Burn Before Reading(9)

Fitz's smile grew wider, impish-like in its curl. "It's a shame you'll be gone soon - I haven't had this much fun in a while. Even Burn looked a little less dead inside at your antics this morning, and that's saying something."

My stomach drops. I'd be gone soon? Did that mean -

"It's weird," Fitz pressed. "We're always a little fashionably late. But today, Wolf insisted we get to school early to reap the red-card from that freshman, like he wanted to avoid you, or something."

"Why is that weird?"

"I thought you hated him," Fitz's smile darkened into a smirk. "Look at you, asking questions about him like you care."

"I don't care! I just want to - ugh! Fine. Don't tell me. Just stay away from me." I threw my backpack on my shoulder and started towards the door. Fitz's voice stopped me.

"He never tries to avoid people, Beatrix. The opposite, actually. He confronts them constantly. But for some reason he wants to avoid you."

I looked over my shoulder at him. "Tell him the feeling's mutual."

I left the classroom, adrenaline shaking me up again. Every time I talked to one of the Blackthorn boys face-to-face, I got so nervous I could barely see straight. It's the scholarship. I knew it was. They had the power to take it from me, to cut my hard work out of the picture with a snap of their fingers. They could guillotine my life apart, and I was just waiting for them to drop the blade. They did it to Mark Gerund. They could do it to me.

I opened my locker, a slip of red paper waving on the inside. I picked it up and read the word I already knew was on it.

STOP.

I looked around for any sign of the brothers. They had to be nearby, ready to swoop down for the kill. I knew exactly what Wolf wanted me to stop doing. He'd made it abundantly clear this morning. This was just a formality. He wanted me to stop interfering.

But like hell I was going to do what he wanted. Everyone else did. Everyone probably would, for the rest of his spoiled life. But I wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. Nobody deserves Beatrix Cruz's respect - they have to earn it.

I poised my hands to rip the red card in two when a deep voice scared me shitless.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

I looked around to see Burn, somehow half-hidden in the shadow next to the lockers despite his towering height. His close-cropped, curly hair swayed in the breeze, his eyes tiredly watching me with none of Wolf's venom or Fitz's amusement. He just looked utterly bored.

"Jesus on a cheese platter! You scared me!" I hissed.

"Sorry," He muttered. "Wasn't my intention."

"What is it with you Blackthorn boys and annoying me today, huh? Is it 'bother Beatrix forever' day? Did you not hear me when I told you all to keep away from me?"

"I heard you," Burn said, voice getting softer even as mine got louder. He was so calm I felt somehow foolish for getting so worked up. I took a deep breath.

"Did Wolf put you two up to this?"

Burn's face didn't make many movements, but he quirked a bit of an eyebrow for this occasion.

"Us two?"

"Fitz talked to me, too. Tried to tell me how weird it was you guys got up early, or something? I don't know, I stop listening to condescending voice tones when they go on for more than five seconds."

I heard a chuckle, and blinked. That couldn't have been Burn. I'd never so much as seen him smile, let alone laugh. But there it was - the smallest of grins on his face, though it faded quickly when we locked eyes.

"When Wolf first started, I didn't agree with his methods," Burn said. "I still don't. When he told me what he planned to do, I tried to talk him out of it."

"That obviously didn't go too well."

Burn kept on, his voice steady. "I didn't help him, at the beginning. Neither did Fitz. It was a fool's errand, we thought. But then we saw it."

His jade-green eyes got a little distant, like he was deep in a memory.

"Saw what?" I tried.

"The school. It...transformed. It got better. Everyone was scared of Wolf, and he knew it, and he used that. The red cards made people think twice about doing terrible things."

"Sorry, I'm must be slow or something, because I'm seriously not understanding what's so great about bullying people into making them do what you want."

Burn studied me - not devouring me whole with his eyes like Wolf did, but a slow, even stare straight to my face. No fire, no acid. Just neutrality.

"I hope you stick around, Beatrix," He finally said.

"Why?"

Burn was quiet again, and then he murmurs, almost to himself; "I've never seen Wolf get that close to someone."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What?"

"He doesn't...do the whole touching thing." Burn said. "And he hates getting physically close to people. But you - that day with Eric and the red card -"

He trailed off, but the moment he was talking about hit me in vivid memory. Wolf's body heat, the way his shadow danced over my skin. He'd gotten way too close. But apparently that wasn't a thing with him.

"Burn, what the hell -"

"Just...do me a favor," Burn said. "And stay in this school. If you can."

Without another word, walked away. I sputtered into the air, throwing my hands up in confusion. Not only were the Blackthorn brothers annoying as hell, they were obtuse. All three of them were very different, but they shared one thing in common - never stopping to explain themselves.