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Mason had transferred into my seventh period Calculus II class, and Cole was in my final class of the day, just like he had been last semester.
I had figured out by mid-morning what was going on, and by the end of the day, as the five of us reconvened on the front steps of Craydon, I was sure of it.
The Princes had rearranged their class schedules to make sure one of them was with me at all times.
Chapter 8
The beginning of spring semester always felt different than the beginning of fall semester. It wasn’t so much a fresh start as a continuation of what had already started, so things tended to move faster and settle in quicker.
As the first week continued, we all fell into a pattern. The Princes would meet at my dorm in the morning and walk me over to Craydon Hall. Then we’d split up to head to our separate classes, coming together again as a group for lunch and at gym. I was almost never alone, and although a part of me found it constricting, a bigger part of me found it comforting. We sat with Leah, Maggie, and Dan at lunch, and although the two groups—Princes and non-Princes—didn’t exactly gel, everyone got along okay. There tended to be two distinct spheres of conversation, but occasionally the bubbles would merge together and the whole table would talk amongst themselves.
Unfortunately, classes weren’t the only thing that’d picked right up where fall semester had left off. The Oak Park admins and staff had scrambled to quickly contain and destroy the hundreds of pages of copied material Adena had distributed, but the blonde bitch herself was in no hurry to let it go. What she had on them—what I had given her, without ever meaning to—was enough to make the Princes miserable for a long fucking time. And she clearly didn’t intend to let anyone at school forget about it anytime soon.
Printed copies of the pictures I’d taken of Elijah were pasted to lockers one morning. Mason tried to drag me to our first class, but I wouldn’t go until I’d yanked every last one down, hobbling from locker to locker until I’d collected them all. I kept them in my backpack to burn later, not trusting that some asshole wouldn’t dig them out of the trash if I threw them away.
On the way to second period, I could barely look at Elijah. Shame and fury burned in my gut, and I was seriously considering lifting the “don’t go after Adena until we’re sure” edict that I’d made Mason promise to uphold.
“You okay, Tal?” he asked quietly, as we stepped out the side door of Craydon.
I turned to him, almost falling over as the rubber stopper on my crutch dragged against the walkway. “Why are you asking me that?”
He caught me quickly, holding my arms to steady me as he gazed down at me. “Because you look like you’re about to blow a gasket.”
I shook my head, my eyes burning as my entire body shook with repressed anger. “She’s such a bitch. Like it’s not bad enough she posted that shit on the internet? Now she has to put it up all over school too?”
He shrugged, his expression serious. “It was already out. People already saw it. She’s trying to keep going after us, but she already used everything she has. People won’t care after a while.”
“But it’s not—” I broke off, biting my lip.
I hated that Adena was doing this, but what I hated most, what made live snakes seem to twist in my gut, was the fact that I had done it. I had taken those pictures of Elijah. If I hadn’t done that, Adena couldn’t do what she was doing now.
Was this what Mason felt? This gnawing, overwhelming wish to rewind time and just make a different fucking choice?
Maybe it made us all even, but I didn’t even care about that anymore. I just wanted Adena to stop. Wanted the little black notebook to never have been filled with a list of damaging information.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered.
Elijah’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth, already shaking his head to deny my words, but I spoke again before he could.
“I shouldn’t have done it. That night was… special. It was good. It meant something to me, and then I just—wrecked it.”
A small smile bloomed on his face, and he suddenly stepped closer to me, sliding his arm around my waist and splaying his hand across my lower back before dropping his head and pressing his lips to mine.
I was so startled I almost dropped my crutches, my arms making an aborted movement to wrap around him in response. But I didn’t want to fall over, so I tightened my grip on the crutches instead as I fell into his kiss.
We hadn’t done this since the night we’d both lost our virginity, but my body hadn’t forgotten how amazing it felt. The only points of contact between us were Elijah’s hand on my back and the connection of our lips, but even hampered by the crutches, my back arched, trying to reach him, trying to press more of our bodies together.
His other hand delved into my hair, palming the back of my head as his tongue slid along the seam of my lips. When I opened my mouth, that addictive taste I hadn’t even realized I’d been craving flooded my senses as our tongues brushed against each other, teasing and exploring.
Elijah angled his head a little, and I moved mine the other way, my breath coming faster as our kiss deepened.
We were making out—heavily—in the little walkway between Craydon and Hammond Halls, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. At least, not enough to stop.
The hand in my hair slid around to cup my jaw as his mouth moved against mine, and then Elijah finally pulled away. He was breathing a little harder too, and he dipped his head to press another chaste kiss to my lips before he met my gaze.
“That night was special, Tal. It was maybe my favorite night ever. And I don’t care what happened after that. I know why you did it.”
I hobbled awkwardly closer to him, hating the small space that still separated our bodies. He met me halfway, wrapping both his arms around my waist and pressing us flush together.
