You re wrong, I declare and quickly write down the answers I remember in a notebook.
You don t have much experience, Ana, Gray says calmly.
I chuckle.
- Maybe you loved the wrong ones? - I smile.
Hardly, Miss Still. I have no heart, I am always driven by lust and calculation. I take what I like and don t think about others. This is a great strategy in life, Christian smiles, and you, I see, are a smart girl. Don't ruin your life with booze and guys. Learn, prove that those who consider you a failure are wrong.
I ll figure it out myself, I get up, hide the notepad and pen in my backpack, don t get caught by the cops. I have no doubt they will come after my article.
- I ll pay off, as always, - pompous bastard.
Yes, he's a handsome old man, but he's still a fucker. I proudly raise my head and leave his office.
I quickly call the elevator and get into it, without even looking at Gray, who came out after me. Freak. Cynic, I hate... His words about love, what does he know about it? Yes, he speaks interestingly about Darkness and Light, his voice is soft and warm... And damn, I think I know whose name on my lips I will be playing with a vibrator today after midnight. Okay, Steele, you're a sick pervert, just like your mother. She also liked older businessmen. Genes, their mother...
- How was it? Dad stands by the car and smiles at me. I hug him and tell him everything.
- Never mind, Ana. People like Gray come across us in life at every step. You will never see him again. As for your studies, I ask you to improve your economics and law. Miss Blancher ate the brains out of my mother and me at a parent-teacher meeting - Dad is taking me to Kate, to whom I will give the notebook and forget about Gray, like the Americans about Hiroshima.
Kavanagh meets me at her house, wrapped in many layers of sweaters, windbreakers and hundreds of other warm clothes.
Gray is an asshole, I say, handing her the notebook. Kavanagh shrugs and nods sympathetically at me.
POV Christian
Bitch... Miss Still did a good job of fending off my attacks. Smart, good, sharp-tongued. The creature tricked me into revelations! I growl and hit the tabletop with my fist. What impudence! At first she humiliated Andrea, laughed in my face... She stood up for love. And at the same time she is very pure, a little naive, with childhood dreams of an owl and a cat. These gray pools are enchanting. She's probably the most beautiful girl in school. And he clearly doesn t notice this. Well, no, girl. I won't let you ruin yourself with beer and parties. I'll make you study, make you a lady, and come what may.
I dial Alex's number.
- Welch, I need all the information about the Still family. Rhea, Karla and Anastasia. All! Borders? As always, they are not there! And yes, check out Miss Kavanagh and Miss Jones,
I growl into the phone. - And find a shelter for owls in the city. And a red kitten.
I hang up and dial Joan's number.
- Joe? Are you still in the USA? We need to meet. Take your circus with you on the run; and we'll meet in the park in the evening. There is a case. Legal this time, I purr into the phone.
POV Anastacia
Two weeks have passed since that ill-fated interview. It rained almost every day, and I couldn't leave the house and hang out with Jack and Jose. Damn this weather! Having nothing else to do, I started studying homework, and damn, it turned out to be an interesting activity. Now I understood the nerd Kavanagh and Jones. But despite the lessons, I was not going to change myself. Fortunately, my parents allowed Jack and Jose to come to us and hang out with me in the billiard room. The guys laughed at Kate and Gray's task.
- What did Kavanagh expect? That the old man will get a blow from your antics? Of course, you re good for telling him off, but if he had died, you would have been sued, Jack said, taking a sip of his beer.
- Hyde, my parents would have gotten me off. Moreover, Gray is a strong man, you can t beat this fucker s causticity, I giggle and hug him.
If Jose is like a brother to me, then Jack has always been something more to me. Sometimes we went on dates, kissed on the banks of the river and in the park, and I kept waiting for him to tell me his cherished words and my heart would tremble. But no, Jack didn t see what I saw in our relationship. He was more interested in motorcycles and other crap. Yes, being a cynic, I dreamed of experiencing love. I wanted to understand what all the fuss is about, why it makes people idiots and pushes them into wonderful madness. I wanted to do something crazy myself, in the name of feelings. But apparently ugly ducklings are not meant to love. However, who in our cynical world needs this vanilla bullshit that beggars invented when they wanted sex for free?
By the way, Jose sat down on the billiard table, our old grump Miss Blancher says that Rowling s mother herself will come to us on Halloween with a cast of Potter.
I drop my cue. I always dreamed of seeing her live, talking to her, getting an autograph. But why does she come to us?
Who organizes this event? - I ask incredulously.
They say the board of trustees. Although, they don t have enough money, Rodriguez answers and drinks beer from a bottle.
I chuckle. Yes, wealthy children study at our school, but for JK Rowling to come to us, we need connections and money. Moreover, she will come not alone, but with the three main actors of the film. Something is wrong here.