Page 75 of Dark Little Game

She bites her lip as she smiles at me.

I used to use this kind of attention like a currency.

But right now I just wish I knew how to turn these girls down without sounding like a prick.

Sorry, ladies, but for some reason my cock only wants the one person it shouldn’t want, lately, and that’s my younger brother’s bestie.

I still fucking wanted to kiss him, even when I wanted to strangle him, back at the house.

Rayne had that effect on me.

“Sorry! I’m here,” Briar says as she finally runs out, meeting me at the bench.

“Have fun, you two,” one of the other girls says before they head back inside.

“You know they’re jealous of me, right?” Briar tells me once they’re out of earshot. “They think you’re fucking me, and theyreallywish it was them, instead.”

“Let ‘em be jealous.”

Briar hasn’t come out as a lesbian to the rest of Luros yet. We talked about it a little bit the other day in Colossus Dining Hall.

Briar isn’t out to her family, either. Her parents still live in Hong Kong, far away from here, and apparently they’re not close, either.

Maybethat’swhy she’s willing to be my actual friend.

The inferno of rage inside me only starts to dampen as we cut across the campus.

Briar talks about her day, telling me about the butterfliesshe’s raising.

It’s simple.

It’s notdistractingenough, but at the very least, it’s saving me from turning back to the Onyx house and putting my hands around Rayne’s neck.

A friend is someone who makes you believe that maybetodayisn’t the day to burn the world to the ground, I suppose.

That’s how it feels to me.

By the time we get to the fencing gym, my fingers are itching to grip the handle of a foil sword.

Briar and I get changed and head out onto the mat to spar.

Metal is hitting metal a few seconds later, because like me, Briar doesn’t seem to enjoy wasting time.

She’s good. She shoves ripostes at me like lightning after each parry, our swords clinking against one another, echoing across the gym room.

We continue on for thirty minutes, only taking a few short breaks.

I’m just as alert today. Faster than I was last time we sparred.

“Fuck, Hunter,” she says as she pulls her mask up afterward, breathing heavy. “Youalmosthave me beat today.”

“So humble.”

“You’re on fire.”

I pull in a long breath, my heart pounding after the long period of intense focus. “Today fucking pissed me off. I needed this.”

“Is it your brother?”