“Don’t make me kiss you, too,” she threatened.
The ridiculous statement was enough to lighten the sudden weight that had begun to press against my chest, and I laughed, walking into the building with my chin tucked to my chest. I understood why the other students were angry. They hated that I had been placed upon a pedestal, allowing them to think that I was better than them in some way, because I was an Adair.
Now I was a Black, and their new favourite sport was tearing me down. The problem was, they weren’t simply trying to bring me down to their level; they wanted to make up for the superiority that they had been fooled into seeing by sending me into the dirt. I was suddenly no better than trash.
“We’ll do mine first,” Poison declared, pulling the campus map out of her pocket. “Girls’ residential building is this way.”
She strode up the staircase two steps at a time, lugging her bags around as though they weighed nothing. I knew from experience that her skinny form was a mirage. She was stronger than most of the guys her age, because what she lacked in muscle-mass, she more than made up for in a passion so vicious it somehow managed to inject iron into her bones. We passed through the first building and into a courtyard that linked up to the girls’ residence. There was a busy reception on the first floor, and the woman shot out from behind her desk at the sight of Clarin.
“Boys’ residence is on the other side of campus,” she informed him in a knowing tone, catching one of the loose straps poking out from his mass of baggage.
“I’m a hermie,” he told her, completely deadpan.
“A what?” She released his bag, taken-aback, as Poison snorted.
“A hermaphrodite.” Clarin dragged out the word with deliberate slowness. “I got a bit of everything down here.” Some of the bags escaped his arm as he reached down to cup his groin. “The name’s Clarice.”
I couldn’t help it… I burst into laughter. It was too much—Clarin claiming to be Clarice in that deep voice of his. I doubled over as Clarin picked up his bags again, trying to bite back his smile at seeing me lose it.
“Ah…” The reception-woman cleared her throat, apparently at a loss. “Um, well… I suppose… er—ten minutes. You have ten minutes to get your friends settled, and then I expect you out.” She spun and clacked away, her heels hitting the tiles in an efficient sort of way.
“Poor woman,” Poison muttered on a laugh, turning and continuing on to the elevator.
“Don’t you need to check-in or find your dorm assignment or something?” I asked her, trailing behind.
“It’s all online, cupcake,” she hit the button to go up. “You’d know that if you weren’t insisting on being boring and staying with Tariq back at the mountain house. Your brother can look after himself, you know. He’s super popular, and he gets along with Tabby great. They both like to pretend everything’s cool without actually acknowledging their problems or talking about their feelings. Was your—his mom like that too?”
“Yeah, I suppose our mom was like that. But anyway, you know I can’t leave him alone,” I mumbled, as we piled into the elevator.
A woman was ushering her daughter toward us as the doors started to close, and we all let out a collective groan, because the girl was pushing what looked like a shopping trolley, and it had been filled to overflowing with awkward, homemade dolls. Maybe the dolls were famous and worth heaps of money, or maybe she just had a really odd collection hobby—the reason didn’t really matter so much as the fact that there was no way the trolley was going to fit inside the elevator with all of us, and it was clear that they were going to try anyway. I caught sight of a pop-star doll, a pirate doll, and a boy-band set, judging by the mops of hair. I cringed after that, deliberately averting my eyes. Clarin turned his back as the girl pushed the trolley forward to catch the closing elevator doors with one of the wheels. He reached out and clapped a big hand on my head, and then one on Poison’s head.
“Alright,” he had lowered his voice to a growl, “now that we’re past the reception-witch… who wants to suck me off first? We need to break you both into your little dorm room nice and proper, don’t we?”
The woman must have heard, because when I peeked around Clarin, she had her hands clamped over her daughter’s ears, and her eyes had grown so wide I thought they were in danger of tumbling right out of her head and disappearing down the crack between the reception floor and the elevator. The doors slid shut unhindered as the trolley was pulled back, and then we were all laughing.