Clarin’s was next, and I laughed quietly as I read his reply. It was exactly the same as Poison’s.
Cabe, who had been reading over my shoulder, also laughed. “If science would have allowed it, those two would have found a way to become your pair by now.”
“Poison isn’t gay, and Clarin is. That makes the whole pairing thing a little difficult, doesn’t it?”
“Poison might not be gay, but she talks about your boobs enough to be toting a line, and Clarin could just kiss you to form the bond and then never touch you again.”
“Really? You think? I’ll keep that strategy in mind for my own bond. Thanks for the tip.”
Cabe fell silent, and Noah shifted uncomfortably on my other side, but neither of them dared to voice a protest or make any further jokes about the situation with the silent giants—and Tariq—listening in. We all retreated into contemplative silence for the rest of the drive and didn’t seem to rouse until the limousine stopped moving. I slid out after Cabe and texted Poison and Clarin to ask where they were.
“See you!” Tariq called out after us.
I turned to wave at him as Hans and Andrei fist-bumped him in goodbye and the limousine pulled away to take him to the high school. There was only a bare scattering of students around the parking lot, but they still covertly watched as we made our way toward one of the faculty buildings. I spotted Amber surrounded by a small group of girls and I immediately started to look for Noah—before pulling up short, because of course… Noah was standing right beside me.
And I had kissed him.
Obviously seeing the same thing that I had seen, Noah stopped in much the same fashion.
“Crap,” he mumbled.
“What?” Cabe asked, following the direction of our eyes until he spotted Amber. “Oh, crap.”
Amber chose that moment to notice us, and I could see very clearly as the awareness slowly filled her expression, followed by disbelief, and then devastation. She set her jaw, pushing away from her friends to stride toward us. For a full minute, I considered simply turning around and running for my life, but some kind of sick fascination held me in check, and I knew that I was curious to hear what she would say to Noah.
Or what Noah would say to her.
Groaning, I fell back a step, but Noah grabbed a hold of my arm, preventing me from going anywhere.
“Stay,” he said quietly. “Save us having this conversation later. You might as well hear it now.”
I suddenly decided that I didn’t want to hear it, but Amber had arrived, and she was staring at Noah with tears tracking down her cheeks.
“You said you’d give it a chance,” she flung at him—halfway between a plea and an accusation. “You promised me that it wasn’t because of her, and yet here you are. You came here together, after ditching me last night.”
“I also told you that I’d be pissed if you started a fight with her, and what did you do?”
“If that’s what this is about, I’m sorry, Noah.” She moved closer, peering up at him as the tears continued to fall. “I saw her and I just snapped. I’m sorry. Please, let’s just talk about it, okay?”
“You can’t talk us into a relationship, Amber.” Noah scrubbed a hand down his face, tension lining his shoulders and carrying thickly in his voice.
“You said you would—”
“I said I would think about it. I told you I was confused and I needed to sort some things out. Well, they’re sorted now. It’s not going to work, and you need to leave Seraph alone.”
Amber fell back a step, her tears drying up as quickly as they had appeared. Her face twisted into that expression of hatred that she seemed to wear whenever she looked at me, and she took a menacing step forward. I could tell that Noah was about to jump in front of me, so I put a hand on his arm to stop him. Amber glared at my hand, and started to tremble with the repressed need to explode. She whipped a folded bit of paper out of her pocket and jumped forward, punching it into the center of my chest.
“Here,” she sneered. “He told me to give this to you when you got back together with Noah. He said it would be today, but I didn’t believe him. Congratulations, bitch. You just dug your own grave.”
With those words, she turned on her heel and hurried away, leaving me clutching the note with frozen fingers. Cabe eased it out of my hands and I frowned as he opened it to reveal a route traced onto a campus map.
“Should we leave?” Noah asked, staring at the map.