Tatum sucked in a breath as she stared at it, her features flickering with more emotions than I could easily count and I turned away from her before I had to watch the moment she realised exactly what that sketch meant.
I grabbed my uniform from the closet and started pulling it on as she just stood looking at it for the longest time, slowly leafing through more pages, seeing more images of her through my eyes while her fingers began to tremble.
“Kyan,” she breathed eventually, making me look at her again as I slung my tie around my neck. I kept my chin up, but my walls were up too. She was taking a peek into my damn soul right now and I was too afraid of her opinion on it to face it dead on. “This…you…”
“You wanted the truth, baby,” I said, giving her a tight smile as I shrugged my blazer on. “So there it is. You told me I was yours once before. And now I’m saying it too.”
Her lips parted in shock and she clearly had no fucking idea what to say to that.
“I… you’re mine?” she asked and the way she said it was different to the last time, more of a question, an offer.
“All yours,” I agreed, buttoning my shirt. “For whatever that’s worth. So are you gonna cross the bathtub off your little list or what?”
Her gaze fell to the sketchbook in her hand once more and she nodded before flipping it closed again and opening her diary to the list in the back. She used the sharpie I’d given her the fake tattoo with to strike it out and I grinned at her like a cocky asshole. I didn’t even want her to say anything else. Whatever the fuck she came up with wouldn’t lessen the ache in my chest.
“Kyan,” she began again, looking back up at me.
“Saint’s gonna lose his shit if breakfast isn’t ready soon,” I pointed out. “And don’t worry, I won’t tell the others about your little revenge plot. Feel free to do whatever the fuck you want to Saint for the clothes. Although I’m not complaining about his choice in panties for you.”
“Oh there he is,” she said, rolling her eyes at me. “For a second there, I thought you’d forgotten how to be an asshole.”
“Never,” I assured her, tossing her a wink and striding out of the room so that she could get dressed. We weren’t going to have some deep and meaningful chat over those fucking sketches. She’d asked for a truth not a fucking declaration. And as far as I was concerned, my debt had been paid.
Saint was coming down the stairs dressed in his school uniform as I reached the body of the church and I ran at him with a feral cry as he made it to the bottom of them, knocking him onto his ass and pounding my fists into him with a cry of laughter.
“You motherfucker, was it you who screwed with my alarm clock?” he snarled.
“I know you haven’t gotten laid in a while, brother, so I thought you might enjoy the show,” I joked and he bared his teeth at me like a fucking animal.
He cursed me as we rolled across the carpet, calling me a badly bred hillbilly while I laughed in his face and yanked on his shirt hard enough to tear a hole in it.
Saint punched me in the gut as hard as he could in retaliation and I let him throw me off of him with a bark of laughter as he stormed off back up the stairs to put on a fresh uniform, giving Tatum time to put his breakfast together before he got back. I mis-buttoned my own shirt while he was gone, just to give him something else to freak out over when he returned.
Tatum offered me a tentative smile like she knew what I’d done and I murmured into her ear that she could always get down on her knees for me again if she wanted to give me a real thank you as I grabbed myself a bowl of cereal instead of making her cook my usual meal. That earned me an elbow to the ribs and I was almost certain we were back to normal by the time we were all walking down the path towards the Acacia Sports Hall where we had an assembly this morning before classes began.
When we arrived at the hall, the rest of the school were waiting for us to enter first as usual and the Unspeakables moved forward to open the doors for us, but Tatum fell still instead of entering.
“Come on, Barbie, we don’t have all day,” Saint said irritably, taking her arm to pull her along, but she yanked it out of his grip again as her gaze fell on Freeloader and Squits where they held the doors wide.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded in a loud voice, causing students all around us to fall quiet.
The Unspeakables looked nervous, glancing between each other and us like they weren’t sure what the protocol was for answering her question, and that fucked up little bit of me which enjoyed watching those assholes squirm perked up his head.
“Tell you what?” Freeloader breathed and I barked a laugh.
This was too good. Too fucking good. They thought they’d found an ally in our girl, but they were
