Chapter 86

My locker is in the same place as last year, the keys to my dorm tucked in my bag. I head straight for the chapel hall for morning announcements, wishing Miranda were here. I texted her back a simple but critical: see me at lunch in The Mess, but now I’m phone-less with no way to contact her. Patching things up with Andrew felt good. I want … I need the same thing with my best friend, the only one I’ve ever really had.

Instead, I turn the corner and run straight into an ambush. Tristan Vanderbilt is even more terrifying than I remember.

He stands at the point of the Blueblood crowd behind him, arms crossed over his second-year uniform: white pants, white shirt, white jacket, and red tie. He looks good in it, too, which I hate him for. Those blade gray eyes of his narrow on me, and my throat tightens.

I can’t do this, my brain shrieks, wanting to panic, to run. But my heart was forged in fire. I stay put.

“Well, well, well, the Working Girl showed back up for