Tristan scrunched his forehead and looked between all of us. “Why are we acting like she won’t be the next girl Cassian dumps in a day?”
“Fuck off, Blackwood.” Cassian put his arm around me and pulled me closer.
I didn’t know what to say—or if I was supposed to say anything. I just felt strange. It was a little like being a morsel of meat tossed into a den of wolves. Cassian’s arm around me was his version of baring his teeth and growling at the others, letting them know I was already spoken for.
Marne pursed her lips, clearly oblivious to the fact that she was supposed to feel out of place. “Charli doesn’t fit Cassian’s usual pattern. That’s why we can assume he’s more serious about her.”
Gage squinted. “You say that like you’ve studied him.”
“I study everyone. People are unpredictable, at least until you figure them out. That’s why I like to figure everyone out.”
Logan tapped her shoulder. “What have you figured out about Gage? That he has a three-inch penis?”
Marne shook her head. “On the contrary. Girls who claim to have hooked up with Gage seem to be highly interested in pursuing him afterwards. Unless he’s extremely talented in other ways, I’d say that’s unlikely to be true. His member is probably quite—”
I reached across the table and pressed my hand over Marne’s mouth. “Sorry. Sometimes it’s best not to ask her questions.”
Gage pulled my hand away. “Let her finish.”
“Massive,” Marne said with a grin.
Gage gave Logan a punch on the shoulder. “How about that, fucker? And what have you learned about Logan?”
“He seems to have a particular interest in girls who have troubled pasts. Particularly, girls who need some kind of protection. Abby Gyles, for example, made no secret of the fact that her older brother was abusive toward her. Or Harriet from last semester, who—”
“That’s enough,” Logan said, all the humor gone from his voice.
Tristan laughed. “Bummed that she didn’t determine you have a huge cock?”
Logan snatched up his food and left the table. Gage watched after him, then nodded his head. “He’s definitely moping because she didn’t mention his cock.”
“It’s probably very large, too,” Marne said. “Generally speaking, the larger the man, the larger the penis. A penis that would be massive on a five foot tall guy might only be biologically average for someone as tall as Logan.”
I put my palm over my forehead. “Marne. I’m officially banning you from saying the word penis for the rest of the lunch period.”
Marne shrugged. “Cock is a fair substitute. For example, Tristan’s cock is probably—”
This time Kennedy cleared her throat, cutting off Marne. “I’m going to lure a bunch of bears to your house at night if you finish that sentence.”
Marne raised an eyebrow. “Threat taken.”
Clint and two guys from the swim team walked up to our table. Clint folded his arms, looking toward Cassian.
I tried to catch his eyes and shake my head, but he wasn’t paying attention to me.
“Taking her hostage?” Clint asked.
Cassian took his arm off me and stood, probably reminding Clint and his friends how ridiculously big he was. “You’ve got more balls than I gave you credit for to be standing here.”
“What did you do to her?” Clint asked. “Huh?” He finally looked past Cassian toward me. “Is he hurting you?”
“What? No, Clint. I—” I swallowed, conscious of not only everyone at the table watching me, but specifically of Zoe. I just didn’t think this was the ideal time or place to try to reiterate that there was nothing between us anymore. I didn’t want to throw it in his face in front of an audience. “Maybe we can talk about it later?”
Cassian shot me a look over his shoulder. “You can say it in front of me.”
I felt trapped sitting at the table with everyone looming over me, so I scooted out and stood. “No. I can say it to him in private at a better time. Later.”
Cassian looked like he was ready to explode. I didn’t just think he wasn’t used to being challenged; I knew he wasn’t. “We’ll talk about it.”
Clint jabbed his finger at Cassian’s chest. “If I find out you’ve been hurting her, I don’t care who you are. I’ll—”
Cassian cut him off, grabbing a fistful of Clint’s shirt and lifting him a few inches off the ground with one bulging arm. “You’ll what?”
Clint’s friends were shitty wingmen, because all they did was exchange worried looks and take a half step back.
“Cassian stop it. Now.”
He opened his fist, letting Clint fall back to his feet. “This isn’t done,” Clint said.
“You just made sure of that, dumbass.” Cassian watched them go, then tried to get me to follow him.
I shook off his arm. I lowered my voice, because I was pissed, but I still didn’t want to yell at him in front of his friends or mine. “If you want this to work, you need to learn to control yourself.”