Bloody Princess by Helen Scott
24
Lyric
I'd fallen asleep with Lyssa's diary in my arms, and now someone is banging on my door. A quick glance tells me that Evie didn’t come home last night, which isn't a surprise, given what I know about her relationship with Cliff. Still, I don't really know many other people on campus, so whoever is banging at the door has to be here for her.
"I know you're in there, Little L. You groan when you wake up," Thayer's voice comes from the other side of the door, surprising the shit out of me.
Why the hell is Thayer here? "Just a second," I call back. I scramble out of bed and hide Lyssa's diary before trying to make myself look a little more presentable. There isn't much I can do since I'd have to go past Thayer to get to the bathroom, but I can at least run a brush through my hair or something. Oh, and change into something fresh. I don’t want to be stinky when I answer the door. I strip out of the t-shirt I'm wearing and change my bra, pulling a fresh one on before finding a clean t-shirt. It's the least I can do. He'll still have to deal with morning breath. His fault for surprising me. I do hesitate for a moment when I realize this means I'm not in a matching set anymore, but then I push the thought aside. It's not like Thayer is going to force me to go back to the Pi Ep house.
When I open the door, I see Thayer standing there in a plain white t-shirt and leather jacket. His hair done, looking artfully tousled. His jade eyes stare down at me, and he says, "I'm taking you out for breakfast."
No question. Just a statement.
"You are, are you?" I reply, crossing my arms over my chest.
His gaze dips momentarily before he says, "I have something I want to talk to you about. I figure we may as well do it while getting some food. Unless you were planning on sleeping the day away?"
"First of all, it's only nine in the morning. I would hardly say this is sleeping the day away. And secondly, are you going to wait while I brush my teeth and stuff?" I ask, not willing to leave without taking care of the basic morning necessities.
He nods and steps to the side, holding his arm wide and bending ever so slightly at the waist while a smirk twists his lips. "I will wait right here."
Always so dramatic.
"Fine. I'll be right back." I disappear back into my room, grabbing the shower caddy with my toothbrush and everything in it, and head down the hall. I send Mel a quick text to let her know what's happening and tell her to ping my phone in a bit to see where we go. There may be something there we can use to find out more for leveraging the guys.
After taking care of everything I need to, I stop back at the room to drop off my caddy before we head out. The conversation on the way to the cafe is stilted and awkward. I may as well have been rushing again since it’s all the standard questions. How's the semester going? What classes are you taking? Have you decided on a major yet? On, and on, and on, with bullshit that means nothing. Okay, maybe I'm a little grouchy from the rude wakeup.
We arrive at the tiny door to a hole-in-the-wall place that looks more like it should be shut down than like we should be eating there. The waitress is in a white and black uniform that shows every food stain and looks as though it's seen better days. All that being said, there's something homey and well loved about the place that's comforting.
"Hey, Greta," Thayer says as we sit down after finding our own table.
"Mornin'," she says to Thayer before turning to me and adding, "And good mornin' to you, pretty girl. What can I get you?"
"Two eggs, sunny-side up, two sausages, hash browns, and some toast with any jam you have, please. Oh, and a coffee, black," I reply, having no idea if there's a specific name on the menu for what I'm ordering, but with a place like this, I'm sure they are used to people just listing off what they want.
"And for you, lovebug?"
"Just the usual, please," Thayer replies.
She tucks the pen behind her ear into her flame red hair with one hand, flipping her notebook closed with the other before stashing it in her apron and disappearing. A moment later, she returns with a coffee pot and two small, white mugs, which she sets down and fills with steaming hot coffee goodness.
When she walks away again, I slide one of the mugs toward myself and gingerly lift it, blowing on the surface before taking a sip. It's decent quality, which is all I ask for in a coffee, really. Once we've both at least had a mouthful of coffee and Thayer starts to look more relaxed, I ask, "So what did you want to talk about?"
