Chloe about choked on her food when she turned to see Nero with a tray. She thought she was seeing things—wait … Did he just call Elle “babe”?
Elle pointed to the empty seat beside her. “Are you serious? Sit here?”
“Yes, I was talking directly to you, wasn’t I?”
Her mouth dropped to the table. The sarcasm was real in their voices, telling her that something must have happened between them. She was pretty sure of it by the way he was eyeing Elle. Yep, he is, in fact, talking directly to you!
Chloe was on the edge of her seat, wondering what Elle was going to say next.
“No, you clearly weren’t because my name isn’t ‘babe.’ I bet you don’t even know my name. So, no, you cannot sit here, Nero.”
Okay … I wasn’t expecting that.
“All right, babe. I’ll eventually be sitting right there. I can wait.” Nero left with a smirk on his face.
Okay, I wasn’t expecting that, either. He definitely liked that answer more than he should have.
Chloe picked her jaw up off the ground and swallowed the food that was still in her mouth. “Don’t you think I deserved a little warning?”
“Jesus, Chloe, I tried to tell you twice, but you kept interrupting me. I said you weren’t going to believe who talked to me.”
“Well, tell me already!”
“When you left me, I went in the hall, and he bumped into me. I tried to tell him sorry, but he told me to not apologize for something I didn’t do. He actually talked to me and wasn’t mean.”
Chloe felt her mind being blown at this moment.
“I can’t believe it. Nero is … nice?”
“No way. He is …” Elle drifted off. “He wants something, but I’m not going to find out what it is. I know exactly who Nero Caruso is, and ‘nice’ is the last word I would use to describe him.”
“Yeah, but aren’t you just a little curious?” Since today was a dream day free of Cassandra, she wondered how Elle didn’t seem the least bit interested. “I know I am.”
Chloe couldn’t help it. She had always found Nero beyond handsome, and she could live vicariously through Elle. The way he had looked at her friend, with his piercing green eyes, had shown her something definitely was there, and if she could see it, then Elle should have definitely felt it. Chloe was the one who didn’t like people around her.
“No, I’m not,” Elle told her defiantly.
Well, that was the biggest lie if I ever heard one.
After that, the rest of the day went on rather quickly, and they found themselves back at Chloe’s Health class for the last period of the day.
“Stay here and wait for me. We’re not going to try to be bold just because Cassandra isn’t here. Clearly she’s the ringleader, but you know just as much as I do she is not the only one who likes to ruin our lives.”
Chloe nodded her head. “I know. I’ll wait right here.”
“All right. Catch you later.”
Going into the classroom, she took her seat in the back, hoping Elle would make it to class safely, even though they were having a great day so far. Like Elle had said, they weren’t going to take any chances just because the witch of Legacy Prep wasn’t there.
When class started, a strong feeling came over her. She couldn’t quite place exactly what it was. Looking up from her desk, she glanced around the room, the feeling becoming more unsettling by the second.
Getting nervous, she started digging her nails into her palms. Focusing on her hands while she stared at them seemed to help. Slowly, the unnerving feeling began to dissipate… right up until the end of class when it returned to her full-force.
Quickly, she again glanced around the room, once more expecting to see the devil’s eyes staring at her. When her eyes stopped roving, she found a different pair watching her, instead. They might not have been pure evil, but they were black as night.
Unable to hold the gaze for even a moment, she averted her eyes and went back to digging her nails into her palms.
Quit being silly, she tried to talk herself into having imagined it. No one had ever cared to look her way unless they were calling her a freak.
Feeling like she was just being paranoid, she looked back up at him, only to catch Amo blatantly still staring. It was harder for her to move her eyes this time, but thankfully, the school bell saved her.
Brrring.
Turning over her hands, she saw the little droplets of blood appear.
“You ready?” Elle appeared out of nowhere, seeming a bit disheveled.
“Yeah. You okay?”
“Uh, yes, why wouldn’t I be? Okay, let’s go!”
It was almost like it was in slow motion when Elle’s hand reached out and almost grabbed hers. She had to look away from Elle and down at the floor as she pulled her hand up to her chest.
“I’m sorry, Chlo—”
“It’s okay. Let’s go.” Chloe didn’t wait for her to lead the way this time. Instead, she walked right past her and started the journey to her car.
That was the closest anyone had been to touching her in a long time, making her realize she was never going to be able to stand human contact. A thought had never been so sad to her until now.
Her hand felt like it had almost been burned by the close encounter, and she took a look at it to see the little red marks she had created from Amo staring at her.
Chloe had been right to call him a beast three years ago. He just grew into it more and more each day.