With customers and food and Beck. I hoped to God he wouldn’t be there. I didn’t want to see him. Not today, not ever again if I was being honest.
If we could just avoid each other altogether, that would be for the best. Because Beck Clermont confused me.
He hated me.
He said so. He looked at me like he did.
But there was some part of me that thought it was more than that. There was a part of me that thought maybe his hate was just a mask for something else, and that part was dangerous.
Whatever reason he had to hate me was completely lost to me. But if there was one thing I was sure of is that he did.
Even if there was more. Even if I was insane and thought that he could possibly want me.
He hated me more.
And I was going to be attending school with him in a couple of weeks. A school that I knew he ruled. A school where he could make my life a living hell.
There was only one solution when it came to him.
I needed to put my head down and avoid him like the plague. I needed to avoid him at all costs.
Or I would have to deal with the consequences, and I wasn’t prepared for that.
I had a plan.
And that plan did not include some privileged boy who hated me for no reason.
Regardless of how incredibly handsome he was. And he was. He was the most beautiful guy I had ever laid eyes on. But it was all part of who he was.
It was part of this damn persona that he portrayed.
I needed to keep my head down, study my ass off, and save as much money as I could for when I left here. I wanted to go to college. I wanted to become something more than a sum of my past and my father’s last name.
I shook Allie, trying to wake her up, and she groaned. I knew she was probably feeling doubly as bad as I did. Allie had far more to drink than me. She wasn’t even awake when we arrived back at my house.
I was so glad my dad wasn’t here. Not that he could say anything.
But Lucas had plenty to say.
I could have drunk the entire keg, and I would have still remembered his face when he saw me in Beck’s arms.
He looked like he was going to be sick before his anger took over.
It should have made me push Beck away and never look back, but it didn’t. I just clung to him harder. I clung to him as if he was some sort of savior.
And Beck Clermont was the farthest thing from that.
Deep down, I knew that.
“We have to get ready for work.” I nudged Allie’s arm, and she groaned again.
“What the hell happened last night?” She rolled over onto her side to look at me, and I couldn’t stop smiling at the way she barely had one eye open as if that was all she could manage.
“We drank too much.” I chuckled, and she put her hand on her forehead.
“Yes. Yes, we did.” She pushed up on her elbows and looked around my room. “How did we even get back here?”
She was clearly much drunker than I had been. Maybe it would have been better if I didn’t remember. If I didn’t remember the way he looked at me or the way he touched me. Holy shit. He touched me. He grabbed my jaw and bit my ear, and I had done nothing but look up at him like I wanted more.
Oh, God.
“Beck and his boys brought us here.” I groaned. “After you accepted his offer to drive us.”
She dropped onto her back again and threw her arm over her eyes. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I laughed and pushed to my feet. We were going to be late if we didn’t start getting ready.
“Did I make a fool of myself?” She looked genuinely worried, like she cared what the three of them thought about her.
“No.” I shimmied out of my shorts and threw them in the corner of the room. “You were asleep for most of the ride, and Carson carried you up here.”
She shot up then, as if I had told her that she ran around the party naked. “He did not.” She looked horrified.
“He did.” I nodded my head. “I was too tipsy to even try to get you up here.”
“Oh my God.” She buried her face into the bed and growled out a scream.
“Should I have not let that happen?”
“It’s fine.” She stood up and pushed her hair out of her face. “I’ve just known Carson a really long time, and I’m sure he loved watching me be a mess.”
“When you say you’ve known Carson, you mean?” I cocked my head and studied her. She seems far too affected for it to just be that.
“I mean that Carson isn’t really my biggest fan. We’ll leave it at that.”
I was dying to know that story, but I wouldn’t pester her about it. If she didn’t want to tell me, she didn’t have to. There was plenty I kept from her.
I hadn’t even told her about my mom. I hadn’t told her anything, really.
But it had been so long since I had really talked to anyone about anything. Not anything that actually mattered, and I wasn’t ready to do so here. I wasn’t sure if I ever would be.
The two of us scurried around the room getting ready, and I lied to myself as I put more makeup on than normal. I told myself that I needed it due to the night before, but I knew I was anxious about the possibility of seeing Beck today. Surely, he wouldn’t be there.
Didn’t rich boys get to spend their summers sleeping in and not worrying about clearing their hangovers off as quickly as possible for work? I knew Lucas did.
He didn’t have any obligations or responsibilities outside of the baseball workouts that he attended through the week.
By the time we made it to work, my headache was just a low roar, and Allie looked like she had a perfectly peaceful night of sleep. I wasn’t sure how she did it, but she somehow looked incredible.
I hated her for it.
Our shift was busy, the two of us had sections right next to each other, and as each hour passed, I started to calm my nerves. Beck wasn’t going to be spending his weekend at his dad’s company.
He had far better things to do. He was probably off with his friends or off with some girl.
That thought shouldn’t make me feel anything, but it did.
It made me feel insanely jealous over a boy who I shouldn’t be feeling anything for.
By the time our shift was ending, I was exhausted. I wanted nothing more than to climb into bed.
“Josie, do you mind running this food to Mr. Clermont’s office?” I looked up at one of the cooks, then looked around me. The other servers were still tending to tables, but this was the absolute last thing I wanted to do.
“I don’t know where it is.”
He looked annoyed, but I didn’t care. I had no interest in spending any time with any of the Clermonts if I could help it.
“Straight down the hall and to the right. It has his name on it. You can’t miss it.” I grabbed the bag of food from his hands and pushed out of the kitchen with a huff.
It was already ten o’clock, and I couldn’t believe that Mr. Clermont was still here. I wondered if he was a workaholic like my father. I guess, to have an empire like his, he had to be. The men of Clermont Bay were basically all the same.
Money and power were more important to them than anything else.
I didn’t have to know much else about Mr. Clermont to know that.
I reached his office, and I stopped short when I heard voices inside. The door was cracked, and I didn’t know if I should knock or just set the food outside the door. I raised my fist to knock, then I heard it, Beck’s voice, and I took a sharp breath.