“Hey, I should probably thank you,” he said suddenly, blocking the door as I reached for the handle.
“Huh?” I tilted my head, confused. “For what?”
Just as he was about to answer, the door was yanked open from the other side and a middle aged man with a neatly trimmed beard glared at us.
“Miss Deboise?” he enquired, despite clearly already knowing who I was. “Class started almost twenty minutes ago. Next time you’re late, it’ll be detention.”
My jaw dropped. “But it’s my first day!”
“And not off to a great start, are you?” he replied with a sneer, then stepped back to indicate for me to enter the class.
“See you around, new girl,” the cute guy who’d walked me there whispered as I entered the class and the door slammed closed behind me. Suddenly, every damn student in there was staring straight at me, and I awkwardly dodged eye contact with anyone until I found an empty seat near the windows. That nameless guy had been right, there were hardly any girls in the class.
Sighing to myself, I propped my face on my hand and stared out the window as the teacher continued whatever he’d been saying before I arrived. The guy from the hall was crossing the parking lot and tossed a grin in my direction—like he knew I was watching—before opening the door to a cherry red Porsche 911 and sliding behind the wheel.
Mother. Fucker.
I sucked in a sharp breath and sat up straighter. Suddenly it became clear what he was thanking me for: an easy win and eight hundred thousand dollars.
7
The rest of my morning went pretty smoothly—as far as any first day at a new school could. I’d managed to find my way to the rest of my classes on time, and hadn’t yet slipped over in my stupid heels despite the dangerous patches of ice on the outside paths between classes.
All in all, I was feeling not too bad by the time lunch rolled around. Except now, I needed to navigate whatever Ducis Academy passed off as a cafeteria and find Eddy, or I’d be eating alone.
I followed the stream of students—uniformed and not, because apparently only high schoolers wore the uniform—in the direction of the lunch room while nerves mounted in my stomach.
“Fuck it,” I muttered under my breath as the entrance to the dining room came into view. “Worst case I can just eat outside.”
The idea of sitting in the freezing cold to eat was unappealing to say the least, but it was better than doing something stupid like accidently sitting at Beck’s table or tripping and landing face first into a bowl of soup.
Just the idea of all the ways I could humiliate myself made me groan, and I considered whether I actually needed to eat at all.
“Hey,” Eddy called out, waving at me from just inside the dining hall, “Riley! Over here!”
Gritting my teeth, I entered the room and made my way over to the petite blonde. I still couldn’t get past the transformation from the edgy, punk girl that I first met, compared to this prissy princess wearing a damn headband.
“Were you trying to stand me up?” she demanded, propping her hands on her hips in mock outrage. “I can’t imagine why! This school is so welcoming.” She couldn’t even get through her own sarcastic statement without rolling her eyes, and I grinned.
“Come on, the food is at least good.” She grabbed my unbroken hand and dragged me over to the buffet. The only way to describe the lunch at Ducis Academy: it was like the buffet at a five star luxury hotel. I was so focused on all the incredible edible options on my plate that I barely even noticed where Eddy was leading me—until I sat down.
“What’s little orphan Annie doing at our table?” Brittley, sneered across the table at me. “She doesn’t belong here and you know it, Eddy.”
Eddy snorted a laugh even as my cheeks stained with embarrassment. “Actually, Britt, seeing as she’s a Deboise she has more right than you. After all, didn’t your granddaddy come into his money through a poker game?” Eddy clicked her tongue in a condescending way. “How very passé.”
Brittley’s jaw dropped open, and a small squeak of outrage exited her mouth before she scraped back her chair and stomped off in what could only be considered a temper tantrum.
“Seriously?” Jasper hissed across the table at us. “You know what she’s like about her family’s money.”
Eddy just shrugged and ate a forkful of her pasta. “I know. That’s why I said it.”
Jasper let out a long suffering sigh, looking in the direction Brittley had stormed off, then turned his furious glare on both Eddy and me. “If she doesn’t let me come on her tits this afternoon because she’s too busy crying over what a raging bitch you are, I’m holding you responsible.”
He stood smoothly before stalking off after Brittley. Eddy didn’t seem fazed. She just hummed happily under her breath and ate another bite of pasta while awkward silence fell over the rest of the table. I took the opportunity to look around.
