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“Are you guys dating?” Nera asks, clearly a little confused.
Join the club, I want to tell her.
I shake my head vigorously. “Definitely not. This is a power thing for him. The hickeys are just another way to prove he owns me. For now.”
“But,” Six pauses before finishing her question. “Have you guys slept together?”
Thayer jumps in before I can answer. “No, she would have told us. Right?” She finishes, giving me a questioning glance.
I nod. “We haven’t slept together.”
“Let me get this straight.” Nera pauses. “You guys go to detention together every afternoon, you have dinner and you sleep in the same bed together, and you fool around every night, but you’re not dating.”
“That’s right.”
“So what are you doing?” Thayer asks.
“I don’t know. He’s just playing with me.”
“I think you’re wrong. I told you he’s never done this. He would never move someone in like he has with you, let alone sleep with you every night.” Six says, adamantly.
I shake my head cheerlessly. “He sleeps with me every night, but in a guest bedroom, not his bedroom which I’ve never even seen. And when I ask him a personal question, he’d literally rather run out of his house than give me an answer. He’s been very clear about the boundaries, I’m the one who isn’t listening to them. I can’t let myself think this is anything more than it is, Six.”
She gives me a strong, fortifying hug. “Alright, we won’t talk about it anymore. What should we do this afternoon?”
“I’m really down for a gossip catch up sesh. Oh, and I have to be back at Rogue for a party tonight. You guys are coming with.”
“You know I never say no to a night out.” Nera says with a mischievous grin as her and Six grab snacks and drinks from the kitchen.
I look at Thayer and catch her watching me contemplatively. “What?” I ask her.
“How are your feelings doing in all this?”
“I’m fine.” I say.
She gives me a disbelieving look.
“I’m fine. I promise.” I repeat, this time more confidently. “But I’m probably going to have to wear a turtleneck tonight.” I add, changing the subject.
“Don’t worry about that.” Six says, throwing a piece of popcorn into her mouth. “I’m a pro at makeup. I’ll take care of those.”
“You’re an angel.”
???
It’s surreal to walk through the door of Rogue's house and have to bustle my way through a crowd. I’m like every one of them, a student at RCA going to a party at the popular guy’s house except my clothes are upstairs and my toothbrush is in a cup in the bathroom. Not his bathroom of course, but one in his house.
No one beyond his friends and mine know about the extent of our arrangement. They’ve seen him order me about at school, have seen me comply, they’ve seen our truce, but they don’t know that when classes end I go home to this house. That I’ve cooked in the kitchen, watched movies with the guys in the cinema room, and played pool with Rogue in the library.
In reality, I’m as much an outsider looking into his life as the rest of them.
Thayer comes shimmying towards me, two shots held above her head. Nera’s behind her with the other two, some limes, and salt.
“D’accord.So we’re having that kind of night then?” Six says with a laugh as she takes a glass from Nera and hands it to me.
“Damn right.” Thayer replies. She raises her glass and tips her head in a cheers to me, before her eyes move above my shoulder. “Look who’s decided to make an appearance this time.”
I look over my shoulder and see Rogue, Phoenix, and Rhys standing in the doorway. Rogue is off to the right slightly, his gaze roaming across every face in the room as he scans it meticulously. I wonder who he’s looking for. Whoever it is, they’ve got to be here. Everyone is tonight.