Thayer looks at me, unflinchingly making eye contact as he says, "You need to stay away from us. Nothing good is going to come of you trying to insinuate yourself into our lives. Do you understand?"
"You're the one that asked me out to breakfast, asshole. I haven't even talked to you since that first night." I pause, and then the realization hits, "This is Jude, isn't it?"
Thayer shakes his head, but he drops his gaze, and I know I'm right.
"Why should I stay away from you? Give me one good reason. The four of you are my last tie to Lyssa. You're going to need to give me something to cut that cord other than 'because I said so'." I know he wants me to back off, to go quietly and not make a fuss, but, dammit, this is one of the few things I'm not willing to back down from, even if I can't give him the real reason why. In all honesty, he's the last one of them I suspect of having hurt Lyssa, but if he's this willing to do Jude's bidding, then maybe I’ve misjudged him.
"Things are only going to get harder the longer you keep at this," he replies cryptically.
"Keep at what?" I demand.
Before he can reply, our food arrives on a variety of plates, and there’s even a sauce caddy and a jam caddy for my toast. My stomach rumbles loudly as the smell of the food hits me, and the waitress, Greta, just smiles knowingly as she tops up our mugs of coffee. "Enjoy, sweethearts," she says before walking away once more.
Thayer takes a bite from his giant stack of pancakes after slathering them in more syrup than I've ever seen one person use in my whole life. Apparently the arrival of our food means I have to wait for my answer, which is fine. I skewer one of the sausages with my fork and take a bite from it. The hot, spicy, fatty taste explodes over my tongue, and I almost groan with pleasure. I catch Thayer watching me as I take a second bite and finish the sausage off. It wasn't that big, or that round, but he's looking at me like I just deepthroated the thing in public.
When I'm done chewing I ask, "So, are you going to give me a reason, or can you not think past what Jude told you to say?"
He frowns at me, and the way his dark eyebrows lower only makes the jade color of his eyes stand out even more. "The reason is that the longer you stay, the more difficult life is going to get for you."
I almost choke on the sip of coffee I'd been taking as he spoke when laughter bursts from me. "You really have no idea what I consider difficult or what my life has been to this point, do you? So, let's just finish our breakfasts, then you can pretend you gave me a stern warning and I quaked in my boots, while I continue doing whatever the fuck I want to do. Sound good?" I forcefully cut off a bit of my eggs, the fork screeching against the plate as I do so, before I shove it in my mouth. My mission has now become to eat as quickly as possible and get out of here.
"You're right. I have no idea what your life has been like, but I know that the organizations you’re trying to join aren't a walk in the park. They will tear you down mentally, and if they can't that, they'll do it physically. All they want is to use you for your name and your family's wealth. We're just trying to protect you from that. That's all." Thayer stabs into the stack of pancakes and tears a mouthful away, devouring it like a starved man.
"This whole meeting is because I'm pledging Pi Ep? What would your girlfriend say if she knew you were here trying to talk me out of joining?" I demand.
"Nothing good will come from you joining. Your life will only get more complicated, and the longer you stay, the harder it's going to get." He shrugs this time, as though it's no big deal to him what I decide and he's just trying to look out for me. It's like he's been given a basic guide to manipulating people and glanced over it before he came to pick me up. His methods are obvious and annoying. I'm much more subtle when I work.
"And if I tell the Pi Ep council that you're trying to discourage me from pledging?" I ask, more curious than anything. I know his girlfriend isn't on the council, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything if she has their ear.
"You think they actually give a shit about you yet? The council only comes into play once you're a sister. Before that, it's just you and Paige, and whoever else she ropes into her sadistic games. Besides, who do you think the council are more likely to listen to, one of us, the Boys of Ascendance Bay, or you? Four against one, Little L. You can't beat those odds. If you stay you'll wish that you had dropped out. And I'm not just talking about pledging. Find a different school, go back home and live off Daddy's dime. I don't care, but you need to leave. We need you gone."