Jasper and Brittley were obviously gone now, but I was surprised to only see Evan further down the table with a pretty redhead in his lap. Dylan and Beck were nowhere to be seen. The other people at the table were all firmly avoiding eye contact with me, and Eddy seemed in no rush to introduce them.
So much for upper class manners.
“I thought your brother and his friends were in college?” I whispered, leaning forward. “Why do they have the same lunch period as us?”
Seriously, why!
Eddy wrinkled her perfect little nose. “God, I don’t even know why they bother to pretend they’re in college. They do what they want. Go to class when they want. And eat lunch when and where they want. There are no rules for them, Riley. Not a single one.”
Her words almost sounded like a warning, and I chose not to reply because my insides were already squirming.
Conversation slowly started up again as we all ate our lunch, and Eddy started telling me all about some party that was being held on Friday night. I nodded absentmindedly as she begged me to go with her, because my attention was firmly glued to the dark and brooding asshole I’d just noticed standing right outside the dining room. He was speaking with someone on his phone, and whatever they were saying he was not liking it. His hand kept running through his hair then clenching into a fist by his side. His jaw was set in a tight scowl as he responded in what seemed to be one word answers. Tall and scary Dylan leaned on the wall opposite with his hands tucked in his pockets, looking like he had all the patience in the world. Suddenly, Beck looked over and locked eyes with me for a long, tense moment. I couldn’t breathe, and I sure as shit couldn’t look away. I was just... frozen.
“Girl, no,” Eddy groaned, snapping her fingers in front of my face and jolting me out of that weird trance I’d slipped into. “Did you hear nothing I said this morning? Beck would chew you up and spit you out in pieces. Trust me on this, girl. Steer well clear. I wish we didn’t even have to eat lunch at this table but rules are rules.” She rolled her eyes, and I shook my head, totally lost. There were rules over where we ate lunch?
“Don’t worry,” I muttered, embarrassed at having been so obvious in my staring. “It’s just curiosity. Like looking at venomous snakes in the zoo, you know? Just because I’m curious doesn’t mean I want to climb into their enclosure.”
Eddy snickered at the analogy, then quickly sobered and stared up at someone behind me. “Hey, Dylan,” she said. “Beck. What do you want?”
A chill ran down my spine and I turned slightly in my seat to find the two menacing creatures hovering far too close for comfort.
“Butterfly,” Beck snapped. “A word.”
His tone got my back up immediately, and I narrowed my eyes. “Was that a request or a statement, oh mighty king of the chess board?”
A shocked hush echoed down the lunch table, and I swallowed. I guessed when Eddy said to steer clear, she hadn’t actually meant I should publicly mock them?
“A statement,” Beck’s voice got low, and that was when I really started to get scared. “Now.”
As tempted as I was to dig my heels in and tell him to go to hell, I was actually curious. Was this something to do with whoever was on the phone? If so, what the shit did it have to do with me?
“You too.” Beck snapped his fingers at Evan, who unceremoniously dumped the redhead into a vacant chair and came to join his friends. “Where’s Jasper?”
Evan grinned, scratching at the attractive stubble on his chin. He wore the scruffy, just rolled out of bed look well. “Gone to comfort Britt after Eddy said some shit.”
Beck’s jaw tightened for a second, then he glared down at me. “Why are you still sitting, Butterfly? Move.”
Blame it on morbid curiosity, because contrary to what I’d told Eddy, I wanted to see inside the snake enclosure. Casually, so I didn’t look too eager, I pushed back my chair and slung my bag over my shoulder.
“Well?” I prompted, popping a hip and giving what I hoped was a seriously sassy glare. “What do you want, Sebastian?” Didn’t matter that I referred to him as Beck in my head. As long as I pissed him off out loud.
Beck’s gaze trailed over me for a moment, lingering on the bare expanse of skin between my skirt and the tops of my socks.
“After you, Butterfly,” he replied, giving me a smug smile and indicating I should walk ahead of him out of the dining hall. It was a stupid power game, and not one I gave a shit to enter into with him so I just shrugged and strutted my stuff out to the hall.
I was still female, and I could feel more than one set of eyes on my ass as I moved, so I made sure to throw just a little extra swagger into my step. Just ’cause. Luck was on my side, because I didn’t stumble once in the stupid heels.
“Well?” I repeated once we were in the empty hallway. “What is so important that you deigned to speak with a mere useless female like me?”
Beck glared at me, Evan looked intrigued, and Dylan... I couldn’t tell if that was a smirk or a sneer.