by Ella Fields
It wasn’t. Peridot Academy was a necessary evil.
All sorts of big money types—politicians, investors, military, and hedge fund gurus—sent their spawn here. Almost half of the students were boarders, the other residents of the island.
After my first week at the academy, I’d begged my mom to enroll me in the public school that sat mere miles down Peridot Road. The plead alone had caused her neck to break out in red splotches. The stress rash, she called it. I had inherited the same, though mine didn’t just grace my neck. It lit up the top half of my body. Not so easy to hide or flattering for someone with deep crimson hair and pale blue eyes.
I’d inherited the latter from my father—the useless runaway who’d disappeared when I was in the sixth grade.
I hadn’t heard from him since.
It used to bother me. Sometimes, I missed having someone to talk to about books, to do puzzles with after dinner at our imported marble-topped dining table, and to play with down on the beach behind our house. Apart from that, he hadn’t been too amazing.
It was kind of magical how enough time and distance from something that once broke your heart could open your eyes and make you feel stupid for even caring in the first place.
There were few things I cared about now, and those fortunate enough to fall under that overbearing shadow were stuck with me.
Needless to say, I was also stuck here until I graduated. It would embarrass Mother to no end if I dared try otherwise. She might have been a little cold and crazy, but I liked her enough that I didn’t want to upset her too much.
She did pay for whatever I wanted, after all, and that included the roof over our heads so I could spy on the boy next door.
Exiting the long winding drive bordered by the woods, I found a parking spot right next to the tree Cory was leaning against, scrolling through her phone, and then I quickly ran inventory.
Mascara in case I rubbed it off, check. Bobby pins in case my hair got annoying, check. Concealer in case I had a random breakout, check. Tube of intense red lipstick to reapply, check.
A spare pair of panties in case I should get lucky, check.
The latter was most definitely a little optimistic. I mean, Jude had just broken up with his long-term girlfriend. But rebound sex was a thing, and I wasn’t opposed to the idea.
Virgin or not.
After making sure my gray socks were sitting just so beneath my knees, I glanced out the window to find Cory’s face scrunched in that, what the hell are you doing, hurry the hell up, expression of hers. I smiled and hauled my bag out of my white Range Rover.
Her eyes widened as I locked the car and tucked my keys in the front pocket of my bag. “Lipstick? Heels?” She blinked twice at my black pumps. “Really?”
Someone whistled.
“Everyone wears them.” I flung a red-painted fingernail in the direction of her own, though they weren’t designer. “Even you.”
“You don’t.” Her brows pulled, causing a crease between her brown eyes. “You wear Vans and Converse.”
I waved a hand. “That was last we—”
“Wait, are they your mom’s?”
“Quiet,” I hissed.
“Good morning, ladies.”
I froze, giving Cory crazy eyes as the scent of male cologne infiltrated.
Cory smiled, shaking her head. “Hey, G.”
G was short for Garry, who detested his name.
I mentally punched myself in the face. If I couldn’t turn around and at least say hello to one of the guys on the senior swim team, then I had no business trying to do the same with the most popular guy in school.
Cory bristled when he stopped close enough to brush her arm with his. “Ditched that boyfriend of yours yet?”
“No,” she said. “And you’d be the last person to know if I did.”
Undeterred, G’s eyes crinkled with his megawatt grin. “Any particular reason you’d save me for last, Coraline?”
Her lips thinned, and she stepped back just as Silas’s midnight black truck grumbled into the lot and stole the space on the other side of my car.
G removed his eyes from her, and they narrowed at the quarterback through the window. “Save you for later, too, Coraline.”
Cory’s white blouse creased underneath her arms, which were hugging her torso tight.
Throwing his gym bag over his shoulder, Silas jumped out, his tie hanging askew around his neck. He dragged a hand through his shoulder-length dirty blond hair. “How sweet of you to wait for me,” he drawled in his girlfriend’s direction, all flashing teeth and hungry eyes.
Cory’s fluttered closed when his arm wrapped around her shoulders, his lips smacking into the side of her head. “I was waiting for Fern, and you’re late.”
The sound of the first bell traveled across the sprawling emerald green lawn, and I walked behind the couple, far enough not to be considered a third wheel, all the while knowing I totally was. I always was.
I didn’t mind, though. Not when the black-on-black Range Rover sped into the lot, kicking up weeds and gravel in its wake, and parked half on the grass, half on the drive.
Jude leaped out, his black hair a divine finger-swept mess, and his deep green eyes upon the ground as he rummaged through his bag and locked his car.
