry, who are you?” Bobbi asks, giving Pandora a once-over.
Pandora digs her nails into my skin, and this time I do wince. “I don’t know. Who am I, River?”
