“Fucking really?” I brought Hershey with me, my chest brushing his. “Not everything is about you.”
“But sometimes it is,” he said, pissing me off more. “And I’d hate for you to be caught in the crossfire because of that. Stay away from him, December. Seriously, he’s not good for you.”
“You’re not good,” I spat, making him swallow. “I just wish I would have known that sooner.”
The swallow pushed hard down his throat the second time, and he gave himself away a little. I’d affected him, clearly.
His cheeks flooded more red. “Remember what I said. Don’t do something stupid because you’re mad at me.”
He really thought everything was about him, and rather than give him the last word, I gave him mine.
I flipped him off through my mitten, his eyes on nothing but me. “Stay in your lane, Royal Prinze,” I told him. “And I’ll do whatever the hell I want.”
Fuck if I let him tell me what to do. Fuck if I gave any more of my emotions to him at all.
Twenty-Six
December
It was finals week and right before holiday break before I finally got to talk to Ramses one on one, the pair of us in the library studying for final exams. It’d been the first time I’d really been with him alone considering we always had people around us, and I really didn’t want to put him on the spot about Royal’s allegations. I may have been mad at Royal, but there were always two sides to every story. Ramses had the benefit of the doubt considering. Especially since we’d both been screwed over by one Royal Prinze. His head down, Ramses currently went to town on a mock test he graded for me, making way too many red marks on it for my liking. Turning it around, he slid it toward me with a single finger. He grinned. “Nice one, ’Zona.”
Nice one?
“Seriously?” I swiped it up, all that red he’d placed on my exam stars not checks. I punched the air, then him. “I thought you were marking these wrong. What the hell!”
The librarian shushed me audibly. Lowering her glasses, she eyed the pair of us.
“Sorry,” I mouthed, keeping my victory chant silent.
Ramses stacked his books. “Dare I say, you might be ready for this week?”
Yeah, because of him. I pushed my hand into my hair. “Oh my God. I might actually graduate.”
“Well, you’d deserve it,” he said, nodding. “You put in the work, so you’re going to ace your tests. ’Gratz.”
He held out his hand, and we did a silent fist bump. I’d apparently turned into one of the jocks because not only did I do that with him, but everyone now in our group. I grinned. “Thanks. I guess you are Dr. Brain.”
He shrugged. “I guess I won’t charge you—this time,” he stated, chuckling that last bit. My smile faded a little as what he’d said sounded familiar to something else that had been said to me once upon a time. Royal once stated I didn’t have to pay up for something, a favor between us.
How ironic who appeared to be his arch nemesis was putting the same work on me. Albeit in a different way. Ramses had never been one to act anything like Royal in the time I’d known him. In fact, I never would have believed he fit into this world at all back when we worked together in Arizona.
“What’s up?” he asked. “You still worried? I think you’ll seriously be okay this week, pass everything.”
I shook my head, definitely not thinking about what he believed. I chewed my lip. “It’s not that. Just thinking about something.”
“What kind of something?” I had his attention now, his books back in his bag.
I shrugged. “It was something Royal said to me, somethin
g about you.”
He zipped the bag shut, nodding. “Okay.”
Here goes nothing.
I rolled my eyes. “He warned me to stay away from you. Well, basically beckoned me in the way he does. He didn’t really go into specifics, but he said you weren’t really a good guy. That you were bad news and a bully.” There, I said it, all of it out there.
Ramses’ lips closed, neither protesting nor agreeing.