I am so behind.
So fucking behind.
There is no way in hell that I’m going to pass my classes here, not without help of some kind.
After class, Lumen finds me again and introduces me to a group of her friends. It’s highly likely that I won’t remember any of their names: there are a lot of them. They do, however, take my phone and pass it around, ensuring that everyone has plugged their number into my contacts.
Parrish overhears on his way past and gives me a look that seems impossible to interpret.
“Desperate, much?” he murmurs as I scowl at him. It’s like, every time we share a moment that seems to mean something, he goes out of his way to make sure that it doesn’t.
“Don’t be jealous just because I like girls better,” I tell him which isn’t necessarily true, but which gets me the reaction that I wanted. Parrish frowns hard and knocks me with his shoulder as he passes, eliciting whispers and gossip from the surrounding students.
“He likes to be the center of attention, just ignore him,” Lumen tells me with a shrug, but her eyes follow Parrish’s back as he heads down the hall anyway. With a sigh, she smooths her palms down the front of her uniform, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles. She pulls the look off so well, in a way that I’m envious of, like the uniform was made specifically to complement her style. Personally, I’m suffering from imposter syndrome like nobody’s business.
I don’t understand the curriculum, and I’m not used to such a bloodthirsty and gossip hungry populace.
Already, I feel overwhelmed.
“So, are you coming?” Lumen asks, and I blink a few times as I try to reorient myself.
“Coming?” I repeat as Parrish pauses nearby and opens a locker, removing a bag of gym clothes and a gaming laptop that makes my own look like an ancient relic. “Coming where?”
Lumen just laughs at me.
“Danyella’s on Friday?” she repeats, raising two blond brows in question. “She said she invited you.”
Oh.
I didn’t realize it was like, a sleepover or something?
“We go way back,” she continues, like on top of everything else, she can read my mind. I wouldn’t doubt it. On top of being gorgeous, she’s apparently battling it out with Danyella for one of the top academic spots in the school. I should ask one of them to tutor me.
“We’re still grounded, remember?” Parrish calls out from down the hall. I let my gaze fall past Lumen to land on him. He’s posed like a model, one shoulder leaning against the now-closed locker, legs crossed at the ankles. He looks like a cat: bored, apathetic, but with this slight edge of annoyance that you could blink and miss. It’s all in the little tells: the way he slits his eyes, the way his hand plays with his tie, the slight tapping of his foot against the floor. “I thought we were going to spend our isolation … together.”
The word drips with innuendo, yet another tidbit for passing students to glom onto.
Lumen gives Parrish a dark look and then turns to me with a smile.
“Just say yes and we’ll make it work,” she adds loudly for dramatic effect. Her gaze drops back to mine, and she smiles before waving goodbye and taking off down the hall with her friends in tow.
“Thanks for trying to ruin that for me,” I tell Parrish, glancing back at him. He ignores me, turning and leading the way down the hall. It’s easy to catch up to him; Parrish strolls everywhere he goes, like he has all the time in the world. Fucking sloth.
“Ruin what? Your relationship with your new girlfriend?” he asks, gaze straight ahead, hands tucked into his pockets. “Since I turned her down at the party, I’m sure she’ll be all over you, don’t worry.”
“What happened between the two of you?” I ask, even though I know I probably shouldn’t. Parrish gives me a weird look, like I’m overreaching like crazy, but I don’t take the question back. We have to live together. Shit, we have to live across the fucking hall from one another. We may as well be pals.
“And that matters to you, why?” he drawls, pushing open the front doors of the school to reveal Kimber and a handful of other students. Nobody looks particularly happy to be out here while all the other students pile into fancy sportscars and take off on their own.
Doesn’t matter much to me. I’m not ready to drive the new car that Tess bought me, so I figure Parrish will be responsible for taking me to school once our grounding is over. Yippee.
As soon as she sees me, Kimber pops her second earbud in, ensuring that I have no viable way of communicating with her. She jacks her music up so loudly that I can hear DJ Khaled playing. Gross. Sorry, but I could never get past his bullshit commentary about how women need to go down on their men, but that it’s disgusting for a man to return the favor. What a fucking misogynistic loser.
Let’s just say, my new sister’s taste in music is abysmal.
Parrish leans back against the wall, propping one foot against the stone while he pretends to be interested in his phone. Rising up on my tiptoes, I bite my lower lip and try to steal a glance at the screen. It’s dark. Honestly, I’m not sure his phone is even on.
Those gold-flecked brown eyes of his swing my way immediately and he scowls, shoving his phone in his pocket and turning his attention to the manicured grounds on our left. What little of the campus I’ve seen is beautiful; it’d be nice to spend an afternoon exploring it.
“The hedge maze is cool,” I say absently, turning back to the gravel driveway in front us as a limo pulls up and a student climbs inside. One of my brows goes up and I let out a low whistle. Good god. I’ve always found excess wealth … like, disgusting, I guess is how I’d phrase it. Now that I’m embroiled in it, I’m not entirely sure my views haven’t been exacerbated.
“You think so?” Parrish replies, surprising me, and a smile begins to bloom on my lips. We’re making progress here. Who knows? Give us six weeks and we might actually be civil toward one another. Maybe we’ll even be—le gasp—friends?! “Students go there to fuck.”
Or … never mind then.
Yep, still hate him.
With a huff, the smile slides off my face and I turn back to the driveway with a frown in place. My book bag is slung over my shoulder, my fingers absently teasing the metal heart pin that Tess gave me.
Tess.
She’s supposed to pick us up today. I assume she’ll be grilling me about my first day at Whitehall. Granted, I don’t hate it as much as I thought I would, but I still miss home. Almost desperately so. High school is supposed to be at least a little bit fun, right? I’m exhausted from my first day here; the academics are so far above my head that I feel like I’m drowning. Sex in the hedges, I think, biting my lower lip again as my eyes slide in that direction.
As soon as I see that Parrish is watching me, I tear my attention away and stare out at the horizon, waiting for Tess’ Mercedes to appear in the direction of the gate. Instead, a few minutes later, it’s Chasm’s sportscar that pulls up.
Kimber lets out a small sound that I’m almost positive I wasn’t meant to hear, practically falling over herself to get in.
“Tess isn’t coming,” Parrish tells me, holding up his phone to reveal a text message. Sorry, meeting with my editor ran long, can’t make it. I asked Chasm to bring you home. Tell the girls. And that’s that. A strange surge of disappointment runs through me, but I do my best to ignore it. It’s not like I wanted to be grilled by my bio mom, right? Actually, I’m relieved.