He’s blocking the bathroom door like a bodyguard… or a prison guard.
“Waiting for you. What does it look like?” Chay answered. He stood with his feet spread and his fingers hooked around the belt loops of his jeans. “What’d you see?”
“Lily talking with Jake. They were laughing about something she said. And…”
Lily talking with you.
“And what?” He arched a brow.
“Nothing. That’s all.” I wasn’t sure why I didn’t tell him I saw her talking with him, too. It just didn’t feel right. Maybe I didn’t want to hear the answer confirmed. Of course she’d talk to him. The real issue was what the conversation led to.
Would he switch sides? It would be a big win for Azazel if he did.
“I’ll talk with Jake and see what he has to say. She’s gonna try to convert us, you know. That’s her job,” Chay said with a shrug.
“I know.”
But who will she manage to get to switch? That’s what worries me.
We walked toward my locker just as the bell rang. I saw her walking toward me, a sneer on her face. It was becoming a permanent fixture.
“Milayna,” she said and shouldered me hard. I took a few steps backward to steady myself, my eyes never leaving hers. A burst of heat bloomed in my chest, bringing with it a longing for vengeance for her betrayal, but also patience. If she wanted to get a rise out of me, it wasn’t going to happen. Yet. But her time was coming. “Hi, Chay.” She smiled as she walked past him.
I looked at him through my lashes. His face was blank, unreadable. Was he hiding something or keeping his emotions in check in front of Lily? My stomach twisted in response. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I didn’t like it.
“You can’t read minds, but you will develop the ability to feel what people are feeling, their emotions, and even what they might do just before they do it,” my dad had told me.
But I felt loyalty. Commitment. I didn’t think Chay would switch sides, but how could I know for sure? I didn’t want to be suspicious of him—the emotions filling me bounced off each other like bumper cars. I couldn’t focus, and felt confused and unsure. But I had to trust someone, and I desperately wanted that someone to be Chay.
We walked down the hall to calculus. Banners hung from the ceiling, painted in bright colors, announcing the football game the following night against our biggest rival. We had two high schools in the same school district, one on the south side of town and one on the north. The annual football game was a big deal—whoever won got bragging rights for the year, rubbing the other school’s nose in their victory and flying the victor’s flag for the year, declaring themselves the best in the district. My team, the South Bay Cougars, had lost seven years in a row. It was our year to win.
I stopped at my locker to grab my calculus book. Chay leaned his shoulder against the locker beside mine and watched me.
“What?”
“Just looking.”
“At what?” I glanced around, expecting to see something interesting. Lily, a goblin, a fight, a couple making out—you never knew what you’d see in school. It was like living in a reality television show. “I don’t see anything.”
“That’s because I’m looking at you,” he said slowly. He reached out, touched a curl in my hair, and rubbed it between his fingers. “Your hair’s pretty. I can see why Joe liked it so much.” It tickled when he brushed the curl behind my ear, and I rubbed my shoulder against my ear, giggling.
I’m giggling like a little girl. Get a grip. Geez, you’re losing it.
“You’re ticklish. That’s cute.” He smiled.
Is he flirting with me? ‘Cause it’s so working.
“Where’s Chay?” I tilted my head and touched my fingers to my lips. Chay’s forehead wrinkled and his brows knotted over his eyes. I smiled. “What have you done with the sour-faced, grumbling idiot I’ve come to know?”
He laughed. The sound was like a warm melody washing over me. I wanted to do something that would make him keep laughing. “Yeah, I guess I deserve that.”
I gave him a quick smile before looking down the hall. “I wonder where Muriel is. We always meet and walk to calculus together.”
I sucked in a breath and froze. Muriel and Lily were walking together, laughing and talking. When they walked by my locker, Muriel looked at me and smiled, waving with a wiggle of her fingers.
What is she doing? No, no, no! Okay, wait. She must have a reason for hanging around Lily. A perfectly logical explanation. Like, she’s gathering information! Yeah. That’s it. Because Muriel would never turn. She wouldn’t. Not Muriel.
“Like I said, you don’t know who you can trust.” Chay glanced over his shoulder at Muriel and Lily.
“How can we do our job if we are all wondering if the other has switched sides?” I squeezed the strap of my messenger bag until my fingers ached.
“It makes it difficult.”
“That wasn’t an answer, Chay.”
“That’s because I don’t have one,” he said, looking down at me.
“And you?”
“Me what?”