Burn Before Reading(24)

"I -" Amid all the revelations Fitz was dropping on me about Wolf and his red-cards, I struggled to remember what I was really doing this all for. Fitz had to be one of the easier brothers to get to know. I had to get on his good side. "Things aren't great at home," I said, not fully lying, really. "And it sucks, and I can't concentrate lately and I'm starting to fall behind in class, and I don't have notes -"

I trailed off. "Nevermind. It's stupid to complain about this stuff."

Fitz's face lightened. "It's not stupid. It just means you suck. More than usual.”

I frowned at him, and he laughed.

"For now," He clarified. "You're going through a bit of a suckage period. Never fear. Us smarter beings can help with that."

"Like I'd want your help," I snapped, now definitely irritated with him.

"Seriously," He insisted. "If you need help catching up, I can do that.”

"Why help me? I've done nothing but get mad at you, and yell at Wolf -" The memory of defending Eric came crashing in on me and I groaned. "God. Why didn't anyone stop me?"

"Wolf tried to," Fitz pressed. "With that red-card. But you ignored that, of course. You're good at that whole ignorance is bliss thing, huh?"

"Screw you, too."

Fitz breezed past the insult, flipping aside a lock of his blonde hair like he was on the Hollywood red carpet. "I can tutor you. Contrary to popular belief, I'm actually pretty good at the whole school thing. When I want to be. When it doesn’t put me to sleep forever."

"And what do you get out of it?" I ask. "I can't give you money, or -"

"Apologize," He said quickly.

"What?"

"Go apologize to Wolf. Right now. He's at swim practice, in the pool building."

"I've got nothing to apologize for!" I protested. "He's the one who dumps coffee on people, he's the one who threatened to take my scholarship away -"

He sighs. "Fine. You're right. His methods are extreme. But he's always got a reason for them. Dumping coffee on someone isn't nearly as damaging as the shit that freshman is doing to the inside of his body with the steroids, or what Eric tried to do to that girl."

"And getting me kicked from the school?" I asked. "How do you justify that?"

Fitz is silent for once, no quip on his lips. "You'll have to ask him yourself. Like, right now. He's just a few minutes away."

"You're sure," I pressed. "You’re absolutely sure he has a good reason for doing it? That's stupid. That's blind faith. He's doing it because he hates me."

"Then prove me wrong. Go ask him."

"Fine!" I threw my hands up. "I will."

Fed up with him, I storm across campus to the pool building. Fitz doesn't follow. The smell of chlorine and the sound of splashing water and shouting guys greets my ears. The moment I step into view of the pool I realize how bad of a mistake this is. Fitz goaded me into this - if I don't play this right, Wolf will be even harder to get on my side, if that's even possible.

The swim team does laps back and forth, a burly woman with thick arms and a loud voice bellowing at them to move faster as she prowled the edge of the pool with a stopwatch.

"You think that will get you into states, Bergman?" She shouted. "Let me see that arm movement, big circles. Is that your idea of big? Get moving!"

I shrunk into the tiled wall, hoping she wouldn't see me. I was just about to bolt for the door when her voice called out.

"Oi! You there! Who are you?"

I flinched and turned. The people in the pool had stopped swimming, every boy staring at me. Wolf was in the middle lane treading water, hair drenched but doing nothing to hide his gaze on me. Shit. Now he hates me and thinks I'm probably stalking him. Which I am. Just. On his dad's payroll. Slowly. From afar.

"I must've....taken the wrong door?" I offered quietly. "Sorry."

She squinted at me, then blew her whistle. "Alright, five minutes, boys, and then it's back to the butterfly you all know and love. Drink something, get those electrolytes back in you."

I watched the guys get out of the pool and knew this was my chance to break for it. I messed up. Holy god I messed up so hard by letting Fitz get to me -

"You don't strike me as the type who likes water. Or anything, really."

My hand froze on the door's handle and I turned, coming face-to-face with Wolf. He toweled himself off as he stared at me, rubbing it through his dark hair as disdain soured his face.

"How do you do that?" I hissed. "Sneak up on people like that? Burn does it too. Is it hereditary, or are you classically trained ninjas, or -"

He shoves a slightly-damp twenty dollar bill at me suddenly.

"For your unwanted assistance. With fixing my bike."

It was such a bizarre thing I was struck dumb for a second. "Oh, wait. I get it. This is laced with anthrax and you've taken the antidote your whole life and this is how I die, struck down by my mortal enemy's charity."

His green eyes narrowed, fox-like. "It's not charity. You fixed the bike, however stupidly lucky you were with it."

"Why are you giving this to me?" I scoffed. I made the mistake of looking down, to the exposed skin of his velvety stomach, every svelte line of muscle shifting beneath his exerted breaths. Gross, Bee. Don't let it hypnotize you like it's done to every other girl in this damn school. "Mr. Francis is the one who's actually going to fix it."