Page 48 of Niccolaio Andretti (The Five Syndicates)
Robert Green Ingersoll
present
Lucy smashes into me as I open the door into the hallway leading to my dorm room in Vaserley Hall. The movement causes the medium-sized moving box I’m holding to crash onto the floor, and the clothes in it spill out onto the carpet.
She doesn’t do it on purpose, but it annoys me nevertheless.
“Sorry,” she says with a smile and reaches down to pick my things up.
I like it better when she avoided me. When she didn’t talk to me at all costs. A few months ago, if she accidentally bumped into me, she would have passive aggressively stared at me and turned the other way.
(And I probably would have sent a scathing remark her way.)
Now, she’s apologizing. With a smile on her face.
And I’m standing silently. Staring at her with an insult at the tip of my tongue that evaporates before I can speak it. For some reason, I just don’t have it in me to be mean to her. Yet, at the beginning of the school year, I couldn’t stand her and Aimee.
Aimee was competition. I had my eyes set on the Dean of Wilton’s Jefferson School of Business, and he had his eyes set on Aimee. He’s wealthy, from old money, and he runs several successful businesses. It doesn’t hurt that he’s easy on the eyes.
And I was acting like that girl. The one that’s catty to someone for no other reason than she’s jealous and threatened. And as Aimee’s best friend, Lucy got caught in the crossfire. It was wrong of me. I know that. Heck, I knew that from the moment I started the stupid feud, but I did it anyway.
But something about the way the two of them are together reminded me—and still reminds me—of how Mina and I used to be together before Social Services took her away from me. I remember seeing them the first time, when we moved into Vaserley Hall, and thinking, how dare they be so carefree and full of life when my sister is trapped in an awful, rundown building in China Town?
And I reacted.
I was jealous, and I lashed out.
The first thing I said to Aimee was, “Ew. What are you wearing, Hill Billy?”
She had on ripped jeans and trendy, worn out cowboy boots that were, honestly, nicer than anything I could afford without the help of one of my marks. And Lucy stood there, gaping as Aimee gave me a smart, sarcastic remark.
It was war after that, and it didn’t help that the next day I saw Aimee talking on campus with the Dean of Jefferson, his eyes glancing down every few seconds to the generous swells of her breasts, the lust clear in his eyes.
Looking back now, I realize that I was being stupid. Like it often does, my anger had gotten the best of me, and what’s worse is I wasn’t even angry at Aimee or Lucy.
I was angry at the world.
I still am.
And it’s worse that Lucy turned out to be a good person.
And right now, even as I’m trying to change, she’s still being a better person than I am.
This isn’t the first time she has been friendly with me since I let her hide out in my dorm room. For instance, about a month ago, she greeted me cheerily when she caught me leaving John’s place. Come to think of it, it’s probably a good idea to ask her why she was entering John’s neighbor’s brownstone in the first place.
Nick’s brownstone.
My eyes narrow on her, ignoring the way her bodyguard hovers protectively behind her at the movement. “Who lives in that brownstone I saw you entering a month ago? The one by Central Park.”
There’s a flash of a smirk on her face before it evaporates, and she gives me an innocent expression. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Behind her, her bodyguard snorts. She turns to glare at him, but the glare is playful and silly on her delicate features, and the bodyguard’s snort turns into a full blown laughter. She watches, a soft smile of endearment on her face, as his giant, muscular frame shakes with laughter.
I clear my throat to regain her attention. “Yes, you do.” I take a step closer. “How do you know him?”
I curse myself for letting her know that I know the neighbor is a he.
Lucy, of course, catches on. Her eyes widen at my slip, and she doesn’t even bother holding back her full blown smile. “So, you’ve met Nick?”
