Ignore it.
Just ignore him.
What the fucking fuck does he mean by “obedient throat,” anyway?
…And would he actually enjoy having me in his lap?
I shift on the booth and refuse to meet Sev’s eyes. I turn back toward Noah instead, who is now downing the rest of his drink like it’s water.
“Dude, what the hell?” I ask.
“I have to fuck someone else tonight.Lookat her.”
I look across the dining hall to see Stephanie Kim currently making out with a tall guy who looks vaguely like Chris Hemsworth. They look hot together. Noah knows it, and I know it, too.
My phone vibrates again and again on the tabletop, and I ignore the sound.
“Noah, you barely dated her. You need to have some semblance of self-control or you’re going to hurt yourself.”
“I’m fine.”
Noah gives me a little shove, trying to push me out of the booth.
My phone’s vibrating again, and the sound ticks me off on a deep level. I’m so conditioned to think of that sound like it’s nails on a goddamn chalkboard.
And now it’s so much worse.
I pick the phone up, briefly seeing the front screen littered with texts from Sevan.
My eyes skim past certain words and phrases that stand out like razor barbs:
—hard for me?—
—wet, waiting mouth?—
—such a good slut?—
—many times have you thought of me while you touched yourself this week?—
I don’t open a single one.
My heart beats hard in my chest as I turn the screen away from Noah’s field of view and I hold down the power button until the thing finally shuts off.
“Okay, Noah,” I tell him, standing up with my tray. “Let’s just go home.”
It’s like a small mercy from heaven when Noah actually obliges, saying goodbye to the others and following me out of Colossus.
The air outside is misty and cool on my hot cheeks. Each step of the walk home feels like getting further away from the jaws of a hungry lion.
Noah and I get back to Onyx House and the anger in me mostly subsides as we find some of the other guys in the living room. We settle in and play some rounds of poker with them, and I stay there later than I normally would, whittling away the hours trying to distract myself.
And I keep my phone off for the rest of the night.
When I wakeup too early, around 4:30 in the morning, it’s still dark outside.
I’m groggy as hell. I reach toward my nightstand and finally, I turn my phone on again.
The texts Sev sent at the dining hall were all just meant to bug me. Other than the stuff I already saw that was clearly written to provoke me, it’s mostly just more comments about how I should have been more careful at the Zenith night.