...
❝He was the poison I was dying to taste on my lips.❞
...
I was a coward.
The coward who wanted to leave behind the wreckage of her life for the man who had tormented her for as long as she could remember. The boy who had spit venom at me gro...
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"I'M GOING TO take a look at the Psych table. Want to come with me?"
I nodded to Faye, linking my fingers with her and turning to move away just as River interrupted.
"Your course has nothing to do with Psychology. What exactly are you going to do with her?"
"I don't have to do anything," I said. "I'm just going to be at her side."
"You're wasting your own time by doing that."
"What's it to you?" I asked pointedly, feeling five pairs of eyes on us as we stood in a circle in the large hall. Instead of our third-period lesson, we were in a Career Enriching event, where people from different fields came to speak and advertise. That was largely just a facade though, since this was just a way to allow nepotism to happen without making it obvious.
He continued. "I thought I'd give you some advice. Don't take it if you'd rather not."
"What you gave wasn't advice. It was judgment, which was completely unnecessary."
"If you're so intent on ignoring advice, I can only imagine how your interview went. When they asked what you do in your spare time, did you say that you waste it by engaging yourself in non-relevant activities?"
I mentally rolled my eyes. When I had my interview last week and had been half-convinced that I was having heart palpitations, it was him who'd calmed me down the day before. He'd sat in front of me, grasping my wrist with a feel of my pulse, as he breathed with me.
"It went perfectly fine, and they were more than pleased with my answers. So if you can shut your mouth and keep my business out of it, I'd appreciate it."
"No can do." He shot me a mocking smile. "Until you leave, of course. Which by the looks of it will only be the end of the year."
"Of course, it always has to circle back to that with you." I shook my head in exasperation. "If only Cambridge figured out that they'd offered someone so repulsively thick-headed a spot. They'd retract it in seconds."
River grimaced. "Your ego took too much of a hit, did it? Now you're trying to sabotage what other people have."
I stared at him open-mouthed. "When the hell did I do that?"
He turned to Lyle. "Did she not insinuate that she would?"
Lyle held both hands up. "I'm not getting into one of your disputes again. Keep it between the both of you."
I had to conceal my humour. The last time he'd started to nod at something River had said, Faye and Heira had almost bitten his head off.
No one seemed to be aware of what was going on, and except for the occasion when Faye smoothed down stray strands of my hair after River's fingers had been through them, she didn't shoot me any inquisitive looks.
