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I shrugged. “I’m sure you can fill in the dots and work it out.”
“Maybe I’m not as smart as I like to think I am. Why don’t you spell it out for me?”
“It’s exactly what you think it is.”
“So the two of you are a thing?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“But you’re screwing?”
“We’ve screwed a couple of times, so I guess you could say that.” I folded my arms across my increasingly puffed out chest.
“And that’s it?” Drew was really starting to grate on my nerves.
“That’s what?”
“Are you done fucking her, and probably fucking us over in the process?”
“Ha! Really? First up, as I said before, I’m at the front line of this shit. I’m the only one of us dealing directly with her, and I’m therefore the one being publicly outed—I’m not fucking anything up. Second, I don’t recall saying that was ‘it.’ In fact, just the opposite. Last I remember, I told you that I wasn’t about to let you hypocrites police where I stick my dick. The way I see it, this enemies with benefits thing is totally working for us right now, and unlike you two, I actually can keep that shit on lockdown and enjoy it for what it is without it getting messy. So that’s the plan for as long as we’re both down.”
“Motherfucker!” It was Xavier’s turn to pace, so I sat on the couch, one ankle resting on the other bent knee, arms stretched along the back, body reclined as far as I possibly could without sliding to the floor.
Even though I didn’t feel as relaxed as all that, I knew that the ultra-casual stance would piss Xavier off, and that was the main aim. It was petty, but sometimes he brought out the absolute worst in me, and antagonizing him was better than the other options that cycled through my mind; I wasn’t about to go to jail for anyone, least of all that fucker.
Drew did his human shield thing again, all up in Xavier’s face. I tipped my head back and stared at the ceiling, waiting for the mantrum to be over. Once he’d talked Xavier down from the ledge, Drew addressed me.
“Keep it civil. If that’s too much to ask, then I can’t promise to keep him in check.” As if I was scared of Xavier. I had the good sense to keep my mouth shut. I sat up tall and shrugged, past caring enough to speak.
“For what it’s worth, I think Bear has a point.” We were all suddenly focused on Fox. I wondered if his comment was driven by solidarity with his fellow animal-monikered Cygnus brother. “If she’s shown and told us that she won’t be intimidated, then we need to switch things up. He’s right.” Fox nodded my way.
“She came out of the gate fighting in the cafeteria, and I gotta say that for a supposedly bookish chick, she’s got game. She’s not an easy mark, and she’s not going to go down without a fight. Look at all the shit we did to Rocky, or even the weird stunts Drew pulled on Kik. I think we’ve underestimated Honey until this point, but now we know what we’re dealing with, we need to up the ante, a lot. We have to work out what will scare the living crap out of her, then do that, instead of this half-assed, half-baked bullshit.”
“Especially as someone else seems to be in on the intimidation racket.” The attention was suddenly back on me.
“Meaning...?” snapped Xavier testily.
“Meaning that it seems like she wasn’t the one who sent me-slash-us the Polaroid.”
“What? How do you know?”
“Because unless she’s double bluffing, she thinks we sent her one. I doubt that very much because her poker face sucks. Unless that’s a triple bluff, and she’s totally card sharking me. Oh, and on top of all that, she also thinks we slashed her bike tires.”
“What? What the fuck?”
“She left her bike outside the cafeteria and headed into the library to get some shit done, which was when she realized the article was missing from her laptop. Then she came to berate me. When she went to unlock her bike to ride back to her dorm, she found that both tires had been hacked at.”
“What the actual fuck is going on? I don’t get it. Why would someone be out to get us and her?” He was right to be confused. It made no fucking sense.
“I don’t know, but the whole thing is starting to get weirder by the day, especially when you take this into account.” Drew reached into his jacket and pulled something out of his internal pocket.” He held it for us all to see, except Xavier who was pacing again, not engaging with anyone. This meant that Drew had obviously already shared this info with him.
“Is it from that night as well?” I reached out to take it from Drew to get a better look.
“Seems that way.”
“But if it wasn’t her who took it, and the other one, then who the fuck was it?”
“That’s the million dollar question, right there.”
