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Summer

I get dressed to work out, but I’m not feeling up to dealing with Moody Max today. What I really want to do is go for a run and clear my head. I want to be outside. The sun is rising, and people are already out and about. Surely, I’ll be safe if I stick to the populated areas.

I kiss Connor’s head before pulling on my running sweater and leaving the dorm. Outside, I press play on my running playlist and start down the path at a leisurely pace. I’m soon lost to the beat, matching my strides to the music. My breath mists in front of me, the cool air stifling my lungs and burning in the best way.

The headmaster approaches me on the path, stopping a few feet away. I stop and pull my earphones out.

“Miss Tuatha De Daanan.”

“Oh, good morning, sir.”

“Taking a break from the gym?” he asks, his hair darker with sweat and his eyes molten in the early morning sun.

My cheeks heat, and I feel like I’ve been caught misbehaving. “Well… I… Yes.”

“Is something the matter?” he asks, his brows furrowing. I take care not to notice his workout clothes and how they cling to him.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re blushing,” he says matter-of-factly, but I want to die.

My hands fly to my face, and my cold fingers tingle painfully as they meet my warm cheeks. “Oh?—”

“Are you ill?” he asks, tilting his head slightly.

“No, sir.”

“I think you may be coming down with something.”

My cheeks heat more.

“You’re getting more red.”

Fuck, what is wrong with me? Stop it, Summer. I back up, but my foot gets caught on the curb. I yelp as I lose my balance and start to fall. The headmaster’s instincts are obviously well-honed. He grabs my arm, stopping me from falling on my ass. I grimace as he straightens me again, and I look up at him. His face is frozen in an expression of discomfort and annoyance at my stupidity.

“Are you all right?” he asks, but I can tell he’s already assessed me and no longer cares.

“Yes, sir,” I say, trying not to notice how his heat lingers against me.

He releases my arm and steps back. “I should get back to my run.”

“Enjoy your run, sir.”

He puts his earphones back in and takes off down the path. I watch him for a long moment, wondering what he listens to on his runs. Probably boring podcasts about sorcerer things.

Shaking it off, I set out on my run again. I let my mind wander, and I think about my year here. How I’ve changed, and how my life has changed. I started this year completely alone, and now I have a best friend, a fiancé, a… stranger, and a stalker. My ring glints in the sunlight as I run, and I smile at it. This is the first time I’ve ever felt like I truly belong somewhere.

I stop running and curse when I notice that my subconscious has brought me to the fucking gym. It only takes me a moment to decide to go in. I’m not hiding from fucking Maximillian Romulus just cause he’s feeling weird that I’m getting married.

He smiles at me when I walk in. “Late today,” he says in greeting, and even that pisses me off. I flip him off as I go to the weights.

He rolls his eyes and follows me to the weights rack. I pick up a dumbbell and stand in front of the mirror.

“Why are you mad today?” Max asks, leaning against a nearby squat rack.

I shake my head. “Not mad.” I hold one of the dumbbells to my chest before doing a deep squat. “Talk to you later.”

Max scoffs, watching me. “Come on, you’re pouting over something.”

I do another squat before looking at him. “Max, let’s just leave it, okay?” I look back in the mirror to check my form before completing my set.

“Summer,” Max growls as I sit on the bench, dropping the weight and taking a second before starting again.

When I don’t reply and stand up, reaching for the dumbbell, Max picks it up and puts it back on the rack. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

I put my hands on my hips. “Why does it matter?”

“Because you’re in my gym, pissed off at me.”

I tilt my head, staring up at him. “What happened yesterday?”

Max tenses, but his face stays smugly unbothered. “What do you mean?”

I keep my gaze locked on him. We both know exactly what I’m talking about.

Max’s stare turns into a glare, and I can feel him getting uncomfortable. Clearly, he’s not going to talk about it. Fine.

I shake my head and look away, moving past him to retrieve my weight. Max grabs my arm. “Summer, hey.”

I sigh and drop my head back. “What is with you, Max?”

He drops my arm, and I grab the weight before returning to my space and doing another squat. Max growls, still standing in the same place.

I glance at him in the mirror. “You want to talk? Tell me what happened yesterday.”

“We… worked out,” he says, and I can tell he had to force the words out.

I nod once, focusing on my workout again.

“And you told me about your engagement,” he says, and I glance at him again.

