Filed to story: Kissed by Claw and Fang
“Kick some butt?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of not make complete and total fools of ourselves, but way to think positive.”
She laughs, as I intended her to, then bounds off the bed and starts layering up big-time. Which…finally, someone at this ridiculous school who has some sense. Between the jerks I met the first night and then Zane and Lia, I’m beginning to think everyone in this place has some bizarre immunity to cold. Like maybe they’re aliens and I’m the ignorant and fragile human living among them.
After we both finish getting dressed in-I counted this time-six layers, she herds me toward the door. “Come on, we don’t want to be late or we’ll totally get ambushed.”
“Ambushed. With snowballs. Sounds fantastic.” San Diego has never looked so good.
“Just wait. You’re going to love it. Plus, it’ll give you a chance to meet all of Sebastian’s friends.” She checks her makeup one more time in the mirror by the door, then all but shoves me into the hallway.
“All of Sebastian’s friends?” I ask as we make our way through the halls. “Exactly how many people are going to be at this thing?”
“I don’t know. At least fifty.”
“Fifty people? At a snowball fight?”
“Maybe more. Probably more.”
“How does that even work?” I query.
“Does it matter?” she answers, brows raised.
“Yes, it matters. I mean, how can you possibly keep track of that many people trying to throw things at you?”
“I don’t think you keep track of them so much as try to flatten everyone you come across without being flattened yourself.”
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe the altitude sickness is coming back.”
“Too late.” She links her arm through mine and grins. “We’re almost there.”
“So can you be a little more specific about who all is going to be there? Anyone I’ve already met-I mean, besides Sebastian?”
“I don’t know if Lia will be there. Cam won’t-he and Sebastian don’t really get along. It’s a…thing.”
I think about asking exactly what kind of thing she’s referring to, but the truth is, I don’t care if Lia shows up. Or Cam. There’s only one person I’m trying to find out about, and since Macy isn’t getting there herself, I guess I really am going to have to ask.
“How about Zane?” I keep my voice light even though, after our encounter earlier, my heart is pounding at the mere mention of his name. “Is he going to be there?”
“Zane Vale?” By the time she gets to the second syllable of Zane’s name, her voice is little more than a squeak.
“He’s the one we saw in the hall that first day, right?”
“Yeah. Um…yeah.” Macy gives up any pretense of chill-and of walking, as it turns out. Instead, she turns to me, hands on her hips, and demands, “Why are you asking about Zane?”
“I don’t know. We’ve met a couple of times, and I just wondered if he was into snowball fights.”
“You’ve met
Zane Vale a couple of times? How exactly did you meet, considering I’ve been with you almost all the time since you got here?”
“I don’t know, just walking around the school. It was only a few times.”
“A few times?” Her eyes almost bug out of her head. “That’s more than a couple. Where? When?
How?”
“Why are you being so weird about this?” I’m seriously beginning to regret bringing Zane up. I mean, she was freaked out over Sebastian, but it was a fun kind of freaked out. Right now, it looks more like she’s going to blow a gasket. “He was in the hallway; I was in the hallway. It just kind of happened.”
“Things don’t just happen with Zane. He’s not exactly known for being talkative with anyone outside of-” She stops abruptly.
“Outside of what?” I prompt.
“I don’t know. Just…”
“Just?” I ask. She smiles a little sickly but doesn’t say anything else, and it annoys me. Like, seriously annoys me. “Why do you keep doing that?”
“Doing what?”
“You start sentences and then never finish them. Or you start to say something and halfway through change what you were saying to something else entirely.”
“I don’t-“
“You do. All the time. And honestly, it’s beginning to feel a little weird. Like there’s some kind of secret I’m not supposed to know. What’s going on?”
“That’s ridiculous, Ivy.” She looks at me like I’m a few snowflakes short of a snowball. “Katmere is just, you know, full of all kinds of weird cliques and social rules. I didn’t want to bore you with them all.”
“Because you’d rather I commit social suicide?” I arch my brow at her.
She rolls her eyes. “Social suicide is the last thing you need to worry about here.”
It’s the first real thing she’s said since we started this conversation, and I jump on it. “So what do I have to worry about, then?”
