Page 65 of Serpentine Valentine

In fact, I stood there so long Grace said, loudly enough for me to hear clearly in the kitchen, “I think you literally kissed her stupid.”

That broke me out of my trance long enough to throw a kitchen towel at her head.

I leftafter pancakes even though I was reluctant to leave our happy little bubble. To my intense pleasure, Lex seemed just as unhappy to see me go, and she kissed me breathless on the front porch before sending me off with a promise to meet me in Mathieson Library that night to work on our Tragedies papers together.

The closer I got to my apartment on the other side of campus, the more dread invaded my heart. The morning sunlight was now obscured with gray clouds that seemed like a portentous warning.

I should always listen to pathetic fallacy.

Because I was walking by the Walking Stick Café when Flora and some of the hockey and soccer guys swung out the doors immediately into my path. As soon as they saw me, I was surrounded.

“You know, he’s in the hospital because of you,” David spat in my face, looming over me with every inch of his six-foot-four height. “You stupid bitch.”

I blinked up into his furious face, frankly shocked by his vitriol.

David was on the football team, but he and Pierce had always been friends, and we’d had a nice rapport.

“Who?” I asked because it occurred to me that I hadn’t thought toask who had assaulted me when I was passed out last night.

God, that seemed like years ago.

“You know who,” David roared, jabbing his finger so close to my face that I flinched instinctively backward.

“Beckett,” Flora said from just behind David. “It was Beckett, Luna.”

My first response was horror. Beckett was one of the top D-men on the hockey team and one of the most popular guys on campus. The fact that Lex, who everyone seemed to fear or hate, had beaten him up would not go over well for her.

And when Beckett was healed, I had no doubt he’d make her pay.

“Fuck,” I cursed, even though I usually refrained.

The situation deserved it.

“Fuck is right,” David growled even though Andrew tried to pull him back. “You goddamn ruined his season. He has a concussion that’ll take him out for weeks.”

“Ididn’t give him a concussion,” I pointed out, my shock fading into indignation. We were drawing a crowd, but I didn’t care. “And I won’t feel bad that a man who was taking advantage of me when I waspassed outcan’t play hockey for a few weeks. Worse things have happened. One of those being hetried to take advantage of me when I was passed the fuck out.”

I was panting by the end of it, anger coiling in every inch of me until I felt seconds away from striking out.

“Lex Gorgon was probably lying about it,” Flora said softly, pushing past David to take my hand. “She’s likecrazy, Luna. Beckett wouldn’t do that to you.”

To you.

But she thought he might do it to someone else?

“Lex didn’t make anything up. You can ask Haley and a girl named Bryn, too. They were both there and saw what he was doing.”

“Did they also see that bitch attackBeckett?” David asked through his teeth.

“She was protecting me,” I argued. “You would have done the same for one of your friends.”

“Yeah? That crazy bitch is your friend?”

Why did people always make women out to be crazy? Lex was probably the most levelheaded woman I knew, especially considering the trauma she’d been through. A man would never be called crazy for beating someone up who was endangering one of their friends. Only a woman was never allowed to be violent, not even when it was justified.

“Yeah, she is,” I said loudly, jutting my chin into the air and crossing my arms over my chest.

“Yeah?” he sneered. “Or is she more than that? Are you fucking that slut now? She went through all the guys who’d have her on campus, and now she’s slumming with girls.”