Black Rainbow (Rainbows 1)

“I’m so sorry to keep you waiti

ng,” I said to the reporters in the room.

“It’s fine, we were just testing the lighting anyway. We know the work comes first.”

Smiling, I nodded and moved towards the rest of them. Vivian shook her head, sucked her teeth at me, and looked out the window.

“Now, can we get the two females in the middle?” the photographer asked us.

Sure, if you want to capture a murder on camera.

I moved towards the center, as did she.

“Was there even anything in that folder?” she hissed at me under her breath.

“If you have to ask that, you aren’t paying attention,” I whispered back and smiled as the flash went off.

“Thank you, that’s all we need for now.”

We all broke apart, leaving the room to give them space. Before I could make it back to my desk, Atticus came up behind me and grabbed my arm, along with Vivian’s, and pulled us away from everyone and towards the stairwell.

“What are you doing?” I pulled my arm away from him.

“Whatever this big bad secret is, I want to know now before both of you fuck this up for us,” he demanded, looking at the both of us.

Vivian freed her arm and moved as far away from me as she could within the cramped space.

“Fine, I’ll start with my secret then; I’m a white, southern, gay, democrat whose father happens to be a Republican Governor,” he confessed looking between us.

I didn’t say a word, crossing my arms as she did.

“I can wait,” he said and leaned back against the door, “but do you really want to be stuck in here much longer?”

“I’m republican, and a stripper, can I go now?” Vivian snapped at him.

His eyes went wide for a moment before he tried to hide it.

“Okay… I didn’t see that coming,” he replied slowly.

Vivian looked to me, waiting as if to tell me I didn’t have the balls to admit my secret… and I didn’t.

“And she’s sleeping with our professor,” she spat out in disgust.

“That I kind of saw coming. No offence,” he looked to me and said.

“I worked just as hard for my spot here,” I said to her once again.

“Sure you did,” she snorted. “If you’ve done nothing wrong, then why can’t you admit it.?”

She pushed Atticus out of the way, taking her exit.

All I could do was sit on the stairs. “If it makes any difference, I was seeing him before I knew he was our professor. I just thought he was a lawyer, I had no idea who he really was until the first day in class...”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” he said as he took a seat beside me.

“Really? If anything I figured you would be just as pissed off as she is. It feels like you and I are always neck and neck.”

“Yeah, but you aren’t beating me because you’re with him. It would make sense if you put in just the normal amount of effort. But you’re always going the extra mile, and if someone else tries to catch to you, you push yourself harder. If you could have just gotten by sleeping with him, then you wouldn’t have bothered to dig up any dirt on us.”