Jesse’s nervous look turned to one of terror. He might have been taller than me, but we both knew who would win if I turned violent. Ralf, however, gave me a cocky smile.
“We didn’t do anything you didn’t want us to do.” His smiled turned cruel. “And don’t even think about laying a hand on us. You start a fight, and Kirova’ll kick you out to go live with the other blood whores.” The rest of the students were holding their breaths, waiting to see what we’d do.
I don’t know how Mr. Nagy could have been oblivious to the drama occurring in his class. I wanted to punch both of them, hit them so hard that it’d make Dimitri’s brawl with Jesse look like a pat on the back. I wanted to wipe that smirk off Ralf’s face. But asshole or not, he was right. If I touched them, Kirova would expel me in the blink of an eye.
And if I got kicked out, Lissa would be alone. Taking a deep breath, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life. I walked away. The rest of the day was miserable. In backing down from the fight, I opened myself up to mockery from everyone else.
The rumors and whispers grew louder. People stared at me openly. People laughed. Lissa kept trying to talk to me, to console me, but I ignored even her. I went through the rest of my classes like a zombie, and then I headed off to practice with Dimitri as fast I could. He gave me a puzzled look but didn’t ask any questions. Alone in my room later on, I cried for the first time in years. Once I got that out of my system, I was about to put on my pajamas when I heard a knock at my door. Dimitri. He studied my face and then glanced away, obviously aware I’d been crying.
I could tell, too, that the rumors had finally reached him. He knew. “Are you okay?” “It doesn’t matter if I am, remember?” I looked up at him. “Is Lissa okay? This’ll be hard on her.” A funny look crossed his face. I think it astonished him that I’d still be worried about her at a time like this. He beckoned me to follow and led me out to a back stairwell, one that usually stayed locked to students. But it was open tonight, and he gestured me outside.
“Five minutes,” he warned. More curious than ever, I stepped outside. Lissa stood there. I should have sensed she was close, but my own out-of-control feelings had obscured hers. Without a word, she put her arms around me and held me for several moments. I had to hold back more tears. When we broke apart, she looked at me with calm, level eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Not your fault. It’ll pass.” She clearly doubted that. So did I. “It is my fault,” she said. “She did it to get back at me.” “She?” “Mia. Jesse and Ralf aren’t smart enough to think of something like that on their own.
You said it yourself: Jesse was too scared of Dimitri to talk much about what happened. And why wait until now? It happened a while ago. If he’d wanted to spread stuff around, he would have done it back then. Mia’s doing this as retaliation for you talking about her parents. I don’t know how she managed it, but she’s the one who got them to say those things.”
In my gut, I realized Lissa was right. Jesse and Ralf were the tools; Mia had been the mastermind.