Chapter 2 Sit Down

LIORA

The nurse barely reacted when I walked into the infirmary.

“Again?”

Heat rushed into my face as she pressed an ice pack against my nose, and I hated how normal the word sounded coming from her, as though students regularly showed up bleeding and claimed they had walked into walls.

“I’m fine,” I muttered, even though my nose still throbbed with every breath.

The nurse clearly didn’t believe me, but after checking that nothing seemed broken badly enough to require more than ice, she stepped back.

“Try not to aggravate it.”

I nodded and left with the ice pack still pressed against my face.

Most students were already heading toward lunch, which meant I had no excuse to avoid the cafeteria much longer. I walked there alone as usual, because making friends at Stoneleigh had proven nearly impossible when everyone seemed to arrive already knowing exactly where they belonged.

Legacy students stayed with legacy students. Athletes had their own circles, and the children of families rich enough to have buildings named after them barely noticed anyone outside theirs.

Scholarship students existed somewhere beneath all of that.

I had somehow managed to become a target instead.

The cafeteria was already crowded when I entered, sunlight pouring through the tall gothic windows while students filled the polished tables beneath the chandeliers. I stood near the entrance with my tray and searched for somewhere to sit, although I already knew most of the empty chairs weren’t really available.

Nobody had to tell me that.

Their faces usually did.

I was still looking when I noticed Ryder Russo sitting alone near the windows at the far end of the room.

Unfortunately, he had chosen the table I normally used.

More strangely, nobody else had gone anywhere near him.

There were open seats all around his table, yet students seemed to have agreed without discussion that they belonged to no one.

Ryder looked completely unconcerned by it, leaning back in his chair with one arm draped over the seat beside him and his untouched lunch in front of him. Up close earlier, he had already been impossible not to notice, but seeing him alone only made the space around him seem more deliberate.

I looked around once more for another option.

There wasn’t one.

Fine.

If I sat far enough away, maybe he wouldn’t care.

I carried my tray toward the far end of his table, becoming more aware of the whispers around me with every step. By the time I sat down, enough people were watching that I immediately wondered if I had made a terrible mistake.

Ryder lifted his eyes.

“I had nowhere else to sit,” I said before he could ask. “I can move if—”

“Sit.”

The single word stopped me from reaching for my tray.

His mouth curved faintly as he glanced at my untouched food. “Eat.”

I lowered my eyes and picked up a fry while conversation slowly returned around us. People were still looking, but I tried to ignore them and focus on lunch instead.

My nose made that difficult.

Every movement sent another pulse of pain through my face, and after a few bites I found myself wondering whether the scholarship was worth any of this.

Leaving would have been easy.

Going home wouldn’t.

Stoneleigh was miserable, but it still offered me something home never had: a way out. I wasn’t giving that up because Damian Cross had decided I was convenient to torment.

I reached for my drink and caught Ryder looking past me.

Not at me.

Past me.

I glanced over my shoulder, expecting Damian or Sloane, but all I found were students eating and talking.

When I faced Ryder again, he hadn’t moved.

The faint amusement from earlier was gone, leaving him focused on something I couldn’t see.

A chill moved over the back of my neck.

I shifted in my chair, suddenly unsure whether I should leave before sitting with him became one more reason for Damian to come after me.

Ryder spoke before I could decide.

“Do you always let them do that to you?”

I frowned. “Do what?”

His eyes returned to me. “The bruises. The bleeding.”

Embarrassment rushed through me. “I don’t let them.”

“You don’t stop them either.”

My fingers closed around my cup. “What exactly do you expect me to do?”

“Hit Cross back.”

I nearly inhaled my drink. “Are you insane?”

The corner of Ryder’s mouth lifted again, and for the first time since I sat down, he looked genuinely entertained.

Something about that smile made him seem more dangerous, not less.