The Boy with the Blind Eyes

EIGHTEEN

LISTEN TO THE SONG!! M83 IS AMAZING <3 

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After class, Eliza pulled Tamsin aside, her usually-clear eyes blurred unusually. 'Hey,' she said. 'Wanna come to dinner with me?' Tamsin opened her mouth to explain that she couldn't, she had to get the assignment to Angus, but Eliza took her silence as an acceptance. She smiled. 'Great! I hear they're making the HMA staple tonight—salmon! We should hurry before it all disappears. Meet you down there in ten?'

Tamsin glanced at her watch. It was already six. She sighed. 'Sure.'

Eliza frowned suddenly. 'Everything okay?'

'Yeah. Fine.'

'No, it isn't,' she insisted, her frown deepening. 'What happened?'

Wow. The girl can read people. The truth was, Thea's comment from the night before was still bothering Tamsin. 'It's nothing.'

Eliza's brow raised, clearly unconvinced. 'I know you're lying. We'll talk about it over dinner. But first, go and get changed, and put on something nice, okay? I was thinking after dinner we could hit up a few clubs.'

'Uh— 'Tamsin began to protest.

'What?'

She sucked in air through her teeth, trying not to wince at the thought of attending some ridiculous club. It was New York, for God's sake. The amount of things that could go wrong—getting caught, for example—made Tamsin's head spin. 'No.'

'No?' Eliza seemed confused. She laughed a second later, throwing her hair back over her shoulder, flicking into the face of an annoyed, severe-looking brunette. 'Very funny, Tamsin.'

'What's funny? I'm dead serious. I can't get caught sneaking into a club, Eliza—what if they ask for I.D. call the school? What if I get expelled?' She demanded.

Eliza scoffed, as if her reasons were ridiculous. 'I have I.D's,' she rolled her eyes. 'They're not gonna ask anyway. My brother's the owner.'

'You have a brother?'

'Well...he's not technically my brother, but close enough. I screwed him once,' she shrugged. 'After that night, I prefer to think of him as a brother.' She shuddered.

Tamsin tried to blink away the image of Eliza getting tangled up with her 'sibling'. Trying to hide the disgust on her face, she sighed. 'It's not going to happen.'

'Tamsin, we won't get caught, okay? Don't you want to be accepted?' Her razor sharp eyes threw sparks, and she knew she had Tamsin with that one comment.

Tamsin glanced away from her, uncomfortable.

Eliza spoke up again, after the crowds had dispersed from the piano class. 'You know,' she said, eyes narrowing, 'maybe we should just skip the salmon and go straight for the club. Go put on something sexy.' Her mischievous eyes glinted like a cat's in the dark. 'I'm going to find you someone tonight.'

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Tamsin didn't know what Eliza had meant by the term someone, but whatever it did mean, she was going to make sure it didn't happen. Did she mean a friend? A boyfriend? Tamsin shook her head, longing for Brett's arms, to be with his warm and accepting family, eating ice cream and pudding, like she assumed they would be tonight. She thought about bailing on Eliza. It would be easier to do that than actually go through with it. She hadn't wanted to in the first place; got sucked into it like she got sucked into everything.

Yet, for some reason, she found herself sifting through Lina's closet, hunting for 'sexy' clothes. She wasn't technically meant to be in their dorm yet—it was still in the process of being thoroughly cleaned before they could move back in. But the meagre belongings she'd transferred to Johanna and Thea's dorm was everything she was hoping to avoid wearing. She was sure her roommate wouldn't mind if she borrowed an outfit. Lina's closet was absolutely packed, which made no sense, considering she'd asked for an additional one that she hid behind the door, which was also stuffed full of clothes.