Smoke and Wishes (Best Wishes #1)(11)
“Are you the reason she came barreling into the dorm and holed up in her room for the rest of the weekend? Because let me tell you buddy, if you are, I will totally and utterly destroy you,” Sadie’s eyes narrowed as she leaned into Benji’s personal space, her bright yellow nail stabbing into his chest, placing emphasis on just how much destruction she was capable of. Unfortunately, some of the menace she was attempting to channel was lost since she had to look up at Benji who was around a foot taller than her short stature.
“Uh, no, that wasn’t me. She helped me when some guys from my hometown cornered me, so no need to totally and utterly destroy anyone. Especially me,” Benji admitted. He held out his hand as a peace offering, and when Sadie realized he was telling the truth, her demeanor went from pissed off Chihuahua to her usually bubbly self in an instant. She returned his handshake and slid past me following Benji. They made some idle chit-chat as I sat back down. I had turned to join into the conversation when I heard another familiar voice.
“There’s my lemon drop,” Landon’s husky voice was warm as he addressed me; Sadie’s head whipping up to look behind me. When her eyes dropped to mine, she had a ‘you’re so dishing details later’ face on. I turned, realizing I was staring right at Landon’s belt buckle. It looked like an upside down pentagram with...is that a goat head? His right hand was propped on the back of my chair, the way he was leaning made his shirt ride up a little bit, giving me a glimpse of that yummy V guys have. Look up, Lucie.
I forced my eyes up before they could travel further south, a flush creeping up my skin, to see him smirking down at me. Logan’s face popped over his shoulders with a matching expression. They were both dressed in dark wash jeans and black shirts, one said “copy”, the other said “paste”. I chuckled at their clothing choices before motioning for Sadie and Benji to scoot down two seats.
“We missed you love, and who is this?” Logan’s eyes trailed to Sadie. He reached across me to hold out his hand for her, but instead of shaking it he brought her knuckles to his mouth for a light kiss. I felt a small surge of jealousy pass through me. What the hell was that? I squashed down that feeling as quickly as it came.
“Nice try, but I don’t bat for your team. I’m Sadie, Lucie’s roommate,” she took back her hand with an exasperated sigh, her eyes flit to me before she rolled them. Clearly, Sadie wasn’t going to fall for Logan’s antics, he shrugged unfazed.
“Hey, Benji,” Logan moved on from his attempt to flatter Sadie to address the kitsune shifter on the other end of our group. Landon waved over at him before he introduced himself to Sadie. Dean Renaud stepped onto the stage at that moment, silencing the gymnasium.
“Girl, you’ve been holding out. You and I are going to have a detailed discussion later over a ridiculous amount of ice cream about how you met them,” Sadie whispered into my right ear as she leaned over into my personal space.
“You got it. I’ll buy the ice cream,” I chuckled sitting back to my full height. My heart clenched a little bit while my vision grew watery. The feeling of acceptance and normality warmed me. I can be normal, I can get passed everything he destroyed. I blinked a few times clearing away the blur of unshed tears, intent on paying attention to what the dean had to say.
Dean Renaud was lecturing about how in order to make sure the students at the school reach their full potential, the faculty will be made aware of the powers they currently possess, as well as those they may develop over time. Something about how it’d be used to help guide and teach them throughout their college career. To get a better understanding of our powers, each of us will go through testing with a professor and an ‘advanced student’ once a week until the professor has had a thorough enough assessment to configure future coursework.
He closed out the lecture by reminding us that we should have received a time, location, and instructors for our unique power placement testing, along with our schedules at orientation. If anyone didn’t, to find a professor or himself to fix the error. Well, that was a pretty standard speech, why did I have to get up so early for this? I grumbled as I stood up along with the rest of the freshman students.
“What class do you have first?” Logan questioned as we filed out of the aisle towards the gym door. “We have Supe History with Hans.” I didn’t have my schedule fully memorized yet making me dig out the paper from my messenger bag, but before I could read which class I had first, Landon plucked it from my fingers.
“Look twin, Lucie has Supe History with us, and Intro to Supe Society,” he handed the paper off to Logan and looked to me, “care for an escort to your first official class here at Redwood Supernatural University, lemon drop?” His tone was full of mock importance as he puffed his chest and held out his right arm. Sadie elbowed me, sending me stumbling into Landon. I was able to catch myself on his extended elbow before it collided with my left side, but not before the action jostled my ribs. Thank fuck for fast reflexes.
“Sure, that would be great,” I responded to Landon through clenched teeth. Breathe through the pain, it’ll ease in a minute. I glared at Sadie who looked completely content with trying to play cupid. She smiled wide and waved while pulling a confused Benji off an adjacent walkway towards the Music and Arts building. Not one to be left out, Logan’s left arm found its way over my shoulders. The slight movement caused my left side to continue to throb in pain. I clenched my teeth even tighter and took slow, shallow breaths through my nose to limit the expansion of my rib cage.