12 - Natalya.

Some girls would hold it against me that I don’t want to tell them what this arrangement between us entails, but not my two best friends. We walk in silence to the cafeteria, and I can tell Azira is irritated that I won’t tell them what’s going on with Alexander. Normally, I tell them everything, but even if they swore to never breathe another word about our family’s true name to anyone, I know what a motormouth Azira in particular can be. She can’t keep anything from her brothers and certainly not from her sister, Mia. The two of them are basically inseparable.

Once we’ve got our food, we sit down at our normal table and Adrianna fills in the silence, talking about how much of a pig Coach Daniels was in combat class. Apparently, he tried to proposition her after class, which doesn’t surprise me at all. Adrianna’s quiet and reserved, the kind of girl Coach Daniels always tries to corner.

“What are you going to do?” I ask.

She shrugs. “I’m going to keep telling him to fuck off.”

I bite