Eternal Flame

Chapter ~2~

Later that evening, Summer and I sat cross-legged on my bed, making flash cards for our Anatomy and Physiology test. We were both taking college preparatory classes and Mr. Richardson, our A&P teacher, gave us only four grades in the whole year. We had two major tests, a mid-term exam and a final exam. If you bombed any of the four, you really didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of fully recovering your grade.

Summer was probably my best friend, though that didn't mean as much as it used to. Much as had happened with almost everyone else, I'd grown apart from her over the last three years. But still, she was the lesser of the evils as far as friends went. I mean, confiding in Trinity was completely out of the question. Having her as my best friend would be like keeping a pet barracuda in my bathtub.

"If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell?" Summer didn't look up at me, just kept writing on the back of the card marked Alveoli.

"Of course."

"Trinity wants me to help her get revenge on Devon. Well, sort of."

Devon was Trinity's ex. If she had anything close to a weakness, he'd be her Achilles heel.

I put down my marker. I could sense a storm on the horizon, a nasty plan birthed in the sick mind of Trinity and it deserved my full attention. They didn't call her The Unholy Trinity behind her back for nothing.

"By doing what?"

"She wants me to get Devon to take me out and then post on Facebook that he's really, really tiny so that no one else will want to go out with him."

"Ahh," I said, immediately understanding her end game in such a plot. "Then Trinity will be the only one gracious enough to date him despite the vicious rumors."

Summer shrugged. "I guess." She still hadn't looked up to meet my eyes.

"Summer, you're not considering this, are you?"

She shrugged again.

"But why? Why would you do that? To Devon or to yourself?"

She looked up at me, frowning. "Oh, I wouldn't actually have sex with him. I'd just tell people that we did."

"But everyone would think that you just went out and slept with him. Do you think they won't be calling you a slut by lunchtime if you do this?"

"You know how Trinity is. If I say no, it's hard to tell what she'll do to me."

I growled, sliding off the bed to pace the floor. Everyone was afraid of Trinity, afraid of what she would do if she was angered. Trinity was smart, though. She never pushed the wrong people. She always picked the weakest ones of the herd to do her dirty work. She would never ask me to do something like that. I might bite my tongue a lot, but she knew I wouldn't go along with something so deplorable. It was times like this that made me wonder if Stanford was really worth it.