Vampire's Kiss by Verónica Wolff Read Free Book Online Page B

had no idea how she was going to handle this, and she didn’t seem to, either. The hall was silent now—everyone would enjoy the show, nobody lifting a finger to intervene.
     
    “Acari Drew.” Trinity’s eyes hardened on me, and I felt the attention like a slap. “Give me your tray.”
     
    I stared blankly.
     
    Masha mimicked my stunned, open-mouthed expression. “And they say she’s smart.”
     
    “She sure looks like a retard to me,” Trinity said, thencontinued, enunciating each word clearly and slowly. “I said,
give me your tray
.”
     
    I kicked myself that I hadn’t eaten every last crumb on my plate. I shot a worried glance at Emma and knew that was a mistake. She’d be the one to suffer for my moment of solidarity.
     
    Trinity snatched the lip of my tray and slid it to my friend. “Pick up the bread.”
     
    Emma stretched a hand out, tentatively holding it over the heel of bread I’d left uneaten. It’d been too crusty for me to chew—stupid me and my stupid childish tastes.
     
    Trinity slapped her hand onto Emma’s, slamming it onto the bread. “Now.”
     
    She curled her fingers around Emma’s hand, and I saw by Trinity’s white knuckles how her nails clawed into my friend’s flesh. “Pick it up.”
     
    Trinity pulled their hands up and smashed them into Emma’s face, using fingers to poke every last bit of crust into her mouth. “And eat.”
     
    Emma chewed the oversized mouthful, her cheeks stretched out like a squirrel’s. I forced myself to watch—I could do that for my friend, at least. She swallowed and swallowed again, and I saw by the red in her eyes how it’d scraped her throat going down.
     
    “That’s the way,” Trinity said.
     
    Masha began to snap her whip between both hands, holding it taut, then loose, then taut, then loose. “I think she’s still hungry.”
     
    The eyes of the two Guidons met. “Soup?” they asked in unison.
     
    Trinity flashed Emma an overbright smile. “You heard us. Time for soup.”
     
    Emma picked up the spoon and began to ladle the carrot soup into her mouth. It was cold by now and smelled foul. Her hands were shaking, and some sloshed onto the tray.
     
    Trinity snatched her spoon. “Steady. Maybe you need to get a little closer.” She snarled her fingers through Emma’s hair and shoved my friend’s face into the bowl.
     
    My feet instinctively shuffled under my chair, as if I might pop up to help, and Masha shot me a deadly glare. “Do you have a problem, Acari Drew?”
     
    Emma gripped the table, her spine stiffening as she held her breath. Her face was
in
the soup.
     
    I opened my mouth, paused long enough to curse what a coward I was, then said a subdued, “No.”
     
    Emma’s knees began to knock under the table, her hands a death grip on the table. I held my own breath, imagining what it might feel like for her, wondering how long she could keep it up.
     
    Trinity ground Emma’s face a little harder into the bowl, and a little whimper escaped my friend.
     
    Maybe it was my mood; maybe I’d let myself wallow too deeply in thoughts of my own lonely loserdom; maybe imagining Ronan and Amanda together had made me surly. Who knew what inspired me? But I found my feet under me and realized I’d stood. Then I heard my voice sharp in my own ears. “Stop.”
     
    Trinity was so shocked, she let go of Emma’s head, and my friend sprang from the table, coughing and gasping. In my peripheral vision, I saw her wiping orange muck from her face.
     
    The Guidons went still.
     
    “Stop?” Trinity slowly turned her head to look at me. “Did you just tell me to
stop
?”
     
    “I think she did.” Masha’s voice had taken on an exaggeratedly marveling sort of tone.
     
    I thought of Ronan and Amanda. Would they have helped me as I was helping Emma now? It was childish—I’d felt a part of their inner circle, and with the realization that they were a couple, it hit me—I wasn’t their friend at all. Not really.