“And from then on, you acted differently with me. Why?” I ask, probing at him. If Max and I are going to be friends, we need to have a base level of communication. I know he’s a barely evolved caveman, but I think he can manage not to be a massive wang.

Max shrugs. “It just took me a moment to adjust.”

I put the weight down and look at him over my shoulder. “Adjust to what? Nothing’s changed.”

Max looks away, mumbling something under his breath.

“What?” I ask

He sighs and rubs the back of his neck. “To you know… Golden boy winning again,” Max growls, his voice a little louder,

I frown, turning to face him fully. “Winning?”

“You know.” Max pointedly looks at the ring, and I frown, looking down at it too.

“He won… me?”

Max shrugs.

I shake my head, rolling my eyes. “You make it sound like there were others that wanted the prize.” My brow furrows, and I try to decide if I am offended at being considered a prize.

Max shrugs again, and I roll my eyes before going back to my workout.

“Whatever. Are you going to fight or not?” Max grumbles petulantly.

“Are you going to be a normal asshole and not a weird asshole?” I ask. Max just stares at me. “Whatever. I’m so sick of you playing hot and cold. I get it. You don’t want to be around me now that I’ve been tainted with gold and diamonds. Go away, Max.”

Max blinks and straightens. “I’m playing hot and cold? Are you fucking serious?” he asks, his voice growing louder.

I glare at him.

Max throws up his hands. “You’re the one who is constantly hot and cold. I need a fucking manual to figure out how I’ve pissed you off this time.”

I cross my arms. “I’m only ever mad at you for being a dickhead.”

“But your definition of dickhead seems to change every fucking day.”

I shake my head and put the weight back on the rack. “Bye.” I walk past Max, but again, he grabs me before I get out of reach. I don’t look at him, but I do listen.

“Listen, my entire life, I have struggled and scraped and tried so hard just to get by. I work my ass off every day, and it just feels like golden boy gets everything without even trying.”

I look at him, my brows furrowed. “What is it he has that you want?”

Max scoffs. “You mean besides the popularity, the girl everybody wants, the money, the family, the parents?” My brows furrow more. “You seriously never realized?” he asked.

“Well, I mean, sure, he’s popular, and his family is great, but I think you’re overstating it about me. Pretty significantly, actually. I’m literally one half of the disaster duo.”

Max shakes his head, releasing my arm. “You don’t know?”

“Know what, Max?” I ask, throwing my hands up.

“Look up TuathaToday on Nexus .”

“ TuathaToday ? What’s that? Some sort of weird fae club?”

“Just look it up, Summer.”

I sigh and pull out my phone before typing it into the search bar. The page loads almost immediately, and I see exactly what he’s talking about. It is dedicated to posting photos of fae around campus, although it looks like most of the posts from the past nine months have been of… me.

“What the fuck?” I whisper, scrolling through the pages. The posts range from details on my outfits to intimate details of my dates with Connor. “It’s all me…”

Max snorts. “Mostly. But it’s for hot fae.”

“Who—”

“No idea,” Max interrupts, wiping down the weights.

“But this is…” I stop, searching for the words.

Max chuckles. “This school has a thing for stalker accounts.”

I shake my head, looking back at Max. “Well, this doesn’t mean anything. They’re just posts about where I am.”

Max gives me a knowing look. “I wouldn’t check the comments.”

My stomach twists, and I select the most recent post, looking through the comments. I sneer. Most of them are akin to the ones the headmaster gets on his stalker page, but then I notice one in particular.

“Max. You’ve commented.” He hasn’t written anything lewd. It’s mostly emojis, specifically the two eyes looking to the left.

“I might have,” Max says, avoiding my eyes.

I scroll through, noticing that he has commented on most of the posts I open.

“You commented a lot.”

Max snatches my phone from me. “I was curious.”

“About?” I try to grab my phone, but Max leans his arm high against the wall, keeping it out of my reach. “About what you do, you know, outside the gym.”

“What I do?”

Max nods. “You know I don’t see you outside the gym, even though we go to the same school. So when I found the account and noticed the number of posts about you specifically, I was curious.”

I give up on trying to get my phone and cross my arms, glaring at him. “You know, you could just ask me what I enjoy doing instead of being the lead fucking commenter on a weird as fuck stalker page about me. Now give me back my phone!”

Max lowers his arm, and I snatch my phone back, flipping him off as I leave the gym.