I could count on two hands the number of times Jude had caught up with Silas while I just happened to be lingering. Every single time, I’d been a speck of dirt on the wind—totally ignored.
“You’re for real leaving it there?” Silas asked when we’d reached the round smattering of steps, dotted on either side with topiary balls in huge sandstone pots. “Taurin will have a shit fit.”
Jude glanced back at the car, then shrugged. “We pay the bastard and school enough money; he ought to think twice before so much as looking.”
We paused outside the doors while Silas showed Jude something on his phone.
My eyes were doing this weird thing that could only be summed up as indecision. They weren’t sure where to remain or what to absorb the most of. His hair—god, so thick. The straight disarray of it perfect—not too long up top and not too short on the sides. Those lips, a little plump, but just enough that I knew they’d fit between mine so seamlessly.
He might have lived next door, but I’d hardly seen him since the summer. Only small glimpses like this at school, if I was lucky.
Seeing him now, having him mere feet from me, that hypnotic caramel earthy cologne wafting from his tanned skin… my knees buckled a little.
The last time I was standing this close was in the cafeteria line at the start of the school year. It had been raining, and I’d watched as drops of water slid down his neck to dampen the collar of his shirt.
He wore that same shirt now, as did all the guys at school, but I was willing to bet it was a size larger, judging by the broader expanse of his shoulders and upper arms. The black cotton was only half-buttoned, exposing a gray T-shirt beneath. Lean with muscles that shifted in his beautiful arms and a face sculpted from stone, he was an Adonis. An eighteen-year-old god.
How did I know he was eighteen? His birthday was a month before mine—five months and four days ago—November second. His mouse of an ex-girlfriend had embarrassed him at school with a bundle of black balloons. I knew everything about him. Well, as much as I could discover through eavesdropping, social media, web stalking, and some minor stalking in general.
His gray slacks hung low from his waist. I could tell when he lifted his bag over his shoulder, granting a mouthwatering glimpse of a defined hip. To touch it, trace it, and oh my god, to lick—
“Who’s the gawker?” Jude said, and I blinked. “She new?”
Eyes framed with dark, curling lashes were aimed at me. His thick brows, perfectly shaped, sank low.
Of course, I’d be noticed now, ogling the hell out of him.
Cory laughed, but it was that fake, forced laughter she did when she was nervous or offended. “Uh, no, she’s not.”
Still pinn
ed on me, Jude’s eyes widened expectantly. “Does it have a voice?”
This was my time. I could allow the heat slowly infiltrating to grace my entire face or stop it in its tracks by snatching what could be my only opportunity.
“Oh, I do,” I said with more ease than I ever could’ve thought possible because holy fucking shit, he was talking to me. “I do,” I said again, like an idiot, and smiled in a way I hoped accentuated my eyes. “I can have many voices if you’d like. You can sample them—”
Cory slapped a hand over my mouth.
Jude was openly assessing me now, his expression unreadable.
“Excuse her,” Cory said. “She took some of her mom’s Valium by accident, thinking it was her iron pill.”
I tried to pry her fingers from my face to no avail.
Jude smirked in a way that spoke of sinister whispers heatedly delivered to your ear in the dark. “Remove your hand. I’d like to hear what else she has to say.”
That voice… so silken with its slight accent and sensuously deep.
Cory did that fake laugh thing again and proceeded to drag me away. “You really don’t.”
Silas was laughing silently, staring at the ground.
I shoved Cory off, but she wasn’t going anywhere. She grabbed my wrist, tugging hard to the doors. Forgetting I was wearing the stupid heels, I almost tripped. I scowled at her, and hissed, “Quit it.”
I could feel Jude watching, but when I turned back, he was in conversation with Silas as two more members of the football team arrived.
I wanted to growl, scream, and kill my idiot best friend.
But considering she was my only friend, that wouldn’t be smart. A girl needed her allies.
Peridot Academy was war, and we were but warriors just trying to survive.
“God, I didn’t think you were serious,” she said between her teeth, smiling at Agatha Jones when we passed. “You can’t just do that, Fern.”
“I can, and you ruined it,” I said as we found our lockers in the seniors’ hall.
“More like I stopped you from ruining it,” she said. “I can have many voices?” Her tone pitched high with disbelief. “Really, Fern?”
Tipping a shoulder, I failed to see the problem, leaning back against my locker as she opened hers. “He seemed into it.”
“He seemed confused.” She lowered her voice, sympathy riding it. “He didn’t even know who you were, Fern, and we’ve been in this cesspit for years.”
