I nodded, falling into step with him as the final bell chimed. “Yep, all good. Just discussing grades.”

Jasper wrinkled his nose. “But why?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” I glared at him. “Maybe because I have higher aspirations in life than to end up as someone’s trophy wife with nothing more than a high school diploma that she didn’t earn?”

Jasper threw an arm around my shoulders and grinned. “Aw, come on Riles. As if Beck would ever call you his trophy wife.”

I elbowed him in the side and tried really hard not to picture myself as Mrs. Beckett. “Shut up, you. I really do need to study a bit harder. All this Delta shit has made me lose sight of my own goals.”

He kept grinning at me, but he nodded his agreement. “That’s fair enough. I’ll help you study for some classes if you want? I don’t know if you know this, but I’m actually kinda brilliant.”

“Hah! I had no idea. Thank you for informing me.” The sarcasm was heavy, but all in good humor. One thing I was coming to count on, was that Jasper could cheer me up pretty much always. Beck knew what he was doing by assigning him as my shadow today.

“Seriously!” he insisted. “In fact, let’s get you caught up on class work tonight. What’s your worst subject?”

“All of them,” I muttered with a pout, and he rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. Probably biology?”

Jasper cringed. “Yuck. Okay, I’ll call Evan. He can help you on that one.”

That evening turned out to be shockingly normal. Evan came over and put me through a crash course on everything my biology class had already covered, and we even had enough time for Jasper to help me finish my English assignment. It would be late, but at least I would have learned something.

Dylan and Beck didn’t come by until after we’d finished dinner—homemade enchiladas, courtesy of Eddy. Both of them seemed moody and quiet, but I didn’t press them for information. No doubt they’d discovered something about the early morning assassination attempt and I was enjoying the “normal” evening we were having, so didn’t want to ruin it.

It wasn’t until later that night, when Beck slipped into my bed in nothing but his boxers, that I broached the subject.

“You found something out, huh?”

He let out a long sigh, wrapping his arms around me so that I was snuggled to his hard chest. “Yep.”

“Anything I need to be worried about?” I asked, tracing my fingertips over one of the tattoos on his ribs.

“Nope,” he replied, sounding confident. “I have to meet with Delta about it tomorrow, though, so I won’t be on campus.”

“Okay,” I said, not pushing it any further. My meeting with Ms. Hewlett had given me a whole lot to think about, and seriously given me some perspective. I’d been so caught up in everything Delta—despite my insistence that I wanted nothing to do with it—that I was practically drowning in the intrigue. If I was really serious about getting out, about not just rolling over and becoming their obedient little lap dog, then I needed to stop involving myself.

So it had been me who was attacked, but Beck and Dylan were handling it. There was absolutely no need for me to go off all Nancy Drew, investigating it myself and probably ending up in an even worse position.

“That’s it?” Beck asked, disbelieving when I said nothing more.

“Yep,” I responded, snuggling down into the blankets a bit more and closing my eyes. “Good night, Sebastian.”

He stroked my hair for a few minutes before whispering back, “Sweet dreams, Butterfly.” I felt the briefest press of a kiss to my lips. “And happy birthday for tomorrow morning, since I won’t be able to tell you until after school. I have a Delta meeting in the morning.”

My eyes flew open again. “You know it’s my birthday tomorrow?”

He snorted, his hand brushing down my side and sending tingles across my skin. “Of course I know. I haven’t forgotten anything about you.”

My body was warm, my chest aching in a good way. “It’s my first birthday without my parents,” I confessed my pain. “And even though they never made a big deal about birthdays, it still hurts like a fucking bitch.” Somehow, I wasn’t crying, even when my eyes burned. “I planned on forgetting it completely, but deep down I know they wouldn’t want me to do that.”

“I’m so sorry, Riles,” Beck said, his deep voice wrapping around me almost like a protective blanket. “You’re right though, your parents would want you to celebrate your birthday, because you deserve to celebrate every perfect moment.”

The tears finally came, and they were different to the last few times I’d cried about my parents. Healing, almost.

I was coming to see that Beck was more than just the guy who kept my nightmares away. He was also the one who was slowly healing me, piece by piece.

I’d never be over my parents’ deaths, but maybe one day I would be able to function okay in this world without them.

Hopefully.

Beck was gone when I woke up, but the bed was still warm beside me so he could have only just left. Sure enough, when I wandered out to my kitchen, I found a fresh, hot mug of coffee waiting along with a note that simply said “Happy birthday, Butterfly. Stay out of trouble - S” which seemed innocent enough but set my belly fluttering.

Stupid hormones.

A polite knock at the door clued me in to who my shadow was for the day, and I happily welcomed Dylan inside.

“I’ll just be five minutes, cool?” I called out as I hurried back to my bedroom to finish getting dressed. It was Friday and tonight I was going to party with Eddy and Dante, so I was eager to get through the day.

When I re-emerged, fully dressed in my Ducis uniform, Dylan gave me a sheepish look and presented a gift box from behind his back.

“You didn’t think I forgot, did you?” he teased when I just stood there gaping with my mouth open.

“Uh ... actually I didn’t think you knew at all,” I admitted. I should have known after Beck mentioned it last night, but for some reason, I thought it was only him that knew.

Dylan gave me a small frown. “You told us your birth date on pretty much the first day we met. But even if you hadn’t, one of us would have looked it up.”