Deceit (Gallows Hill #1)

10. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Skyla

P rofessor Corwin is droning on and on about the colonial era, and no offense, I couldn’t be less interested. I learned a completely different history syllabus growing up in the UK. So I probably should be paying attention, but as nice as he is, listening to him lecturing is practically mind numbing.

I do my best to avoid Liam’s flirty eyes, but it’s proving to be more difficult than I predicted seeing as he took the empty seat to my right while Maggie is on my left. I have absolutely no interest in conversing with the neanderthal, though. It’s very obvious he’s just one of Asher’s henchmen, the lead henchman in fact. Every time I look at him, I think about the way he reveled in my public humiliation. No amount of pretty blond hair or eyelashes for miles can make up for that. Not to me at least.

My eyes flick down to the scratch paper I’ve been doodling on, that same heart crest imprinted in my mind. When I woke up this morning, someone had slipped an envelope under my door. Inside of it was a silver necklace with a heart shaped pendant. This wasn’t just a normal heart, though. It had thorns and wire wrapped around it that looked to be bleeding. Accompanying it was a piece of paper with a single sentence.

Sometimes the most precious things hurt the most.

Obviously it’s some kind of weird scare tactic from Asher, as if the lovely little photo wasn’t enough. I don’t know what his game is and I don’t care. I threw the entire thing straight in the trash and didn’t mention it to anyone. I won’t let him have the satisfaction of me even acknowledging his efforts.

When class is over Maggie and I stand up, pushing past Liam as we walk down the stairs. I’m applying Ronan’s advice and ignoring Asher, as well as all of his associates. If it bothers the king, I have no doubt it bothers the servants just the same.

I’m in such a rush to get out of the classroom that as soon as I step out into the courtyard I barrel into someone, forcing them to stumble a step or two before they face me.

“Watch it,” he practically snarls.

It only takes me a moment to place him as the tattooed guy from the pool. I haven’t seen him around campus, and I haven’t been back to the pool since that day. Despite how much I already miss it.

“It was an accident, Griggs,” Maggie snaps right back.

His hate filled eyes flick from me to her, before coming back to me. He dismisses us with a shake of his head, before he’s storming off across campus.

“Who is that?” I ask Maggie.

“Him? That’s Vincent Griggs. Total loner and a complete jerk off.”

Yeah, I could tell.

“Why do you call everyone by their last name?” I ask as I walk her to her class, since I have a gap in my schedule for a few hours.

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“Anytime you talk to people you call them by their last name, almost in a derogatory way. Why?”

She is quiet for a moment before she speaks.

“Heritage is really important around here. It’s ingrained in us. Some families are good, some not so much.”

“Well, that’s just life right? Are there literal family rivalries here or something?”

Maggie shakes her head as we round the corner of the building and step inside.

“Not at all. We are all on the same team. It’s just complicated. I don’t know– hard to explain. If you would have grown up here, you would know these things,” she sings lightly before laughing.

“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t have much say in that.”

She rolls her eyes and pulls me in for a quick hug.

“Yeah, yeah. Excuses, excuses. K, see you at lunch,” she says before slipping into her class.

I wave goodbye as I begin heading back to my dorm until my creative writing class, which I absolutely despise by the way.

After classes are done for the day, Maggie and I are heading to the parking lot when Liam comes jogging up. He steps in front of us in an attempt to stop our movement, but I give him an unimpressed look as I continue walking.

He grins at me like he expected nothing less before he begins jogging backwards, keeping his eyes on me.

“Hey, babygirl. Where you going?”

“None of your business,” I cut.

“Aw come on, don’t be like that. It was funny. If it would have happened to me, you would have been laughing.”

“No, I wouldn’t have. It was cruel and undeserving. I most definitely wouldn’t participate in the public humiliation of others because I was so desperate to be accepted by my peers,” I snap back at him.

His teasing smile falls, and he stops in his tracks as he nods solemnly.

“You’re right. I’m sorry, it was a dick move.”

My eyes narrow in suspicion for a moment, searching his face for something teasing or disingenuous. But I come up empty.

“It was,” I say carefully.

“Can I make it up to you?” he asks.

I raise an eyebrow. “Probably not, I’ve been known to hold a grudge.”

A laugh escapes him as he smirks.

“I’ll bet. There’s a party tonight, be my date?”

Now I’m the one that laughs, causing his smirk to drop and a confused look to knit his brows together.

“Absolutely not,” I snicker, as Maggie gives me a side eye before chuckling to herself.

“Why not?” Liam asks, obviously deeply offended.

“I don’t need a reason. No is a complete sentence,” I say, as my laughter dies down with a shake of my head.

I brush past him, looping my arm with Maggie’s to take her with me. Liam quickly jogs after us, grating on my nerves as he speaks.

“Fine, don’t be my date but at least come. There will be drinks, dancing. I’ve been told I’m quite the dancer,” he says as he takes a step to the side, practically humping the air as he does.

I’m not sure if he’s trying to look like an idiot, but either way he’s succeeding. I can’t help but let a laugh slip out at his expense as I shake my head, when Maggie speaks up.

“Bonfire?” she asks.

His eyes flick to her before he smiles and nods.

“You in, Bartlett?”

“As long as you stop dancing, Walcott,” she laughs.

His body stops instantly as he snickers.

“Done. I’ll see you ladies tonight,” he says with a saucy wink in my direction, before he saunters off back to campus.

I look over to Maggie with wide eyes as I shake my head.

“We aren’t actually going, right?”

She rolls her eyes at me and smirks.

“Of course we are.”