Page 6 of Eleanor & Grey
It wasn’t until I heard two guys trying to whisper as they talked about Shay that I looked up from my book. Because they weren’t just talking about Shay—they were talking about me too.
Me.
That wasn’t the norm. All throughout my years in school, I had been able to keep my head down and be left alone for the most part. I was almost certain no one even knew who I was, other than me being the random, oddly dressed girl Shay ate lunch with every day.
“Dude, Brace Face is here,” one of the voices whisper-shouted over the bad music.
“You don’t gotta call her that,” the other groaned.
“Yeah, OK. But she’s Shay’s cousin, right?”
“Yeah, that’s her. Eleanor,” the other replied.
Hmm...
He’d used my actual name. Most people called me Brace Face or Shay’s cousin.
Weird.
“Go butter her up and get on her good side, then learn how I can win this bet.”
I glanced over at the two guys, trying to act nonchalant, before looking back to my book.
Of course it was Landon Harrison trying to find his way into annoying my cousin somehow. Shay told me how they made a silly bet to see who could make the other fall in love first. My whole life, I was convinced they were enemies, but now I was starting to think they were already secretly in love with each other. At least that was how it worked in the novels I read.
But Landon was definitely no Mr.Darcy.
“Shouldn’t you be talking to her to make a connection?” the other guy asked.
I discreetly glanced up at him. Greyson East was one of the top-tier students in our class. He, like Shay, was loved by all.
Greyson was annoyingly handsome, well dressed, and the star basketball player who could have any girl in the world. When I thought of high school popularity, Greyson was the one who always came to mind. I mean, it was his face on the home page of the school’s website, after all. He was a big deal at our high school.
“Dude, I can’t talk to her. She creeps me out. All she ever does is read and wear those weird sweaters.”
I would’ve been offended by his words, but I simply didn’t care. It was just a clod being a clod. They didn’t know any better. Sometimes they acted out in idiotic ways.
“Oh no, not a sweater,” Grey mocked his friend, sounding bored.
I almost smiled at the level of sass in his voice, but my hatred pushed away my grin.
“Just do me a solid,” Landon requested.
“I’m not doing that,” Greyson argued. “Just leave her alone.”
“Come on,” Landon persisted. “You owe me for Stacey White.”
Greyson sighed. He sighed again. Then one more long, dragged-out exhalation. “Fine.”
Oh no.
No, no, no, no...
I tried to absorb the words of my book, but my peripheral vision stared at his shoes as he approached. Of course, he was wearing Nike shoes, because everything about Greyson was a cliché. He might as well have been modeling them for an ad. When those crisp, not-even-creased-yet shoes paused in front of me, I reluctantly looked up.
Now his eyes were staring at me.
Those gray eyes...
