Red Leather (Book 2)

Chapter 9

Gwen stuck her head out of the doorway, scowling. "How insensitive of you."

"I know. Shit," he cursed under his breath, standing up hastily.

"You better make it up to her," Gwen threatened.

"I will, I will," he pinched his eyes shut, before messing my hair up and heading after Jess. "See you around, Renee."

I watched his back as he left, taking in whatever I could before he was gone.

***

The visit with Jessabel and Nathan had left me in an awfully good mood all week. Which helped out all the more with what was to become the most scandalous thing to hit Alistair in a while.

Already, I spend quite a lot of time with the girls in my classes – particularly those with interesting stories and godly reputations. Yuri and Sal were my two most important assets, as they had contacts to everyone. Becca was very well known, but also had a lot of enemies. Enemies that I also obtained when becoming her 'friend'.

Take Wendy Wu, for example.

She was a very short, very capable flyer in the cheer squad – a squad that I had successfully climbed my way into. Lacey was impressed with my audition but tried hard not to show it, and kicked Wendy out of the team in order to make room for me.

Why, of all people, did she kick Wendy out? Because day by day, little by little, I had snuck into her gym bag and glued thin pads of leather inside the toecaps of her shoes, making them smaller and smaller. In between them, I hid a tiny, narrow piece of metal. She had such small feet that she didn't even notice until it was too late. It only took one weak tumble, one misjudged flip, to fracture almost six toes.

She hobbled around in her crutches, glaring at me with slitted eyes. I didn't mind the hostility and almost challenged her to fight back, wanting more of a reason to harm her.

Not that I needed a reason.

"She's just jealous," Trevor smiled easily after a training session, casually throwing an arm around my shoulders. I let the arm stay, giving him a girlish grin.

"Maybe. But what of?" I asked, giving him a lingering peck on the cheek. We weren't officially dating yet, but by the rate I was going, it didn't even matter to Trevor. He reminded me of a puppy, always smiling and trying to find excuses to touch me. His loyalty also reminded me a bit of Sundae.

He thought for a moment. "You tell me."

"Maybe she's jealous because I have you now," I nudged him, playing the romance up to an almost sickening level. The look of adoration on his face was unmistakable.

"Nahh, I don't think so. That was ages ago." His smile never faded or went away. It was perpetually nailed to his face, particularly when I was around. We leisurely made our way to the cafeteria, his arm wrapped tightly around me. Almost like he didn't want to let go.

Good.

You could almost pretend that he was Nathan – they were both tall, but Trevor was just an inch or so shorter. He was broader, too, with dry rather than smooth hands. His eyes weren't blue at all, but were a steady brown.

I hated that they were brown. I hated that he smelled like denim instead of chocolate.

I pushed his arm away from me. "Where does she live anyway? Around the rural?" The rural was something Becca and all the other rich assholes called the area surrounding the hilltops. The hilltops were where you found all of the fancy mansions and marble statues; the rural was where you found everything else.