This Wicked Sin

Chapter 8: Gabriel

“You look way too happy on a Monday morning…should I even ask?" Aren Winters said with a suspicious look in her narrowed eyes.

Aren was one of the two people I would call a close friend. She was a tiny beta female with a mass of curly hair and deep bronze skin. We had met on the first day of school when we both found ourselves lost with no idea where our class was. We had spent so much time looking for the class that by the time we actually found it, it was already over. We have been attached at the hip ever since. It helped that our lifestyles matched almost perfectly.

“No seriously, did I miss something on Friday night?” she asked. We always sat towards the back of the class so the lecturers would pay us no mind. This class was usually full due to the high number of people repeating the course every year. It is no surprise if you consider who taught it.

I fought not to let a blush overrun my face at what happened that night. What had almost happened? Was I overthinking my short time with Dane and playing every moment in a constant loop? Yes. Did I care? Not at all.

I had always had an attraction towards him. My eyes used to catch on him every time I used to see him at events. I’d always buried all my less-than-savoury thoughts about him. But it seems the dam had burst since Friday night.

But I couldn’t let myself get too lost in daydreams about him. Yes, I was intrigued by him. But nothing could ever happen between us. Nothing could ever happen with anyone.

My mind shifted back to the topic at hand. It was indeed weird that I was in high spirits this early on a Monday morning, most especially during an economics class. What Aren didn’t know was that I finally felt free of a burden I didn’t know had been dragging me down to the depths until it was gone.

The promise Rowan had made to me last week kept playing in my mind; a promise of freedom in three months. And of course, the conditions. Cut back on the drinking and the partying, stay in line and behave. They seemed easy enough.

“You didn’t miss anything. It was a shitty night,” I said to her. And it really was. “Row crashed the party and forced me to sober up.”

Aren cackled, “That’s what you get for not calling me up to hit the clubs, traitor.”

“How is that on me? You said you had a family thing at the time.”

“Well, my family f*****g sucks and I would have killed for an excuse to get away from them,” she groaned.

Aren lost her parents at a young age and was taken in by her uncle. Unfortunately, staying with him and his family turned into a less-than-ideal situation. From what I gathered from the bits and pieces she would drop; she was treated like dirt beneath their shoes and was also saddled with expectations too high to meet. Her uncle was extremely strict and had not even allowed her to move out for college.

“I get you.” I understood a little too well about how complicated families can get.

“Your brother isn’t so bad though. He’s so… strong,” she sighed dreamily.

“I’ll say it again; the fact that you want to bone my brother and make no effort to keep this information from me makes me extremely uncomfortable. I don’t even see what you see in him. Is it the money?”

“Loosen up, prude. We’re all adults here. Your brother is f*****g hot. I also happen to be f*****g hot. The two of us would be like,” she made a gesture of an explosion. “It would be totally nuclear.”

I fake barfed at her.

“Mr Corvin, Ms Winters, care to share with the class about what’s so riveting?” The lecturer called us out with an impressive glare. All eyes turned to us with snickers and glee.

“We were just talking about how informative your classes always are. You know, extremely riveting stuff, Vo- Sir.” I gave him my winning smile to hide my hiccup with his name.

Vox Cross rolled his eyes before pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Well, your… appreciation of my class is eating into other students’ concentration and time. Not everyone here can afford to disappear from class for weeks at a time with less than a slap on the wrist when they deign to finally show up for a class. Have a little empathy for those outside yourself, Mr Corvin.”

My face burned in embarrassment as people around me snickered. Of course, they would enjoy this. Vox was the only lecturer in the entire university who called me out on my s**t. His was the only class I was also doomed to fail. My attempts to transfer from this class had been a massive failure.

There had been a buzz in the air when I showed up on campus this morning. It was the first time I had entered the campus in weeks; everyone had seemed pleasantly surprised to see me back. They acted like they didn’t know I had spent most of that time high as a kite at some random party or club and had reacted as if I’d been away for the holidays.

None of the lecturers questioned my absence in any way. Even though they might not have been completely sure what exactly it was my father did, they were aware anyone with his name wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

To the public, my father presented himself as the powerful owner of a multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical company. He was the leader of a pharmaceutical empire, no lie about that; the lie was in the exact nature and legality of that empire.

“Jesus, Gabe, what did you do to him? He always has it out for you and me by extension,” Aren said quietly through the snickers.

I shrugged, “No idea. He simply hates me.”

I was exaggerating. At least a little. Vox's and my family go way back; Vox and Rowan in particular. I had grown up with him as practically part of the family. His father was one of my father’s most trusted associates. The Crosses were high-ranked members of the Ravens; their family only second to the Corvins in terms of hierarchy.

He and my brother used to have a thing; a pretty serious thing. I don’t know what the two of them did to f**k it up, but one day Vox was pretty much set as my future brother-in-law and the next he was out of the compound and our lives as if he’d never been there in the first place.

Now he taught at this university and made it a point to give me a hard time because he wasn’t afraid of my family. In truth, there was no need to be afraid of anything happening to him. Neither Rowan nor Vox’s dad would ever allow that. It didn’t matter that their relationship was long over.

I spent the rest of the class hunched in my seat, not looking at anyone. I felt like I was already messing up Rowan’s rule to stay out of trouble.

It felt like a century before class was done.

Aren raised an eyebrow, “Are you still pissed off? Should I be worried? You’re not gonna call your dad to get him fired are you?” she asked incredulously.

I rolled my eyes at her dramatic thoughts, “No, I have no plans of getting him fired.”

“Good. Like, I know he gives you a hard time, but the dude is so hot, Gabe.”

“You can’t be f*****g serious right now.”

“No, but have you seen him? Have you seen his ass in those pin-striped tailored pants? With those glasses? And I’ve seen him feeding those stray cats by the art building. He must be an angel; a very attractive one.”

“I am so over this conversation right now,” I groaned. We followed the rush of the students leaving. I gave Vox the stink eye on the way out, which he returned with a roll of his eyes.

We walked out to the lawn and found a bench under a large tree.

“Why didn’t you threaten him into giving you a passing grade for that assessment test you missed?”

“Where do you get these weird ideas about me? Seriously, Ren, you make me seem like some kind of entitled dickhead.”

She guffawed. “Are you f*****g serious right now? There’s no way you’re saying that with such an innocent face when you got so pissed a lecturer gave you a D that you screamed at the vice chancellor until the guy was fired that same hour.”

“That d**k was an asshole! He failed me for a perfectly well-written, well-researched paper! I spent weeks writing that and that motherfucker gave me a D just because I refused to give him the D. He f*****g deserved that.”

“I wish I had your power to get any of those rapey faculty members fired,” she sighed wistfully, “My uncle would laugh me to the end of the world if I suggested he pull some strings to get rid of some asshole who bothered me.”

I didn’t tell her my father would be right there with her uncle. She knew I had some trouble with my family, but not the full extent of it. Despite her jokes about my father threatening people, she didn’t know the truth about my family.

“With great power comes great responsibility, Gabe. I think it’s time you used your power around campus to make them add fried chicken to the cafeteria menu.”

“It would probably be trash anyway,” I said.

“It would not be trash. I swear to you those people probably dope up the-” Her voice broke off as her gaze snagged on something over my shoulder. I turned to see what had caught her attention and was surprised to see none other than Nix Cross walking our way.