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“Same difference. I need to pick your brain—”
“No.”
“—about what I should do—”
“Still no.”
“—about Sam.”
Her deadpan face didn’t change, and I fought the urge to whine. Best friends were supposed to be down for gossip all the time, right? Giving out advice and lending shoulders for crying? Okay, in truth I knew that River’s no nonsense brand of friendship was far more what I needed than a gossip girl, but still.
“I’ll help.” Ben, who’d been assigned to be River’s partner at the start of the last term, walked over and joined me on my bed. He sat at the foot, but it still felt a little awkward. This was a man who wasn’t mine entering a very personal space. “What’s going on?”
Yeah, that wasn’t happening. I might spill my guts to River, but there was no way I was going to share my personal business with Ben. Don’t get me wrong, he was nice enough, but he wasn’t in my inner circle. Not even in my inner dodecahedron that surrounded the perimeter of the circle.
“It’s lady business. If I tell you, I’ll get my woman-card revoked.”
His forced laugh was as awkward as my own.
“So, River, are we going to this party tomorrow night?”
“What party?”
“Kate told me about it. Apparently, we’re finally allowed to leave campus to go have some fun now that exams are over. I guess the school is renting a place in the city and inviting, um… humans.” Saying that never felt any less weird. I was human. Or I’d been raised as one, anyway. Separating my identity from humanity was going to take more than a few months.
“Not interested.”
“River! We’re going. We have to, we can’t stay cooped up here any longer. Don’t you want to let off some steam away from this place?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, then go for me. Illyria and her minions are going to be there for sure, are you going to leave me at their mercy?”
“I’ll step in if needed,” Ben piped up.
I waved an arm in his direction. “With only Ben to keep an eye on things?”
“Hey, I take offense to that. I could keep you out of trouble.”
I had my doubts, but I didn’t offer a rebuttal, only stared at River with pleading eyes.
She didn’t weaken even a little.
“Okay, what do you want? What will it take for you to come with me?”
“The fact that you think I can be bought is insulting. But I’ll do it for a favor to be named later.”
“Deal!” I wasn’t about to haggle.
“Fine.”
“Help me pick out what to wear, I’m thinking—”
“I take it back, I’m out.”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. No outfit talk.” I chuckled to myself, already having known she would object to something so “girly.” I was about to tease her about her reluctance when my phone buzzed to life. I snatched it up off the nightstand in a flash and unlocked it. A text message chimed before I could check for any tampering, the sender listed as Unknown.
Heard you got your phone back. Meet me in your garden in twenty.
