Page 23 of Depraved Boys

“I won’t throw my pom-poms at your feet and storm out as long as you don’t pretend to be cool,” I replied with a laugh.

We both exchanged wide grins. Maybe I’d been wrong about Sebastian. Despite his devastating green eyes, handsome face and a voice that melted my panties, he could be goofy, just like me.

“Seb?” Leopold and Prakash strode up to our table, looking as bewildered as the T-Birds had in Grease.

Sebastian blinked. “These are my friends, Leopold Brunswick, and Prakash Kashaayah. May I present Willow Evergreen?”

A flush spread across my face, and I peered at Leopold under my lashes. One word from him would color Sebastian’s perception of me. Leopold waggled his eyebrows but said nothing… yet.

“We’ve already met,” muttered Prakash.

“Really?”

“Advanced Calculus.”

His brows rose. “Brains, too?”

I beamed. A guy as handsome as Sebastian accepting my academic nature was like a dream.

“A scholar.” Prakash emphasized the word using the same intonation someone would use to introduce a highly contagious leper.

Sebastian’s face dropped.

A breath caught in the back of my throat. Did Sebastian share his friend’s views about the scholarship program?

“Didn’t she tell you that?” Bianca, the dark-haired girl, maneuvered herself past the boys and into the conversation. Her malevolent, indigo-blue eyes narrowed into slits.

Geraldine stepped forward, her shoulders back and chin raised. “They’re insidious like that. I caught her masturbating in the corner while Leopold and I got naked last night.”

She glowered down her perfect nose at me. “There’s something you should know, scholar. The only time a girl like you gets a guy like Sebastian Garraway is when he’s playing the pull-a-pig game. Isn’t that right?”

Sebastian continued staring at me as though I’d told him some kind of fundamental lie. I swallowed hard, insides shriveling to dust at Geraldine’s words. He hadn’t reacted to Geraldine’s lie about last night, so I guessed Sebastian was still hung up on the fact that I’d accepted money to study at Brittas Academy.

“Willow Evergreen, is it?” Bianca reached into her pocket and pulled out her smartphone. “In case you’re wondering, pull a pig is when someone worthy steps down from their pedestal to convince someone unworthy of their interest.”

“Like a dumpy, fat scholarship student who goes to parties dressed in her mom’s cast-offs,” added Geraldine.

“Exactly,” replied Bianca, “The game can take place over a night or a term or an entire year.” She held up the phone to eye level and tapped a button.

My breaths came in shallow pants, and my gaze darted from Sebastian, whose face had frozen in a rictus of horror, to Leopold, who looked like he wanted to throw up, to Prakash, who couldn’t even meet my eyes.

Even if I couldn’t understand Sebastian’s reaction to discovering I was a scholar, Prakash knew. Why did he act as though he was trying not to look at a car crash?

People gathered around us. Miss Claymore rose from her seat to deal with a spat that had broken out on the other side of the room among two first-year girls. My eyes became hot, and I couldn’t stop blinking. Pull a pig? They had to be talking about me.

“The game ends with the victim getting pigged. They discover the love was fake.” Geraldine’s face split into a sadistic grin, her silver eyes glinting with malice. “Then their face falls, and their porcine heart crumbles, just like yours is doing now.”

Bianca snapped a photo. “And their devastation is immortalized as a meme forever.”

My temperature plummeted, and my stomach turned to ice. “Sebastian?”

“You didn’t tell me you were a scholar.” He stormed out of the dining room.

“Never mind, fatty,” crooned Geraldine.

“Fatty doesn’t encompass the full extent of her pathetic weakness.” Bianca waved her hand over my body. “She’s overweight, but so’s Michelle, who carries it with silent dignity and sticks to her own league. This behemoth has no shame.”

Ashley clapped her hand over her mouth and stifled a laugh.