Page 16

“Not particularly. Plus, per Ezra’s rules, nobody is allowed to talk about me or who I kiss. You might want to shut up before he beats your ass next.”
Ivy snorts. “Yeah, okay. Somehow I don’t think that rule applies to us.”
It’s a nice rule, though. One that makes my heart squeeze tightly in my chest, the pernicious feeling of hope once again alive on the fluttering wings in my stomach and the whispers in my head.
Maybe he’s not as bad as the rest of the Inferno.
Maybe this is more than fun.
Maybe...
“I’m not even sure why he’s threatening people for you,” Ivy rambles on. “He asked Hillary to prom and Damon is taking her best friend, Kelly. So whatever it is you two were doing, don’t do it again. The twins are just as bad as the rest of their group.”
Or maybe not.
All the fluttering stops, and my hope crash lands into a festering wound Ivy tore open, one filled and bubbling with disgust. I should have known those secrets meant nothing.
“Why Hillary?”
It’s an accident to ask the question aloud, a thought that managed to sneak off my tongue before I could stop it.
They both glance at me, but it’s Ava that answers.
“Why does it matter? The twins are still up to their usual crap, and it’s better you find out now than after-“
Ivy elbows Ava and gives her a sharp look.
“We should all make a pact to avoid the Inferno guys,” Ivy offers. “I’ll stay away from Gabriel...”
Ava and I both laugh at that, which only earns us both a nasty glare.
“...and you stay away from the twins. It looks like the only person we don’t have to worry about is Ava. But only because she’s smart enough to stay away from all of them.”
Ava nods her head. “Of course I am. But then, I’ve always been the smartest among us.”
“Says the girl going to the same college as them,” Ivy retorts in a sing-song voice.
“Oh, please. The campus is huge. I highly doubt it will be a problem. Once high school is over, I plan to never have anything to do with them ever again.”
I believe her. Ava has always been popular with guys and has never once glanced in any of the Inferno boys’ directions. Plus, she is so dedicated to school, that she’ll be too busy at Yale studying to worry about socializing.
We turn a corner into the lunchroom, and it’s like the wind is knocked out of me.
Stopping dead the second I see the twins at the other end of the large space, heat races across my cheeks to see Hillary and Kelly standing next to them.
It shouldn’t feel like a knife is being stabbed in the center of my spine to catch my heart and shred it to pulp. Yet that’s exactly how it feels.
Thankfully, nobody has noticed us, and amber eyes don’t have a chance to lift and glance in my direction before I’m being dragged to a line for Ava’s salad.
“Don’t even look at them,” Ivy whispers. “It’s not worth it.”
“I’m not,” I lie, my eyes betraying me when they flick across the room to see the twins walking out the back door with Hillary and Kelly following behind them like puppies.
“Uh huh. Right. I believe that entirely,” she deadpans, sympathy in her stare. “I should have never encouraged you to get involved with them.”
“Why did you?” I ask, not in an accusatory way, or even mad, but because I’m curious why she felt the need to push me their direction.
She’s distracted, her eyes meeting mine for just a second before darting past me. I don’t have to turn around to know Gabriel is walking through the room. Only one person has the ability to draw Ivy like a moon orbiting the Earth.