Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
“Is she though?” Stassi’s friend pipes in, clicking the butt of her pen against the table. She’s speaking loud enough that I can hear. “Her and that bodyguard just made out in a bar. It’s not that serious.”
It is serious.
I can feel them waiting on pins and needles for me to verify. It’s why she’s projecting her voice. So I can chime into the conversation and give them the juicy details.
They don’t deserve them. I stay quiet, and I’m betting they think I’m small and meek. A little church mouse, but I’m not. I know I’m not.
Carson expels an aggravated sigh. “I’m not trying to get laid, Stassi.” He shakes his head at her burgeoning grin. “I can’t believe we’re related.”
Stassi arches back. “Barely.”
“Half-siblings,” Carson says to me. “So you can blame her half of DNA for being a royal bitch.”
Stassi tosses up a middle finger, then looks to Frog. “Love your tumbler.”
Frog’s Stanley water bottle is a pistachio green that Akara, her cousin, gifted her for her 19th birthday this December. Along with a year’s subscription to his fitness app—to which Frog was the most delighted. “I’m going to tease Nine all year for this,” she told me.
I don’t catch Frog’s facial reaction to Stassi. I busy myself with popping open my laptop, but I hear Frog say a quiet, “Thanks” to her.
“Do you know Luna?” Stassi digs for more dirt as students flood the classroom. With my back to the door, I only see them eyeing me as soon as they plop down in a chair.
It’s okay.
This is normal. It’s not like I’ve never been a spectacle before, but I wonder how many are thinking, She was kidnapped. Do you think she’s, like, mentally okay? I can’t believe she made out with Donnelly in a gross bar. On the day her grandfather died!
The horror!
I smile to myself.
Frog sips some water. “Yep, I know Luna. We’re cool.”
Stassi’s friend snorts. “I don’t think Luna Hale and cool have ever been in the same sentence.”
“Beverly, you have to show her the lizard video.”
I perk up. So there is context to the lizard hissing? I’m about to ask what, but Quinn coughs in his fist, and he scratches something on a notebook he brought as a “prop” to appear more like a student.
I read his handwriting: you’re in the video.
Shit. And I almost asked about it. A heatwave assaults me, and my nerves suddenly descend like a swarm of locusts. Pretending I have my memories is harder than I thought it’d be.
“I’ve seen the video,” Frog says. “And it’s really cool that Luna memorized the dance from The OA.”
Ohhhhhkay. Now I understand, and Frog truly is a godsend for providing that morsel of info so effortlessly. She’s beauty. She’s grace. She’ll claw you in the face.
“Again,” Stassi says, “we have to rework your definition of cool.”
Carson rolls his eyes, then tells me, “Ignore Anastassia.”
“Carson.” A feminine voice from the doorway pricks my ears. “Being nice won’t get you laid with the ‘most famous girl at Penn’.” Her mocking tone snakes down my spine. “Your Porsche might—but this whole white knight bullshit is bullshit.”
I go numb.
That voice.
I know that voice.
I’d never forget it in a million years. Not even if the Earth was overtaken by Cylons and I was the last surviving member of the human race. That shrill, antagonizing voice would still be in my nightmares.
“Jeffra,” Carson says. “Fuck off.”
Yes, please. Fuck off to another class!
I’m rigid. Frozen. A statue of epic proportions.
Jeffra just laughs, then claims an open seat beside Stassi. Her eyes hit mine, and her lips purse and face tightens like a dried prune. I’m sensing she’d rather cross my name off her weekly agenda too. So this must be some bizarre coincidence that we’re taking a class together.
She’s not stalking me.
She grimaces at Quinn and Frog on either side of me. “You really have no friends that aren’t either on your daddy’s payroll or share the same DNA with you?”
Stassi frowns. “Wait…” She zeroes in on Frog. “You…?”
“Honey, those are her bodyguards,” Jeffra says. Okay, maybe she is stalking me! No, that’s silly. It’s public knowledge who my bodyguards are, but it does say something that Jeffra recognized Frog and Quinn whereas Stassi didn’t. She’s keeping tabs on me, for sure. I wonder if OG Luna did the same for Jeffra. Like making sure your mortal enemy is serving a life sentence of suck.
Stassi lets out a low whistle. “No way.” She sizes Frog up. “No wonder you think Luna’s cool. You’re paid to think that.”
Frog glares, clutching angrily to her Stanley. “That’s not true. The only thing I’m being paid to do is not throw this water bottle at your face. So be lucky—ugh.” Quinn kicks her under the table. She shoots him a fierce look.
Jeffra and Stassi ignore and start whispering between each other like their attention is too worthy of being on Frog any longer. It’s rude.