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)
“Thanks,” Greer says, a little relieved.
Now I feel bad. Because if I were him, stuck in the parking lot, not able to help a client, I’d be trying to use all my resources too. Turns out I’m like one of those raw materials on Planet Thebula. Highly valued. Limited supply.
The stairs creak, and I tip my head to the side. I spy with my keen eye…Easton Mulligan. Best friend to Xander. His chocolate-brown hair is cut shorter on the sides, and the dark navy Dalton blazer makes his skin look even paler.
Luna says he might secretly be part-vampire, and she told me to keep an eye on him to determine whether he glitters in the light.
No shimmery flesh from Easton yet, and he’s largely a non-threat, considering he’s the sole reason Xander has braced some crowded hallways before. I’d like to take credit, but Easton, as his peer and a fellow eighteen-year-old, is able to navigate these social circles in ways I can’t.
He protects Xander from the school’s piranhas—the ones who’d try to pretend to be Xander’s best friend for clout and social media likes. Who’d chew him up and spit out the bones. Most seniors regard Easton as cool enough to try to know but he’s too standoffish to actually befriend. So mostly, what people say about him is written in half-truths and lore.
He’s the brilliant chess champion who won matches against rivals Faust and Maybelwood for four years straight.
He’s the loner who skipped a month of school and backpacked around Auckland.
He’s the suave knight who went LARPing with Xander Hale and made out with Paisley McWilliams in full armor.
High school gossip doesn’t affect my opinions much. All that really matters to me is that he’s a good friend to Xander. He’s never put that into question.
Once Easton fixes his loose tie and lands on the second floor, I expect him to beeline for Xander. Instead, he stops a few feet from me.
“Hey,” he says. “Can I talk to Xander?”
“Since when do you need my permission?”
“There’s a rumor.” He’s digging in his pockets for something. Cigarettes, I think, but that’d make zero sense. I’ve seen him smoke in the bathroom, but he wouldn’t be dumb enough to do it in the library. He pulls out a crumpled hall pass, tin of Altoids, a condom—he goes still, like I’m about to eviscerate him for carrying protection.
I know his parents are strict, but damn…
“Is the rumor in your pocket too?” I joke.
He eases. “No, that’s just in the halls. Fuck, I can’t find them.” He sighs heavily. Before I ask, he says, “My car keys. I must’ve left them in the caf, and I’m supposed to drive my little sister to ballet in…” He checks his watch. “Thirty minutes.”
“You have school though.”
“Tell that to my father. I’m never to skip a single class, unless it’s for the princess and the prince.” He shoves the shit back in his pocket, and I watch his gaze fall to my waistband. “There’s a rumor the administration is letting you carry a gun after everything that happened with Xander’s sister. I thought maybe security is tight and I’d need to request access to him again.”
Xander peers up from the book. “Wait, what? They think Donnelly is carrying a gun?”
I’m not allowed to be armed on Dalton’s school grounds.
“Yeah,” Easton says, “and…” His voice tapers off before he shakes his head. “Forget it.” He joins Xander at the six-seater table. I walk closer.
“Forget what?” I rest an arm on the wall beneath the stained-glass window. “Continue that thought, Mulligan.”
Easton slumps and rubs his temple with two fingers. “It’s gossip, wise one. That’s all.” He’s adopted the nickname Xander uses for me, as if I’m live action role playing as their sage protector. To be that for Xander and now someone else…it’s like completing a goal I never thought to construct.
It’s still strange. In the best way that strange can be.
I grin. “Been known to dabble in the gossip realms,” I say. “Lay it on me.”
“And me,” Xander chimes in, wanting to know too.
Easton cringes and tells me, “People keep saying you’re capable of literal murder and other heinous shit after what your family did. Add that in with the gun rumor, and you’re basically a psycho to half the school.”
Xander lets out a long groan, his hands flying to his head. “You can’t be serious.” He glares at the bookshelves like they’ve accosted me somehow.
Love the loyalty. Don’t love that he thinks I need it right now.
Easton adds, “Everyone’s just on edge.”
“Rumor mill working overtime,” I say.
“I’ll set them straight,” Xander tells me.
I shake my head. “Nah, it’s good if they’re all scared of me. Makes my job easier.”
His gaze softens. “Yeah, but you’re not a bad guy. They shouldn’t think—”
“Don’t care what they think, Hale.”
His shoulders slacken, and his sigh is just as long as the groan.