Page 50 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series
Noah stuck close to my other side as we walked toward the gym’s entrance, Bennett trailing along behind us as he pulled his sweatshirt back on.
Noah said, “Zach, if the Families catch you down here, Andrea will start asking questions.”
“Fucking let her.”
“I can’t believe this is where you’ve been living all this time.”
Noah sighed, gazing out the window of Zach’s car as Zach drove us up Southside’s main drag toward Olde Town and our apartment.
We’d just driven under an overpass that housed the largest population of homeless in the City, the dusty tents growing in number every year.
We passed several more rundown strip malls, my favorite little Cuban restaurant, and the one free clinic that served the entire Southside population.
Because of Max’s rude but valid shotgun declaration, I was stuffed into the Ferrari’s tiny back seat, sandwiched in between Noah and Bennett.
Their bodies were pressed up against mine from thigh to shoulder, and I was trying very hard not to enjoy it as I battled the memories of how we used to watch movies all piled together like this in Bennett’s media room.
They both studied our surroundings through their respective windows as we drove along the pothole-riddled street, Zach griping every thirty seconds about what it was doing to his suspension .
“Yes, this is where I’ve been living,” I said to Noah. “Max and I took the City bus daily to school about a mile from here, and we also spent a whole lot of time down at Dom’s gym.”
“First time visiting the Southside, rich boys?” Max quipped as Zach slapped his hand away from where he was fucking with the music selection.
“Obviously,” Bennett replied dryly.
“It’s… worse than I thought it would be,” Noah muttered.
I barked out a laugh. “How’d you think the working class lived?
Everyone down here is stuck in the hamster wheel of working themselves to the bone for the City’s ruling class and taking whatever scraps they’re given.
There’s no upward mobility for these people unless they manage a scholarship to Holywell or escape the City altogether. ”
“And yet,” Zach said as we entered Olde Town, the old, deteriorating apartments that lined the roads suddenly turning into cuter, if not still a little rundown, rowhouses on cobblestone streets.
“Princess lives two blocks south of Main Street above a happy little bookstore. I find it hilarious that the entire school called Joanna Miller ‘slum trash’ for a whole semester, and not once did she note that she was actually extremely middle class.”
That irony had not been lost on me, either, but I’d had no interest in getting into arguments with Chad or fucking Harper about exactly what part of the Southside I hailed from.
“Dom and Laura are a few of the lucky ones,” I replied as Zach pulled to a stop in front of Laura’s store. “And I had other priorities beyond correcting a bunch of hateful assholes’ assumptions about me.”
Bennett bristled, not enjoying the reminder of what I’d been up to last semester. “Those assumptions were exactly what you wanted them to be, Jolie. Let’s not pretend otherwise.”
I shrugged. “You got me there, Bennett.”
“A ridiculous and unnecessary charade,” Noah added, glancing at me with a pouty lower lip that I wanted to… bite a little bit.
“I am sensing two out of three ex-best friends remain in the butt-hurt zone,” Max announced, turning to grin at me like an asshole. “You boys mad you got outplayed by that sweet little girl you used to know?”
All three of them glared at Max with palpable loathing before the passenger-side door suddenly popped open. “Get the fuck out, man,” Zach barked at Max, who just chuckled like a dick before unfolding himself from the front seat of the car.
Zach twisted around to look at me in the backseat, his smirk returning. “I’ll be back later, Jojo. Save room for me in your little bunk bed.”
Maybe, Zach.
I crawled over Bennett’s lap to exit the car, enjoying his tension as I scooted my yoga-pants-covered ass right across his solid thighs while he sat still as a statue.
My feet hit the concrete sidewalk, and I turned to brace my hands against the roof of the car, leaning down to give the three of them a stern look.
“Whatever you guys are feeling about me, you need to get over your shit with Max. He’s my brother and the most important person in my life.”
“That’s the problem, Princess,” Zach replied, and I frowned at his serious tone.
“What is?”
“He got to have you for these last seven years, and we didn’t,” Noah said quietly. “Kinda hard not to hate him for it.”
“I…. Oh.”
I looked at Bennett, who said nothing but met my eyes with his usual intensity.
Or was that… longing ?
I sighed. I didn’t have anything else to say. The Families had stolen a hell of a lot from us.
“Bye, guys. Hope you enjoyed seeing how the other half lives.”
I slammed the door closed and watched them pull away, the sinking in my stomach at the loss of them irking me.
It felt oddly… normal having them here with me in my space, like it would’ve been no big thing for all three of them to have followed me up to our apartment and piled on the couch with me while we watched a stupid movie together.
Shaking my head, I shoved that fantasy away. Zach might come back down here to snuggle me in my tiny bed—a thing I was slowly becoming addicted to—but that didn’t mean we were us again.
I had to keep my head. There was work to do.