| 002. The Dare |

  The Hughes Flats were located five minutes from Blake’s main gates — a deliberate compromise between proximity and exclusivity. Where Blake's official boarding house fostered community, the Flats were designed for insulation.

  The flats had been specifically designed by the Families for all their precious offspring – the ones who’d faint at the very notion of anyone else invading their personal space. Each floor contained a single apartment. No shared corridors. No communal kitchens. Privacy was not merely encouraged; it was engineered.

  The exception was the large communal garden, swimming pool and hot tub.

  There were no laundry facilities. It was assumed that students of their calibre would rather send their clothing out to be dry-cleaned and pressed into citrus or lavender-scented piles.

  Neil Ivers had grown accustomed to having his flat to himself. That illusion ended shortly before noon when the security buzzer began to ring — persistently, as if whoever stood outside had no concept of social restraint.

  By the time Neil reached the gate, having thrown on a thick royal blue dressing gown and sheepskin slippers, a moving van had already begun unloading boxes.

  Xenia stood nearby, overseeing the process with detached efficiency. He'd had no choice but to let them in.

  “This is an invasion,” Neil informed her flatly, scowling as he watched the moving men carrying a huge ornamental desk through to the second bedroom.

  “Surely it wasn't so unexpected,” she replied. “You always knew I'd be moving in.”

  “You were supposed to move in for sixth form,” he said, grinding his teeth. The boxes kept coming. More furniture followed. "That's years away!"

  “Plans evolve,” she replied.

  “So do warning periods,” he muttered. She grinned wickedly, her ice blue eyes flashing in the sunlight.

  "I did message you to say I was on my way," she pointed out, acerbically.

  "Ten minutes ago," he said through gritted teeth. Neil had thought she was joking when he first read her message. It was just like Xenia to spring this on him so that it was already too late to stop the move. Xenia had exploited his weakness with precision. He couldn't have turned her away when she'd already come all this way with all this stuff. It would have caused a spectacle, and he hated that kind of thing. "Don't think I won't be talking to your parents about this," he muttered. There was a huge difference between one year and three. He'd hardly taken advantage of it as a bachelor pad.

  "Good luck with that," Xenia said. "You're far more likely to speak to one of their PAs."

  Neil sighed, dragging long fingers over his face. Xenia always had a way of making him furious with her inconsiderate nature. He had to go and make tea before he shouted at her in front of complete strangers.

  Finally, when the moving men had finished, and Xenia had signed the paperwork and seen them out of the complex, he rejoined her. The second bedroom was completely barren apart from the unmade bed, built in shelving and the ornamental desk she’d brought with her. The walk-in wardrobe had been stuffed full of boxes.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I can see why you’re so upset that I’m taking this room," she said. "You clearly had other plans for it.” He muttered something obscene and unceremoniously dumped an armful of spare bedding onto her floor from the storage cupboard.

  “Why do this today?” he asked. "I'm not surprised you've overstepped. But this seems very abrupt even for you." He was slightly amazed that he’d only just thought to ask her that. She had such a natural way of sweeping him along into her wake that it was hard to maintain his usual scepticism.

  “Ashley and I quit our old school.” She said it so carelessly that at first it didn’t seem like a big deal.

  “Why?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. He could tell she was pleased with herself. But she took a moment to compose herself. The very fact that she needed that moment set off alarm bells in his head. It was going to be something so unbelievably stupid he was going to lose his temper, he could see it in her eyes.

  “In a nutshell, Ashley had a dare to steal a trophy from the headmaster's office. He caught her, and would have pressed charges. Of course, knowing about it in advance I'd already made other arrangements. Honestly the school trophy was shoddy workmanship. I pointed out that the trophy she was stealing was actually a far superior gold trophy that I'd had made and that the other one was in the cupboard. Raising the question as to what the headmaster was doing with my trophy.” She grinned. Neil couldn't believe how superior she sounded about something so obviously idiotic. "Of course I'd planted it there earlier in the evening, but no-one could prove that. Somehow the CCTV footage from the incident appears to have been deleted. So at the end of the day, I said I could press charges, or I could be nice and forgive him this one time. I thought it best we make other school arrangements though. People would talk."

  "You're a moron," he said. Her self-satisfied smirk curdled into a sharp frown. "You heard about it enough in advance to get a replica made, and didn't think to just stop Ashley from doing it in the first place?"

  "You're joking," she said, icily. "I have never been able to stop Ashley from making reckless decisions. I can only cover her back."

  Neil groaned. In a sense, he could understand that. Ashley had never been "manageable". She was a force of nature. Not that Xenia was any better in his opinion.

  "So you covered it up, and just decided to move schools? Where is Ashley going to move to? This must be a fifth transfer in as many years. What did your parents say?" Xenia looked at him with pursed lips. A feeling of incredulity broke over him. "Xenia?" he said, crossing his arms and looming threateningly as he straightened his spine. "Tell me you discussed any of your schooling options with your parents. Tell me you didn't just throw this together like a crazy person."

  "Well," she said. "I actually thought it was rather masterful."

  He wanted to shake her. No one could drive him as crazy as his cousin. She never acknowledged when she was in the wrong.

  "Of course you did," he said. She disguised it, but there was a small wince at his tone. He put up a hand to stop her from saying anything more. "I need to go to the gym," he said. Anything to take his mind from how agitated he was. He could predict that despite how this had happened, her parents wouldn't want to withdraw her from Blake's early now that she'd arrived and enrolled. He had no doubt that she'd asked one of their PAs to apply their signatures to her transfer documents. She'd probably had one prepared just in case for years. All legal and binding. So he was stuck with her no matter what he said.

  "There's no need to be so emotional," Xenia said as he went to his room and closed the door behind him. He threw on proper clothing, grabbed his gym bag and came back out again. She stepped back as he wedged his feet into his trainers and glared at her.

  "Do not start with me, Xenia" he said, throwing open the door. "I'm frustrated because that you're acting like some master puppeteer when you're just inconveniencing me." She looked coolly at him. She had mastered calm as a primary weapon in her youth, and that only made him more mad. As if he was the unreasonable one.

  "Don't forget your keys," she said, smiling prettily and handing them out. "I already have a set."

  He wanted to scream, but his rage was never going to be satisfied by shouting at her. He'd been in enough arguments with Xenia over the years to know the best bet was to retreat to a place of safety and build his arguments. She always attacked best when others were on the back foot, surprised and angry.

  He took a breath, accepted the keys, and double checked he had his phone and wallet. From a place of temporary quiet he did his best to turn his feelings into a joke.

  "Why don't you just move in, already?"