Burn Before Reading(76)

"It's always the three of you," I insisted. "That’s why they call you the Blackthorn Brothers, not the Blackthorn Brother."

Burn nodded, motioning to the kitchen. The fancy granite countertops were crowded with strangely decadent foods for a house party - a whole cooked turkey, for example, and a three-layered cheesecake. Champagne - the not-bargain-bin-at-the-grocery-store kind. Burn saw my confusion.

"Catered," He said.

"Right. Getting other people to cook for you. I forgot that's a thing."

"Do you want something?"

"No thanks. Not really hungry right now."

"Did you eat dinner?"

"No."

There was a beat of quiet. Burn didn't blink as he stared at me.

"Are you going to tell me about it?" He asked.

"No.”

He shrugged in a way I'd long started interpreting as his 'fair enough'.

"Fitz is in the theater downstairs. Wolf is out by the pool."

Of course this fancy house had a basement theater. "Is Fitz okay? He sounded really bad."

"I don’t know," Burn answered. "It isn't unlike him to drink this much. But it’s unlike him to mix it with other stuff."

"Stuff?" I led on.

"Pills." Burn said. "He's usually smarter about it."

"Not tonight," I clarified.

"Not tonight," He agreed.

"I'll talk to him," I said, and walked towards the downstairs.

"Bee?" Burn called. I looked back. "It would be nice if you said hi to Wolf, too."

I suddenly felt flustered. "Sure, I mean, yeah. I wasn't going to like, ignore him or anything."

Burn said nothing, and walked into the crowd. I hated how shaky my laugh sounded. But it was hard to not shake when Burn pulled that 'see through your soul' bullshit with his eyes. He couldn't know about me and Wolf's resolution to remain enemies. He couldn't know about how I'd thought of Wolf as I stood at the gate and stared up at the house. So why did it feel like he did? And why did it feel like he knew something I didn't?

The 'basement' was just a lower level of the house, the same marble floors and pillars accentuating guest bedrooms and recreations rooms. There was a tiny gym, an indoor hot tub - drunk people crowding the equipment and hot water. Even if they were rich, they still used those red plastic cups - half-crumpled ones everywhere I turned. Some things transcend trust funds. I spotted the theater room - a dark room with movie noise coming out of it. Two girls stopped me as I walked over.

"Hey, you! You’re Beatrix, aren't you? The scholarship student?" The taller girl asked. I recognized her as a Junior. She smelled so strongly of fancy perfume I felt like passing out. Why was she wearing so much? Who was she trying to impress? My Lakecrest-tainted mind jumped to judge her as some looks-obsessed idiot, but I shook that thought out of my head. No. I’m better than that, now. I’ve learned better.

"Um. Yeah," I nodded. "And you are?"

"Anna," She smiled and motioned to her friend, a shorter blonde. "And this is Taryn. We've seen you around, and we just wanted to let you know we think you're so awesome."

"Uh, thanks?"

"Yeah! Holding the McCaroll scholarship is really hard, you know. Like, two people in our year flunked out of it before."

"They weren't as smart as you are, though," Taryn interjected.

"For sure," Anna nodded.

"Well, damn. Thanks for the compliments. You can't see it, but I'm blushing. On the inside. Wait, I think that might be called meningitis."

There was a beat, and then the girls burst out laughing.

"Oh that's a good one!"

I took it as my cue to exit on a high note, but Anna's hand gripped my arm and stopped me.

"Hey, I know it seems weird, but can I ask you a question?"

"Sure?"

Anna shot a look to Taryn. "We were just super curious - you and the Blackthorns are like, a thing, right?”

I did not like where this was going.

"Define 'a thing'." I air quoted.

"You guys hang out at lunch, and in class and stuff. They like, talk to you."

"Yeah....so?"

"I don't think you really get it," Anna put on a practiced, patiently condescending voice. "Since you're new to this school and all. But the Blackthorns usually don't talk to anyone."

"Fitz does,” I said. “To numerous ladies. All the time."

"Yeah, but it's not just Fitz talking to you. It’s all three of them."

"Okay? And?"

"How did you..." They both leaned in, like we were sharing some dangerous secret. "Do it?"

"Do what?" I was thoroughly confused.

"Get them to talk to you, duh." Taryn rolled her eyes.

"Did you sleep with them?" Anna pressed. "Or was it just, you know, giving head stuff?"

"What?" My outraged voice echoed, people staring. I took a huge breath to clear the red from my face as I hissed. "I didn't sleep with anyone! Or give them...head! That isn't how I do things!"

"Then how do you do things?" Anna asked.