Page 73 of Shattered Stars

“I’m trying to be nice,” he says and if I didn’t know Tristan Kennedy, I’d almost believe he looks a tad – a tiny bit – sheepish.

Winnie and I look at each other. “Nice?” we say together.

“Can we talk alone?” Tristan says in irritation, attempting to take my arm.

“No,” I say, yanking my arm from his grasp. “I don’t need you to be nice to me. I need you to leave me alone.”

“Not going to happen,” he says.

“You’re failing at the nice thing,” Winnie informs him. “You’re being a jerk.”

“Just give me your books,” he says to me.

“No,” I say to him, then linking my arm through Winnie’s, I pull her out of the dorm.

“Well, that was weird,” Winnie says, as we hurry down the path towards the Great Hall, and I avoid the temptation to peer over my shoulder and see if Tristan’s following us. “You think Spencer going has sparked a sudden surge of conscience in him?”

I shake my head. “He … we …”

Winnie stops in her tracks and spins me around to face her. Peering around us first, she then leans in. “You what?”

I swallow, my cheeks heating. “Kissed?”

Winnie takes a large inhale and I know she’s going to screech something so loud half the school will hear. I slap my hand over her mouth. Her eyes bulge. “Mhen?” she mumbles.

“What?”

She harrumphs and pushes my hand away from her mouth. “When?”

“Out in the meadow. In Johnson’s lesson.”

“And you’re only telling me now?”

“There’s been a lot going on,” I say, my even bigger secret suddenly feeling very heavy in my chest. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay … I’m just struggling to keep up with your love life here, Rhi.”

“Erm, tell me about it.”

Winnie pinches me. “Don’t do that. You are living practically every person in this academy’s fantasy right now – probably including the principal. The man in black. Stone. TRISTAN!”

“Tristan is an asshole. A jerk. A terrible, terrible person who has done terrible, terrible things to me.”

“Like kiss you? Was he a bad kisser? I can’t imagine Tristan Kennedy being a bad kisser, but maybe he’s all show and no–”

“Not like kissing. Like throwing a bucket of cold water over my head so that the entire academy saw my tits!”

“Aaahhh,” Winnie says. “But does this mean that he really is–”

I squeeze Winnie’s arm and lower my voice even further. “He seems to think so and I’m guessing he’s had some kind of change of heart – for the minute anyway – I doubt it will last.”

“Jeez, for a magical who is meant to be so darn smart, he really is an idiot.”

“He is. And I’m not interested.”

“Really?” Winnie says, looking unsure. “Because I’m pretty certain that’s what you said about Stone and–”

“Winnie,” I cry, picking up my feet and storming in the direction of the mansion.