“Maybe he does care… You never know until you let him.”
This might have been him extending the olive branch, new levels to so many of my relationships lately. Thoughts traveled to Ramses and how I’d left things with him. He obviously suggested I’d go see Royal last night, but I hadn’t told him I would. He clearly had some feelings for me, and though I didn’t want to rub things in his face, I couldn’t put distance between Royal and me. We showed up to school together, his arm still around me. In the busy halls, people definitely stared at us, but I didn’t care. Like stated, we were in a different place now, and everything else didn’t seem to matter. We managed to avoid confrontations with friends and everyone else on the way in, getting to his locker unscathed. There’d be time for those talks eventually, those moments later.
Dropping his arm from my shoulders, he grabbed my hips, pressing me against his locker. He didn’t look at anything else but my mouth before kissing me right there in the traffic-filled hall, a kiss that literally made me forget everything else. After it was over, he kept his hands on my hips, pressing his forehead against mine.
“I can’t tell you everything,” he said. “Everything about Paige? It’s something I have to… well, I have to show you.”
I had no idea what this meant but decided to trust him, gripping his uniform’s lapels. “Okay.”
I said okay because that’s where we were now. There were no more lies, only trust, and he tipped my chin, kissing me again.
He pulled back, his thumb brushing my skin. “We’ll go after school since it’s Friday, make a road trip of it. You’ll know everything by the end. Everything I know. I promise.”
The certainty of that scared me just as much as anything else, knowing not just the truth but whatever further darkness he felt was behind it. My sister dying had already been tragic the way I’d believed…
But for there to be more?
All of this may gut me in the end. I might not be strong enough, and as if knowing that, Royal pulled me away from the lockers. He brought an arm around me, kissing my hair, and I knew whatever this was, he’d stand by me. He’d get me through it, and he had me as well. I’d be there for him too.
“Hey, guys.”
Royal touched our heads together briefly before lifting and finding Jax. He stood there, in his uniform as we were. He had his hands in his pockets, and the judgment I thought might be there at seeing Royal and me together was absent. Maybe he knew Royal and I ultimately coming together would happen. Maybe Royal had even told him while he’d been waiting for me to get ready when we stopped at my house that morning. I didn’t know what Jax knew, but for whatever reason, him seeing Royal and me together didn’t visibly bother him like I thought it might.
Royal left his arm around my neck, keeping me close. He might have said something, but Jax leaned in first.
Jax frowned. “The guys told me to get you—”
“Attention, student body of Windsor Preparatory Academy,” came over the speaker, a female voice. I recognized the voice as Principal Hastings’s secretary, Mrs. Norris. “We’re having an assembly before first hour classes today. Please report to the central gymnasium immediately.”
Everyone in the hallway immediately started to move that way, but Jax held us back.
“What’s going on?” Royal asked, and when Jax looked at me, Royal held a hand up. “She’s fine. Tell us both.”
Nodding, Jax pushed hands in his pockets. “There’s whispers surrounding the assembly. People are saying it’s Mira.”
Royal’s eyebrows narrowed. “What is?”
“The assembly. Folks are saying she’s the reason for it.” He looked around before facing us. “They’re saying she committed suicide.”