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“You can stay with us,” Ms. Rodriguez said, standing and walking into the hallway. “I’ll get you some pillows and a blanket. I’m not taking no for an answer. You’re not staying out on the streets or getting a hotel. Not when you have people who’ll take you in.”
And in that moment, I finally felt like I belonged, like I had people who cared about me for me. Not for my family’s money. Not for my family’s power. Not because they had to act like they cared. Vera and her family actually truly cared for me.
ChapterSixty-Six
VERA
At seven a.m., I padded out into the living room in my school clothes and leaned against the kitchen counter, watching Blaise still sleep. Mom slaved away at the breakfast she’d promised him, the bacon sizzling on the skillet.
Blaise lay on the couch on his stomach, his eyes closed softly and his lips parted. When Mom laid out the food on a couple paper plates, I gently shook Blaise awake. He woke up with huge, confused brown eyes and messy bedhead.
“Morning,” he mumbled.
“We have to eat quickly,” I said. “School starts in thirty minutes.”
He sat up and ran a hand through his hair to straighten it out, gazing toward the kitchen counter, where a plate of food sat for him. His lips curled into a smile, and he stood, grabbed the plate, then took a seat. “Thanks, Ms. Rodriguez.”
“You’re welcome, sweetheart,” Mom said, disappearing into the hallway. “Now to get that boy up for school.”
Blaise stuffed a piece of bacon in his mouth and moaned lowly in delight—but that sound did something to my dirty mind. “Your family loves you, Vera,” he said, softening his voice and leaning closer to me. “My mom has never made me breakfast.”
All this time, I’d thought Blaise had the life I wanted. But I hadn’t realized until last night how much he wanted to have mine—with parents who cared about him, a brother who wanted to play video games with him all the time, and people who loved him, no matter what.
“Are you sure you’re cool with this?” Blaise asked me ten minutes later, pulling into the Redwood Academy student parking lot in his sports car that garnered attention from all the people in the slums and even some of the rich students who came here. “I can drop you off around the corner.”
“It’s …” I stared at all the students looking at us now. “It’s fine.”
Truthfully, I had already announced to the entire school that we were kinda, sorta seeing each other. And it was cold as hell outside. I didn’t want to walk those extra few feet toward the building alone.
“Last chance,” Blaise said, driving into his designated parking spot.
“It’s fine,” I repeated more to myself than to him.
When we stepped out of the car, the entire student body looked over at us. And it wasn’t those interested, drama-filled stares, but ones with malice behind them. Some people snickered at us; others tried to hold back their laughter.
“Do they really think we’re funny?” I asked myself.
Of course they did. Blaise Harleen had brought the nerd to school in his sports car. Never in a million years had they thought they’d ever see something like that, someone likemeemerging from his passenger seat.
I wrapped my arms around myself, made sure to keep a few feet away from Blaise—because PDA? Yuck!—and walked toward the building. The coldness seared my cheeks as my stomach twisted even more. Even the teachers were staring at me.
Not Blaise. Me.
“What’s wrong?” Blaise asked, looking down at me.
“Do you not see everyone staring?!” I whisper-yelled back, hurrying a few feet ahead.
He glanced around and clenched his sharp jaw. “Don’t worry about them.”
“How could I not worry? You know how I am.”
Anxiously, I ran my hand through my hair and played with the ends of it to keep myself busy. It seemed like everyone at Redwood Academy had completely forgotten the rumors about Blaise supposedly murdering one of our classmates, and now, they were into the latest drama about the bad boy and good girl.
Why didn’t they have anything better to do?
Letting out a soft sigh, I glanced at the ground and desperately tried to ignore the stares. I’d rather they talk about us than blame Blaise for Skylar’s death though.
We walked up the front steps, and Blaise opened the main door for me. I hurried into the building, desperate to get out of the cold.
