“What about you, Ken Doll?” Scarlett says with an evil smirk, reaching next to her to pick out all the purple candies out of the jar.
“You know that nickname will never stick, right?” Kennedy frowns.
“I’ll make it stick. Don’t worry,” Scarlett says, hauntingly. Ken throws a weak punch into her arm before clearing her throat.
“Okay, so, my updates are…I finished our portraits but before you can ask, no you can’t see them until I think they’re ready,” Kennedy exclaims. She has been working on and off for our group portraits, but she keeps saying she’s getting close to finishing it and then completely scrapping the painting. I think I’ve posed for more photos for Kennedy than I have for myself.
“Which isn’t going to be for another year,” I whisper under my breath. Scarlett hears me and snickers before thinking.
“I heard that, you impatient bitch. True art takes time,” Kennedy states proudly. “And second update is I finished the new season of The Crown.”
“What? Oh my God! Without me?” Scarlett exclaims, throwing a pillow in her direction.
“I had to! You take, like, a gazillion bathroom breaks whenever we watch anything.”
“You’rethe one that stopped Matilda. You can’t spoil it for me now,” Scarlett says.
“Ican’tspoil it. It’s literally history, just pick up a book,” Kennedy retorts, rolling her eyes. She turns to me, her expression calming down from their short-lived argument. “What about you, Wren? You’ve been awfully quiet.”
“I’m just thinking about my updates. Nothing exciting has happened,” I sigh.
As soon as the words leave my mouth, heat begins creeping up my cheeks without permission. The second I have time to think about what has happened in the last week I’m reminded of two things: having my meeting with Coach and his face. Miles’ dumb, stupid, ridiculously gorgeous face. He’s managed to get his way into my head with his confusing conversations and typical hockey guy personality. Just thinking about the way, he leaned into me at the party, his hot breath on my neck is enough to send shivers down my spine.
But it shouldn't. Because the last thing I want is to be one of his Puck Bunnies.
“Oh my God, spill it. Right now,” Kennedy demands, her eyes searching mine.
“Spill what?” I say, reaching my arm behind her to shove whatever food I can find into my mouth to stop me from talking.
“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s about a boy. I can tell,” Kennedy says, wiggling a finger in my face. She has loved doing that for as long as I can remember but I don’t know why. Even when I know she’s talking to me, she loves to point at me for extra emphasis.
“How can you tell?” I get out around a mouthful of pistachios.
“Because your face is red as a tomato right now,” Scarlett says. “This is a judgment free zone. Speak your mind, baby.”
I stifle my laugh and take in a deep breath. “Fine. Update one is that I finished a new chapter of Stolen Kingdom.”
Kennedy gasps and Scarlett’s eyes widen with excitement. “Oh my God,” they both scream at the same time.
“See I knew it wasn’t about a guy!” Kennedy says, completely contradicting her last comment. Scarlett shakes her head fiercely.
“No, you didn’t. And you didn’t let her finish,” Scarlett explains. “But we need to return back to that. I have been dying to know what happens next.”
I started writing Stolen Kingdom, a fantasy series, when I was sixteen. It follows a young princess, Carmen, who finds out her whole life is a lie, and she is not actually the real heir to the throne. She is sent anonymous messages and is stalked around her small kingdom in Estonia, and she is on a quest to find out who knows her real identity and what they’re going to do about it. It falls into many different categories and the plot takes ridiculous turns, but Scarlett and Kennedy have managed to keep up thus far. They are the only people I trust to read anything I write outside of class.
“You guys know Miles Davis, don’t you?” I ask, not fully meeting either of their eyes.
“Of course. He was friends with Jake and he’s Evan’s housemate. He never shuts up about how annoying he is. Always hockey this and hockey that,” Scarlett mocks.
“It’s interesting how you hate Evan so much, yet this is the second time he’s made an appearance in today's conversation,” Kennedy teases.
Evan is two things: filthy rich and blonde. He is a gorgeous man, and no one could deny that, but his personality makes all of us cringe. Scarlett most of all. They’re in the same class and since he joined NU, later than everyone else, he has been trying to upstage Scarlett. It’s been constant competition between them since day one. Constantly battling for the better grade or the best answers. Scarlett is not afraid of any competition but there is something about Evan that makes her skin crawl.
I look over to a red-faced Scarlett, her expression lying somewhere between a blush and pure anger. “You’re getting us off topic,” Scarlett hisses at her. She turns back to me, smiling. “Continue.”
“We were kind of talking at the party. He is really annoying but in a way that’s kind of endearing. Anyway, it turns out he’s in a shit situation too. I didn’t pay much attention to it last year, being so caught up with Augustus drama, but he was really close with Carter Reyes. He’s been drinking and wallowing in self-pity for so long his grades have slipped and he’s been benched. Judging on the fact that I could have lit his mouth on fire at the party, I don’t think he’s going to be getting on the ice anytime soon,” I ramble.
A weird sensation washes over me.