"Need is a strong word, and you still haven't given me a decent reason," I reply as nonchalantly as I can, but the truth is, he's starting to piss me off. After this breakfast, I'm going to need to go for a long workout to burn off some of this anger, otherwise I'll turn into a ticking time bomb. I finish off my eggs, which just leaves my toast and hash browns.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and since only two people have this number, I figure it must be important, so I slide it from my pocket. It's Mel's number, so I swipe across the screen to open it.
"Sorry, am I boring you?" Thayer asks, clearly annoyed by the fact that I'm checking my phone.
Smile at him in the next 60 seconds. Look flirty.
What the fuck? Is she here, somewhere? I know I told her to ping my phone, but I didn't expect her to actually follow me. I count to thirty before I slip my phone back into my pocket and look up at Thayer, smiling seductively at him as I bat my eyelashes. It's got to have been sixty seconds by now, but I keep at it while he looks amused and slightly confused.
"What the hell did you just read to make you look at me like that?" he asks, smirking at me.
I lean forward over the table, avoiding the food but managing to push my boobs together as I do so they strain at my t-shirt, and I bite my lower lip slightly. His question isn't relevant, so I ignore it to ask my own, "Is this because of me and Atlas?"
Thayer's eyebrows shoot up to his hairline before he can control them, and he asks, "What about you and Atlas?"
I shrink back into my seat and blank my face. "Nothing. I was just trying to figure out why you're all being so weird with me. Jude won't even talk to me, you're doing this, and Keats and Atlas, well, they're just weird. It's like it's opposite day and no one told me or something. I thought Jude would be happy to see me since he spent so much time at my father's place, but he seems to be the most angry that I'm here."
Thayer nods in agreement. "Which is why you need to leave. Having Jude as an enemy isn't something you want. He'll turn everyone against you and make your life miserable. It's better to just leave now, before it gets bad."
"But why will he do that?" I ask. It's futile to hope that Thayer will say something like “because he murdered your sister and is being consumed by guilt,” but I can't help it. I feel like, if I provoke him enough, he might just spill something worthwhile.
"He wants you to be safe, and Welhurst isn't a safe place for you. Also, you remind him of Lyssa and everything he lost," Thayer says quietly.
"Everything he lost?" I ask. I didn't think he’d known Lyssa was pregnant, but maybe I was wrong.
Thayer pauses, and I know he's getting ready to lie or omit something important, so whatever he says next isn't the truth—or at least not all of it. "His best friend. Lyssa's death tore him apart. He cared about her more than any of us realized."
I want to tell him what I read in her diary, that she was afraid of how Jude would react if he found out she was pregnant. Was Jude the father? He was the most likely candidate. There's something about the words in her diary that make me unsure though. If he was the father, then did the “everything he lost” mean Lyssa and the baby? Or was it something else?
After rereading her words last night, and now this conversation, the one nerve I have feels raw and exposed. It fucking blows.
"Listen, I don't know how to make this any clearer to you, but I'm not going anywhere. Like I said the first night, I'll do what I want, when I want, how I want. None of you can stop me. If Jude wants to make it bad, tell him that's fine by me. I'll lick his boots before I let him run me out of the school I fought to go to." I push up from my seat and grab the two slices of toast and a small container of raspberry jam and storm out.
I scan the area, looking for any sign of Mel. Unsurprisingly, there's none, so I start the long walk back to campus. I could call an Uber or a cab or whatever, but the walk will do me good and let me process what just happened.
Part of me expects Thayer to chase me down, to tell him I'm being irrational and an emotional mess, and it would be true to an extent. The only problem is that none of this is for the reason he thinks.
I miss Lyssa more than anyone else can ever understand. With her gone, it's just been me, my father, and Sampson. Mel has been in and out with school and then, you know, faking her death and all. I've been their only constant. Their permanent stress relief. One day, probably not any day soon, but one day, I'm going to relieve my stress on them, using every skill they've taught me. I just need to know who else to add to that list first. I need to know who hurt Lyssa.
