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His mouth turns down. “I don’t know. People collect those things. People give them as gifts. Where’s your favorite place in the world?”
“What? That seems like a completely irrelevant question to be asking right now, considering the position we find ourselves in.”
His shoulders shift, angling toward me a little. His head is still cast down, though, as if he’s unwilling to turn and face me properly. “There are better positions we could be in, yes.”
“Is that supposed to be innuendo?” I scoff. “You really think it’s smart to come in here and try and flirt with me after what happened last night?”
He frowns quizzically. “And what happened last night?”
“You—you were going to pick me out of that line up by the bonfire!”
Genuine amusement plays across his face. “I don’t think I was.”
Fury bubbles in my blood, causing it to rush in an angry tide to my head. My temples begin to throb. “Don’t pull that shit with me, Merchant. You stood in front of me, drinking that bottle of tequila. You—you were fucking with me!”
His expression is unreadable now. With careful, measured movements, he lifts a hand and reaches out with the tip of his index finger, making contact with the top of my shoulder. I mean to wheel away from the contact, revulsion tearing me apart from the inside, but…I don’t move. Theo trails his fingertip across my skin—a featherlight touch, tracing his finger through the beads of water that still cling to my skin from my shower. “Maybe you should get your facts straight before you go accusing people of things.”
“Oh, wonderful. Now we’re using loaded comments.”
“A loaded comment aboutwhat?” He is so,sofucking smug.
I’m so angry, I’m having a hard time restraining the maelstrom of feelings whipping around in my chest. He’s baiting me. He wants me to say something about Rachel. I feel it. I know it. He wants to quip about me accusing him of causing Rach’s death or something. I can’t just come right out and say that, though. That would end this ruse between us. My purpose here would officially be laid bare once and for all.
Theo hums quietly, considering the pattern he’s drawn on my shoulder with the droplets of water. “Okay. Well, I’ll let you have a think on that then, Kid. Since you can’t seem to figure it out right now.”
My reaction is instantaneous. “Don’t call me that. I’m not a kid. Get the fuck out of here, Theo. I’ll fucking scream.”
A cold, unfeeling expression settles over his features. I stare up at him, and the void expression looks so out of place there that it almost steals my breath from me. It’s as if he’s transformed into a completely different person. “I suppose youdidreach five, didn’t you?” His tone is all frost and spite.
“I did.”
A horrible moment stretches out, where he pins me down with a fierce, hard gaze. The thumping at my temples turns into a relentless pounding; so quickly, it feels like my head’s about to split open.
“What’s wrong?” The words come out of his mouth, clipped and sharp.
“Your presence here is giving me the migraine from hell, that’s what’s wrong. Now ge—”
“Don’t worry. I’m fucking gone.”
He storms for the door and rips it open so hard that I think he’s going to tear it straight off its hinges. He doesn’t say another word as he disappears out into the hall. The door crashes closed behind him, the wood rattling in the frame…and the void he leaves behind is hollow as an abyss.
9
SORRELL
Two Weeks Later
Time passes strangely at Toussaint. A day turns into three, turns into a week, turns into two. I study. I shuttle back and forth from my classes, then back to my room. I spend more and more time with Noelani. A tentative sort of friendship develops between us, and I spend most of my lunch breaks with her, fantasizing about all of the things we can’t wait to do once we get ourselves out of this hellhole.
With no internet and no television, the outside world doesn’t exist for us here, suspended in our state of punishment; the only thing that keeps most of the girls on my floor sane is daydreaming about all of the fun shit they’ll get into once Ford’s weekend pass ban is lifted, which I, personally, am beginning to think will never actually happen.
I hear nothing from Ruth.
Nothing.
No phone calls. No texts. No check-ins whatsoever, which was very worrying at first. However, as the days pass by, my worry turns to anger. Ruth is the one who sent me here. She was the one who told me to face Theo and make him suffer the consequences of his actions. Then she told me not to do anything until she gave me the green light. Now she’s abandoned me, without any guidance or reassurance over what I’m supposed to do? What thefuckis she playing at?
On day ten of radio silence from Falcon House, I make a decision. If Ruth doesn’t want to pick up when I call her and doesn’t even have the decency to fire off a quick message to me, then fuck it. I won’t try and contact her, either. Why should I? She’s keeping secrets. She’s thrown me in at the deep end with all of this, and now refuses to even throw a lifeline in after me?
