Page 8 of River of Deceit

I wish I could go anywhere at all with my mother, but she’s refused to leave the house for anything but what’s absolutely necessary for the past few years.

“Still sounds like fun,” I remark, glancing over the restaurant as I try to catch Blaze’s attention. He’s chatting with another woman near the counter to pick up food, and when he catches my eye, he shrugs.

I shake my head slightly, trying to pay attention to Lara.

“I got together with a childhood friend of mine,” Lara continues, and there’s something about her tone of voice that tells me there’s a hidden meaning. “He grew very buff in the year I didn’t see him. And he wassoflirty with me.”

Am I supposed to mind? Is she trying to make me jealous? Either she’s trying to tell me she’s unavailable, or she wants me to know she’sveryavailable.

“Did I get buff in the last year?” I ask her, grinning. I lift my arm to flex, and her eyes go wide when she sees the bloody napkin.

“Oh my god, what happened to your arm?” she asks, staring at it.

I glance at it, realizing I’d forgotten all about the injury. I don’t even know what excuse to give her.

Blaze, as always, comes to my rescue. He pushes a tray in front of me and sits down next to Lara, completely ignoring her. “Here’s your food, Alvarado. Also, why are you bleeding?”

“It looks serious,” Lara says. “Should I call the health clinic? There has to be a first aid kit around here—” She stands up, but Blaze grabs her wrist to stop her from leaving.

“Don’t be dramatic,” Blaze says. “Asch is fine. Right?” He meets my gaze.

“Of course I’m fine,” I say. And I would be if I hadn’t been poking at the injury. “How about I text you later, Lara?”

She’s still looking at the injury with concern, but then she looks back at me with a smile. “Did you get my number the last time?”

I try to remember.

“I’ve got it,” Blaze says as he lets go. “Lara, right? Asch dropped his phone over the summer and lost all his contacts, but I’ll text it to him.” He gives her a bright smile. “Sorry to ask this, but I’ve got a few personal things I need to discuss with Asch right now. Secret frat stuff. Think you could give us some privacy, and he’ll text you in the morning?”

Lara doesn’t look pleased by that request, but she nods. “Sure. And I’ll see you in the macro-economics class, Asch.” She waves to us before she finally leaves.

Blaze’s smile drops a fraction after she’s gone. “You still into her? I thought she was kind of boring.”

“I didn’t even remember her name,” I tell him.

Blaze bursts out laughing. “That’s why you’ve got no game, Asch.”

“I have all the boyish charm. You’re the suave one,” I retort, for all that I’d shown neither charm nor suave when speaking to Lara. “But my game would’ve gotten us Pandora if someone hadn’t gone and fucked things up with that chick.”

Blaze’s expression grows darker. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll look into that. Now come on, eat.”

My stomach growls, and I look down at the tray in front of me. As usual, Blaze has taken it upon himself to get food for me even though he doesn’t need to. It’s a constant source of embarrassment for me, but I’m starving.

“You didn’t have to get me anything. I wasn’t hungry,” I lie. I’ve already gone through the two meals on my plan for the day, and I don’t want to go through my stipend so fast that I have nothing at the end of the quarter.

“I’mhungry though,” Blaze says. “And I can’t eat if you’re just staring at me like a weirdo.” He unwraps his vegetarian wrap and starts eating. “Fuck, this is way better than the crap they serve at the caf.”

Yeah, but I can actually afford the stuff at the cafeteria, and when we go out to the restaurants on campus, they’re too expensive for me to justify ordering at.

I grab another napkin to cover the blood on my arm. “Thanks,” I mumble, not wanting to sound ungrateful, but at the same time, I really am hungry.

He always gets me the steak wrap even though it’s more expensive, and I try to tell him not to bother, but he always makes some excuse to feed me.

I guess the money really doesn’t matter to him, given who he is and what kind of money he comes from.

It should bother me that his family is the most prominent crime syndicate in the New Valence area, but he’d taken one look at me in my battered shoes and threadbare shirts and had decided I was his new best friend.

As suspicious as I’d been at first, it hadn’t taken me long to realize he was genuinely interested in having a friend who wasn’t simpering over him and his wealth — or scared of him, even though I should’ve been.