Page 73 of Darkest Obsession

Chapter Thirty-Two

Clover

“This is bullshit!” I yell, kicking the wall outside the dean’s office and repeating the very words that got both of us thrown out. Thomas sighs and sticks his hands in his pockets.

“Does kicking things normally help?”

I am so not in the mood for his ass. I only have a few minutes until dance practice and the dean refuses to help. We only got a meeting after classes and even then, the damn dean shows us the door in under five minutes flat. That has to be a world record for incompetence.

Apparently, the emails don’t originate from a school computer, so there’s “nothing that can be done”. The dean actually recommends without a hint of irony that Thomas Bainbridge’s family hire a security detail. For both of us. I would rather die than have a pair of Bainbridge lackeys following my every move around campus. I’ll take my chance with that weird ass cricket bat and my knife game.

Maybe I can even practice on Thomas, who is really getting on my nerves right now.

“Why aren’t you upset?” I snap at him, even if I’m pretty sure this is just the easiest outlet for my rage.

“No point.”

“No point?! Someone tried to kill me.”

For someone who barely lets me sleep in my room without creepily watching over me, I find Thomas’ calm unnerving and extremely irritating.

“I’m planning. Not losing my cool.”

“You can do both, Thomas.”

“My dad could have security out here but… I don’t want to explain it to him. He watches how we use our money. Closely.”

“I don’t need a damn security team. We nearly caught that bitch once, we’ll do it again.”

“Okay.”

He’s so infuriatingly quiet sometimes. I glance at his face to see if he has any further contributions than his one word answers. I hate looking at Thomas. He’s far too attractive for a guy who gets on my nerves this much and whenever I look at his annoyingly hot face, my eyes can’t help but darting to his lips. How does a white guy have lips so sweet and rosy? Ugh.

Finally my staring provokes a complete sentence.

“You’ll be alright during dance practice. I’ll meet up with you after.”

“Are you crazy? So we can field questions from everybody we know?”

“What do you want then?”

“We can meet at the library. I guess. That would be safest.”

“Embarrassed to be seen with me?” He asks. I fold my arms and tilt my head to the side. Yes, I am. Haven’t I told his ass that more than a few times? Thomas publicly humiliated me and then confessed to me that he’d done worse than that in the past too. I don’t want people knowing that I associate with him. I definitely don’t want people to know that someone is blackmailing both of us.

Our search for someone with a stab wound or a slash today proved completely fruitless. Everyone wears long sleeves and no one in either of our classes or in the halls looked the slightest bit hurt.

“Will you be okay on your own?” He asks, his voice sounding genuinely sweet.

I try my best not to respond with the abrasiveness of a porcupine fighting a pitbull.

“Yes. I’ll be fine.”

“Guess that wasn’t our last breakfast then.”

“Um. I’ll be eating in the dining hall from now on.”

It’s in my best interest to stay far away from Thomas as much as possible. Clearly this blackmailer doesn’t want us working together or interacting with each other. But doesn’t this person get it? The more you try to push people apart, the more they fall together. The last thing I want to do is to fall into a friendship with Thomas.