“It’s ready,” Blake confirmed. “This will be the biggest year yet. And better than that, we’ve got fresh meat attending.”
“New kids?” I asked. Every year we always had some new faces join the school, though they’d left it pretty late to transfer if they’d only be here for senior year.
“One.”
“Why do you look so pleased about that?” I asked, racking the weight and sitting up. “Is she hot?”
“Fucking volcanic, dude. Like magma hot. And I’m planning on getting burned real good,” he smirked at me and I stood, folding my arms.
“We’ll see,” I said in a tone aimed to piss him off and his gaze darkened predictably at the hint of a challenge.
He pushed his tongue into his cheek but refused to be baited beyond that, shrugging at me as he turned back to his deadlifts.
I left him to it and headed upstairs, chugging the bottle of water as I went. I grabbed another bottle from the fridge as I reached the living room and started on it as I headed back towards Kyan.
He was still sleeping with an ease that made my jaw tick. The bastard could literally fall asleep anywhere. Nothing haunted his dreams. Hell, nothing haunted him when he was awake either despite the fact that he’d witnessed and experienced plenty of messed up shit that should have.
Outwardly he was intense, dark, brutal, but I knew the truth of him. Inside, he didn’t feel any of it. Nothing. And every fucked up thing he did was with the aim of rectifying that. He was just trying to experience something, feel something on a real level.
I moved to stand over him and a dark smile pulled at my lips as I tipped the bottle up, pouring the contents straight over his head.
A bellow of rage burst from his lips as he leapt to his feet, tackling me before he’d even opened his damn eyes.
My back hit the carpet and I grunted as the air was driven from my lungs and all two hundred pounds of Kyan’s muscular body crushed me to the floor.
His fist drove into my side a moment later and I cursed as I punched him back, my knuckles slamming into his ribs several times in quick succession.
Kyan wasn’t as fast as me, but his blows fell like those of a sledgehammer as he reared over me and drove his fist into my gut. We had one golden rule when we fought like this. Not the face. We couldn’t exactly turn up to classes with busted lips and black eyes every other week. Besides, my face was a work of goddamn art, I didn’t need the canvas damaged.
“Next time just kick me, motherfucker,” Kyan snarled, his wet hair hanging down over his forehead and dripping all over me.
I started laughing and he cracked a smile too, moving to get off of me.
As he made it to his knees I kicked out, catching him in the gut and knocking back on his ass. “Suggestion noted.” I got to my feet and offered him a hand up.
He grunted a curse at me as he stood, pushing his hair out of his face as he turned to hunt for an elastic to tie it in a topknot.
I left him to destroy the couch in his hunt as he tossed cushions everywhere and headed back upstairs to my en-suite to have a shower.
The huge glass cubicle stood open for me and I moved inside, cranking the volume on some Beethoven, using the control panel on the wall so I could still hear it as I scalded myself clean in the hot water.
Steam billowed around me as I scrubbed the sweat from my skin and I felt my tension running away with the water down the drain as I completed my ritual. My demons never retreated fully, but I could cage them most of the time so long as I made it through my routine.
I headed to my closet when I was done, pulling out my dark green Everlake Prep uniform and dressing carefully. I knotted the tie perfectly, adjusting it at my collar before buttoning my blazer and smoothing out the creases. I tugged my shirt sleeves down so that they emerged from beneath the blazer, the platinum cufflinks I’d matched with the uniform catching the light as I made sure it all sat perfectly.
My tightly curling hair was cropped short enough to be low maintenance, but I still ran some product into it as I made sure it sat just right. Not a hair out of place.
Memphis men always turn out at their best.
By the time I re-emerged downstairs, Blake was waiting for me. He took pride in his appearance too, though he always styled his black hair in a way that looked like he hadn’t bothered at all. But I knew for a fact that casual, I-didn’t-even-make-an-effort look took him the best part of fifteen minutes with a hairdryer and half a can of hairspray to perfect.
Kyan was nowhere to be seen, which wasn’t a surprise. He turned up late for everything if he even turned up at all. Everything aside from football practice anyway. Coach Monroe would have his balls and his spot on the team if he pulled that shit with him. He was about the only fucker in this school who held any real sway over us. Mostly because he gave no shits if we pissed money or were born to be the next leaders of this world. He only cared about one thing. The game. And if we did anything to negatively affect that, he’d cut us without so much as a blink of concern for what revenge we might cast his way. And I could respect that. Especially because his hard ass ways meant we were the best damn team in the high school league.
We headed out of the huge oak door which fronted The Temple and I fell into step with Blake as we walked up the hill towards the dining hall. Though calling it that was kinda like calling my family yacht a boat.
We had a classically trained chef running the kitchen and we sent over our meal orders via the school app in advance.
We walked through the trees up the steep hill towards the stone building which housed the Redwood Dining Hall and one of the Unspeakables darted ahead of us to open the door. I didn’t thank him, didn’t even offer him a smile like Blake did. What was the point? But I would have beaten his ass if he hadn’t done it.
Our table sat waiting at the head of the room, positioned horizontally so that we could look out over the rest of the students like we were sitting at the top table at a wedding. I cut a path around the gathering masses and headed to the centre of it as Blake paused to talk to people.
I wasn’t a mingler. It took a lot more effort than I had to waste and at least ninety eight percent of people weren’t worth the bother.
The room was huge, big enough to hold the entire student body of two thousand people beneath its high ceiling. To the right of the dining hall, the entire wall was made up of glass windows which looked out over the lake and the mountains beyond. In the summer, the windows would be thrown open and we could eat out on the terrace, but it rained here more often than not so those days were few and far between.
No sooner had my ass hit the padded cushion on the mahogany chair than a member of the kitchen staff arrived with my breakfast. Two slices of whole wheat toast, crisp but not burned, creamy scrambled egg with crushed avocado and just a hint of seasoning. Even an idiot could cook that right, but if they’d managed to fuck it up they’d be hearing about it in their letter of employment termination. I’d only had to get three assholes fired before they’d figured out how to get it right. My mom ran the school board, so pissing me off was a pretty stupid mistake for a member of staff to make.
A triple shot espresso and a glass of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice appeared before me in the next breath and I turned my attention to my food as the rest of the tables filled.
The chair to my left scraped across the wooden floor as Kyan arrived and he dropped down into his chair, spreading his legs wide and slinging an arm over the empty seat on his other side.