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.
