Page 71 of House of Bass

“You can never get rid of me again, Saint.” Then he presses a kiss onto my lips and I sigh in content, all my irritation fading away.

We walk out of the loo together after checking there is no one in the corridor but unfortunately I clearly didn’t check well enough since the first person I bump into as we round the corner is Nic.

I blink rapidly in the hopes that he’ll disappear but no he is looking from Arden to I as it dawns on him what is occurring. Were we really that obvious? “I should have known when he started acting all territorial about my arm on yours earlier.”

I begin to walk towards him in the hopes of explaining but Arden pulls me back with a glare to me then transfers it to Nic.

“Nicholas, what I do or don’t do is none of your concern,” he uttered.

“Shut up,” I hiss then whack his chest. “Go, we can’t walk in together anyway. Please.”

Arden rolls his eyes but gives me a kiss on the head before leaving.

Then I turn to the boy who has a faint look of disappointment directed my way. I ignore it and focus on getting my point across, “Nic, you can’t tell anyone. This can hurt too many people if not handled carefully.”

“You should know me better than that, Anne. I’d never tell anyone anything that’d hurt you.” I think about what he says, about how I should know him better, but I haven't since we were eleven and a lot can change in that time. People change. Still, I choose to trust him.

“Thank you. I mean it,” I whisper and give him a hug.

“Let’s go before he comes back in here and chains you to him,” Nic says, in jest. However, I grin thinking about it and he laughs. “Which I’m sure you’d enjoy.”

26

HARLEY

Harley remembered she hated the cold and even more when the first fall of snow had made its appearance on her way into Thorne. Snowflakes dusted her coat, all melting as soon as they landed. None of it stuck, so the ground was wet, icy and slippery in different parts. Her legs felt robotic like it took everything in her to walk each step into the building but luckily her black boots were sturdy and firm so she managed to not fall face flat. Her lips felt chapped even though she had applied the vaseline sitting in her pocket only twenty minutes ago.

The focus on her lips were simply a necessary evil to avoid thinking about how she hadn’t seen Scarlett in almost three weeks. No phone calls. No messages. Radio silence. Bloss told her not to come into work for some time, at least not until things had settled down. She wasn’t sure why it bugged her so much, it hadn’t even been two months since they first met. She was used to not having friends. They never stuck around long enough and back then she didn’t care if they did or not.

But being with and around Scarlett…it was the first time Harley felt hundred percent herself around someone. She didn’t have to try too hard. The scowling and sullenness wasn’t a deal breaker, she found herself feeling freer than she ever had in her whole life. She was able to get out of her head and focus on the now. Harley came to terms with the fact that if she had somehow lost that forever, the friendship, it would hurt.

Scarlett was right, despite all of this she had barely known Harley. She had refused to talk about her life before coming to London. She thought erasing the past would make it easier for her to assimilate, briefly forgetting her past was what made her into what she was today. Asocial and withdrawn.

As she walked into the engineering department, Harley ignored the bustle of students heading in the opposite direction in which she had been walking, not wanting to bother herself with whatever fickle situation they've managed to amuse themselves with. In the brief months she'd been here, she realised the wealthy were simply bored with their own lives, hence they found idle ways to make their tragic lives interesting. They were no different from the poor but at least they had the money to do something about it.

Her wired headphones blasted music loudly in her ears, so she jumped when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to address the ghost who had snuck up on her, to see it was Wren and Trinity, the latter carrying a folder of notes as she said, “You’re going the wrong way.”

“No, I’m not.”

“I’m not talking about you skipping class. Albeit, you really should stop doing so.”

Attendance was strict for her course; if it dropped under ninety-five percent per semester, there were consequences. What exactly they were, she didn’t know just yet but she was teetering the edge of finding out.

“There’s an assembly going on, you can’t skip those,” Wren said. This wasn’t true because Harley had not attended a single one, they were like huge pointless seminars that went on for too long. She had better things to do with her time.

“I’ll deal with the consequences.”

“This particular assembly is mandatory for all students and I figured with who the guest was, you would be more willing to attend,” Wren said with a sly smirk. Her knowing eyes twinkled with the same mischief that she always carried with her everywhere.

This stopped Harley in her tracks, “What are you talking about?”

“William Bass is giving a surprise seminar in the great hall.” Harley tried to hide her shock but it was clear as day she had been blindsided by this information. She wanted to be angry at Annabel for not giving her a heads up on this but she quickly remembered that this was no one’s fault but her own as she had been icing Annabel out in the last couple weeks, every time she tried to talk to Harley she either left the room or held her hands up to stop her. Yet despite all this, she couldn't help the irritation that flared.

In the time she'd been here she had never been given the courtesy of a visit or communication from her father. Nothing besides the letter informing her of her parentage and instructing her she was to attend Thorne. She figured she would be prepared for this. To finally see him again after so many years and up close compared to the dark shine of the moonlight.

The secret of whom her father was of course still hidden to most, the people here still assumed she was yet another scholarship student wasting their parents hard earned money to grant her an education. And yet by the smile on Wren’s face she had a suspecting feeling she knew more than she should.

“Why would that be of any interest to me?” Harley said in the hopes that she had recovered quickly enough to deflect.