Page 86 of His Angel

“So, what did happen to the bird?” Leo asks as we climb out, handing us both towels.

“Oh, it was fucked. We put it out of its misery and buried it in the garden.”

“I should have totally hit you harder,” Jacob says, rubbing the blossoming bruise on his cheekbone.

“You could have tried.” I chuckle, snatching back as he half-heartedly swings my way.

“Maybe it should be my turn,” Leo suggests, advancing.

“Sure,” I agree. “Oliver, you’re up.”

I throw the gloves in his direction, slinging the towel around my neck as I quickly manoeuvre my way around the machine and away from Leo. It’s not that I can’t or won’t jump in the ring with him, it’s just that I have plans for tonight, and they include being able to breathe properly and not needing stitches.

Jacob and I might go at it pretty hard, but we know each other’s limits and tend to not pass them. Leo doesn’t know them or doesn’t care. Circling back around, I join Jacob at the side of the ring as Oliver and Leo spar, testing each other out, not really doing any damage, yet.

“So, what do you have in mind for your mirroring?” I ask Oliver. “You and Stephanie have requested bands, right?”

“Yep,” Oliver replies. “I’m thinking about taking a leaf out of your book and kidnapping her after class or something.”

“Really?”

“She’d fucking eat that shit up,” he agrees before Leo connects with the side of his face, knocking him sideways. “Not here for that, bro?” he asks, connecting with Leo’s irritated stare.

“Your girl, your decision,” Leo replies with a shrug.

If he thinks he’s fooling anyone with the indifferent words coming out of his mouth, he’s completely delusional. Even I can see the irritation rippling from him.

“Jasper, you down for helping me out with it?” Oliver calls.

“Sure.”

And just like that, neither of them is holding anything back.

Oliver sends a vicious kick into the side of Leo’s knee, and Leo connects more than once with Oliver’s face, and eventually the two of them limp from the ring—after Jacob intervenes.

I’ve seen first-hand how devious Oliver can be with his fists, but neither of them comes out unscathed.

“Wyatt, will you be the other Devil for my mirroring thing?” Oliver asks, catching the towel I throw his way.

“I’m not interested in kidnapping the girl, but I’ll witness for you,” Wyatt replies from the climbing wall, looking down from his elevated position.

“Sounds good.”

Leo and I head for the weights, Jacob going to the treadmill as Jasper adjusts the playlist and we all fall quiet, concentrating on the workouts at hand until we’re all done, hot, sweaty, and ready to get out of here.

I take the shower in our room, or our old room as I suppose it is now, whilst Wyatt, Jacob and Leo go up to the suite—three of them can use the two bathrooms without issue, but the room feels weird as I enter.

The beds are still shoved together, the pillows haphazardly abandoned, but all of Wyatt’s things are gone, and I get my first taste of how Ivy felt when she got back to her empty room. The big difference is that I’ve known Wyatt for nothing more than a few months, not years, not most of my life. I can’t even begin to imagine how she felt.

Turning away from the half-empty room, I flick on the shower, leaving it to warm up before chucking my things in the washing basket and pulling some clean things out. My workbooks glare at me from the shelves, a threat that I should be taking more seriously, because whilst Leo has organised cover for Ivy’s classes, the rest of us are on our own.

If we’re going to continue to gather around her like this then we’ll need to sort out some kind of schedule that means we can still get work done. And so, with thoughts of classes and schedules, I jump in the shower, wash up quickly and throw on a pair of joggers and a shirt, heading out to go up to the suite.

“You know walking around in those pants will get you in trouble, don’t you?” Stephanie asks the second I get out of the door, Ivy beside her. “Sweatpants season is totally a thing.”

“What kind of thing?”

“It’s like man lingerie or something,” Oliver says from his doorway. “Don’t ask me why, but it works.” He grabs Stephanie by the back of her neck and drags her into the room, pulling the door closed behind him.

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