Page 9 of Burn Bright (Cobalt Empire #1)

Strands of her flowy blonde hair caressed her soft, delicate face.

It was the only thing soft about this girl.

Her plaid pants were ripped at the knee, her maroon leather jacket swallowed her tiny frame, and her combat boots were laced to the ankles.

I recognized her instantly. She was my cousin Luna’s lab partner from the semester before.

As she sucked in a breath to speak, I was ready for her to tell me to fuck off. But she said, “Thanks.”

I’ve wondered if that was the moment. Was that when she got in my head? Was that when I couldn’t excise her from my thoughts? I hadn’t expected her to thank me. I wasn’t even looking for a thanks.

I frowned and glanced back at the door where the professor ran out of the lab. “What was that?”

“Professor Turner. He teaches Molecular Biology of Life. Luna and I took him last semester.”

I gestured my sports drink at her. “No, I meant what was that. Why was he grabbing your arm like that?”

She blew out a breath so hard it rustled her blonde bangs. “He’s a fuckwad, that’s why.”

I pressed on because I couldn’t let it go. Not after what I’d just seen. “Why is he a fuckwad? What’d he do?”

“What are you Scooby Doo?” She frowned deeper, her scowl darkening. Maybe she was used to people just leaving her pissed-off face alone. Turning their backs. Walking away.

“I don’t know. Is this a mystery that needs to be solved, Harriet Fisher?”

She flinched, probably surprised I remembered her name. Then she lifted her chin higher to meet my gaze. “No mystery here, sorry to break your heart. Turner just got the wrong impression after we made an agreement.” An agreement? She crossed her arms. “And you do realize your brother Tom hates me?”

It always came back to Tom.

She added, “Pretty sure you’ll be disinvited to the next Cobalt soiree.”

“That’s actually impossible,” I told her. “I could piss off every sibling, and they’d still invite me and try to hold some elaborate family intervention.”

She nodded slowly. “Ruthless love.” She said it, not with distaste or jealousy, but how someone would appraise a foreign treasure. Unsure of the true value of something they’ve never held before. “But from where I’m standing, Cobalts don’t like strangers or interlopers.”

“I can be friends with who I want.”

“Since when are we friends?” Harriet asked.

We went on a tangent about the definition of friendship, similar to the one I had with her at the frat party.

I told her that she was officially my only friend.

She believed me about as much as she did at the Kappa Phi Delta house, but I wasn’t really lying.

Right then, I would’ve deleted every contact in my phone to prove it.

I didn’t know her, but I knew I didn’t want to lose her.

She finally returned to the “agreement” she made with the professor. “Look, it’s not a big deal, dude. I gave Turner a blow job in exchange for a favor, and now he wants more than one blowie, so I’m fending off an ugly hammerhead shark.”

I couldn’t stop looking at her. My brain worked a mile a minute over what that meant.

She raised her brows at me. “Say something, Friend.”

“What favor is worth blowing a hammerhead shark?” I glared back at the door, wishing I could’ve laid my fucking hands on him. Wishing his face met the fucking floor. Ire bubbled in my blood, and my hand twitched at my side, dying to curl into a fist.

He was her professor. He was a teacher. And he took advantage of a student. Of her.

Harriet let it spill that the favor had been for Luna, who’d missed labs. Their professor apparently refused to let Luna finish the course off-campus, even though it’d been national news that my cousin was in the hospital after an assault.

Harriet bartered with Professor Turner to give my cousin take-home work, so that Luna could pass the course.

“Can you not tell Luna? Please?” Harriet pleaded. “She didn’t ask me to make the deal. I did this on my own accord because I felt bad she had to miss labs.”

Of all the favors…she didn’t even blow him for herself. It’d been for a girl that I’m sure Harriet just considered a college lab partner and not even a friend.

And she thinks I’m unhinged.

“Again, not a big deal.” She made sure to say. “It meant nothing, and I’ve given blow jobs for less. It’s not like I got naked for the guy.”

We went back-and-forth on whether he should be reported, but I left it in her court and gave her my number in case she was ever in trouble again.

She told me she was transferring to MVU in the fall.

Pre-med, which I didn’t peg her for. She was a mystery to me, and I thought I needed to be okay with never uncovering the answers or the stormy depths to Harriet Fisher. Having her phone number was enough.

So I let her go. I watched her walk down the hall. “See you around, Fisher.”

“See you, Birthday Boy.”

I rocked back. My heart stopped for a beat.

Just dumbfounded. Not a single friend, not even one of the twenty that I ran into that morning on campus, wished me a happy birthday.

Family, sure, but my friends…they either didn’t realize or they forgot.

I didn’t make my birthday a big deal. I didn’t mention it. I didn’t seek out attention from it.

She walked backward, moving more slowly away from me. “I didn’t stalk you exactly. I was doing my homework on Tom a while back. For the drum audition. Your page was pretty small.” She squeezed her fingers together. “Where’s all the accolades?”

I smiled, one that spilled warmth into my body. “Siblings took them all.”

She mimed tears with her fists, her lips rising. The smile surprised her, and she startled into a frown. I thought it was cute. She gave me a stiffer wave before she disappeared completely.

We didn’t stay in contact.

Despite really, really wanting to, I never texted her. My move to New York was never part of the plan at the time. I didn’t think I’d follow her to MVU, and a friendship with Harriet didn’t feel genuine if it was miles away. But then I did move to New York, and…the frat party happened.

Twice now, my presence averted some sort of catastrophe in her life.

Twice, I was able to get some bastard’s hands off her.

That doesn’t always happen. Being at the right place, right time.

Especially with me. I don’t really believe in destiny or fate, but I do believe there’s something about Harriet that makes me feel like I won’t fuck everything up.

All I really want is to be able to hold on to that feeling for a second longer.