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She shakes her head, frustration burrowing in the lines around her eyes. “Exhausted,” Kaye groans. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I signed up for 23 hours this semester. Well, that’s a lie.” She pulls her feet under her, reaching up to push a strand of hair behind her ear. “I was thinking if I could take as many classes each semester as possible, I could graduate early and get out of here sooner.”
Kaye has as many problems as I do if not more. Ever since her mother married prominent divorce attorney, Malcolm McCade, she’s been dealing with her obsessed stepbrother, Xavier. He stalks her like he has nothing better to do than show up at her house in the middle of the night and torment her. Xavier is the reason she wants to race through her time at Blackmore and doesn’t have a moment to spare for her best friend. I hate him.
“How’s your wrist feeling today?” I ask.
She gingerly displays the wrap Everton Health Center gave her a few days ago. We had just made it to campus to settle into our new dorm, when one thing led to another. She refuses to admit exactly what happened or what he said to her, but Xavier left her with a sprained wrist and a healthy fear of the future. “It doesn’t really hurt unless I take off the splint thing.”
The corner of my lips quirks upward. “Then don’t take it off, silly.”
My best friend groans in frustration, pushing the textbook off her lap and onto the blankets beside her. “I can’t deal with him this semester, Chris. I’ve got five million papers to do, and I need to find a job. He can’t follow me around all semester; I’ll never get anything done.”
I’ve been telling her for years to do something about Xavier. Tell her mom. Call the cops. Put it in writing in case he tries to kill her one day. But Kaye has been resistant to all of my recommendations. “You want me to beat him up?” I offer. “I could break his leg or something.”
It breaks the tension, and she grins at me. “I could run him over with my car,” Kaye perks up. “You think I could get away with it?”
I grimace in response. I love my best friend, but she isn’t the person I would call if I had a dead body to dispose of. She’s more fragile than she cares to admit, and she would crack under the pressure. “I don’t know, Kaye. You’re not much of a liar.”
She wrinkles her nose and sighs. “Yeah, you’re right. I’d wind up getting caught trying to get rid of the body, and then I’d go to prison. And I’ll never make it in prison,” she says with an exaggerated groan. “I’m too gentle.”
“Absolutely,” I agree. “Someone will make you their bitch on day one.”
Kaye flips me off, but there’s a smile on her face. “You’re supposed to make me feel better about myself, Christine.”
I stretch out on my bed, feeling the stress of the last hour with Niccolo disappear from my limbs. “I’m off my game today. Did I tell you about the weird girl in my Psych class?”
“Weirder than you?” Kaye teases me with a mischievous grin and a playful poke of her tongue.
“Yeah. Sierra or Sienna or something. I don’t know. I was looking at Nic’s bio on the campus website when she sat down next to me and said he was hot. Then she started talking aboutsnow in Minnesota and her mom.” I almost forgot to mention that she asked me if I had a personality disorder. “She was so weird.”
But Kaye points out that I thought the same thing about her when we met in elementary school. “I was the lonely little five-year-old that brought a Barbie lunchbox to school when Barbie wasn’t cool,” she reminds me.
The first time we met, it was like comets colliding. I hated her for reasons I can’t even remember now. “God, you were chatty, too,” I shake my head. “You kept talking about your crush on Arthur.” I barely remember the PBS Show from back in the day, but I know she was weirdly in love with the animated Aardvark.
“All I’m saying is don’t write her off just yet. You’re going to need a new best friend when I go to prison,” Kaye reminds me.
Oh, god. If my only option for a new best friend is some crazy girl that thinks my stepfather is hot, I’m screwed. “Maybe I’ll pack my bags and flee the country if you go to prison,” I offer. “Find a new man, one I’m not related to.” One that doesn’t make my stomach do backflips every time he looks at me a certain way.
Kaye gives me a pointed look. “Crazy men like Niccolo exist everywhere. You’re gonna have to become a lesbian if you want to avoid them all together.”
I snap my fingers and point at her. “New plan. You and I become lesbian lovers, and then Xavier and Nic will have to leave us alone.” I’m a genius.
“Yeah, no,” she responds, immediately shooting down my idea. “I might not have been with a man yet,” Kaye’s cheeks fill with color upon admission, “but I want to one day.”
I bury my face in my pillow and whine, “You’re breaking my heart, Kaye Pennington.”
She giggles from her bed on the other side of the room. “I’m sure you’ll get over it when some tall, dark, handsome college senior sweeps you off your feet. Then you’ll forget all about step daddy dearest.”
God, I hope so. I just need one hot, experienced college boy to make me forget about the kiss I shared with Niccolo. And maybe a couple more to make me forget everything else. Kaye doesn’t know it, but this isn’t the first time I’ve been in a predicament like this with my stepfather.
And if I’m being honest, I don’t think it’ll be the last.
Chapter 4
Niccolo
My brothers have the audacity to show up at my door on a Friday night and ask me to go partying in the Rosedale bar district—as though I’m not going to run into a single student of mine. “You’re fucking crazy. I’m not partying with a bunch of college girls.”
My youngest brother, Luciano, breezes past me and heads for the kitchen. He’s always hungry, and by the time we reach him, he’s got a bag of popcorn in the microwave. Lucky starts looking through my cabinets, searching for a bowl. “Don’t be so critical, Nicci,” he says as he allows a cabinet door to slam shut. “You hang out with college girls every day,Doctor.”