Letting my eyes skim the passersby, the excitement and fear that stained the hall under the obnoxious scents of cologne and perfume, I smiled to myself.
He’d noticed me. Not only that, but he’d seemed curious about me.
If there ever was a time to make damn sure I got what I wanted, it was now. “Well, he’s about to know me,” I muttered. “Real well.”
Cory rolled her eyes. “He’ll make a meal out of you and leave you in scraps.”
That was what I was hoping.
After school, I lingered, but there were no more sightings of Jude.
I waited beside my locker for Cory, but she was a no-show. The crowds began to wane, Melanie’s upper lip curling, her sharp eyes dipping up and down my body before she turned to Marnie and laughed.
Marnie kept her head down, clutching her vintage Chanel tight to her side as they rounded the corner and headed for the exit.
Marnie Trench was sweet, the perfect loyal poodle with glossy eyes and brown hair to match our queen bee, Melanie Hillings. Without fail and never a protest, Marnie followed her every order.
Marnie and Melanie, or M&M as I’d once heard Marnie suggest during English in sophomore year, had the type of friendship that seemed to stay afloat due to the amount of dirt they had on one another. The glower blazing from Melanie’s green eyes, followed by the whiny, “Ew, no,” had shut that nickname down real quick.
I’d spent the rest of class wondering what nicknames she’d dubbed Jude with, and if he’d soften for her enough in order to give him one. They’d supposedly been a couple since middle school, so it was plausible she’d managed to cajole a nickname from the aloof six-foot-three hunk of a male.
At home, I left my car out front and bounded up the shrub-lined steps to our porch. It wrapped around the house, and at the side was a set of stairs leading to the balcony above.
I’d sometimes sit out there in one of the rockers, feigning interest in a book, hoping I’d catch a glimpse of Jude. More often than not, I’d just see his car come and go, and sometimes, his younger brother, Henry, playing soccer outside.
I wondered if Jude liked soccer and if he ever played. As the wide receiver for the school’s football team, he spent at least one weekend out of every month of football season traveling off the island to play other schools.
I’d left the island a few times. It sat off the coast of New York. January, my mother, loved to shop, so she’d take me with her to the bustling, claustrophobic giant city when I was younger. Now, I was old enough to stay behind and be left to my own devices.
I was harmless, sure, but there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do if it meant getting what I wanted.
Which was something January Denane wasn’t entirely privy to. The way I’d watch the boy next door was not a secret by any means, but she’d laugh and wave her elegant hand flippantly as though it was nothing but a crush.
Perhaps she was right. Perhaps she might have thought differently if she knew about the pictures in my walk-in. I didn’t much care.
Inside, I kicked the death traps off, wincing as soon as I planted my feet on the ground.
With a groan, I sank to the floor and inspected the red splotches on my heels, rubbing at the aching soles of my feet.
I shot a glare at the shoes, then dragged myself to the pantry in search of carbs—something our school didn’t have much of.
With a pack of cookies and a glass of milk in hand, I headed upstairs to get my dunk on.
“Girl,” Cory called, her footsteps clomping up the aged wooden stairs outside my room. “Did you see Marnie today?” She pushed open my door, scowled at the cookies on my desk, then hurried over and nabbed one. “Sad panda or what?” she mumbled around it, then moaned.
I tugged the package closer. “I did, and where’d you go? I waited for you after class.”
She smiled, pieces of chocolate smearing her perfect teeth. “Silas needed a proper hello.”
I snorted, dunking a cookie into my crumb-littered milk.
The plush green rugs interrupted the clop of her heels as she swayed her hips to the en suite. “Gonna tidy up before he comes back from Jude’s.”
She took her time, so I turned my chair, staring out the small gap in the curtains to the mansion next door. Moonstone white with ivy crawling over its exterior that was so dark green it was almost black, the home was big enough to house most of the school.
A hedge was sandwiched between our properties. Along Crest Road, most of us had land that sprawled behind each home right to the water, yet our wood and stone giant sat much closer than necessary to the Delouxe’s home. I mean, it was no wonder I was obsessed with the guy.
To have a specimen like that so close yet still out of reach would drive anyone insane. For years, I’d been given so many tastes but nothing to actually eat, and I was starving.
Cory’s footsteps ceased outside the bathroom in the tiny hall near my walk-in.
Her eyes zeroed in on my clothes. “Wait a second.” She switched on the light in the closet, then looked at me with her mouth gaping.
Shit. I must have forgotten to cover my Jude wall. “What?”
“I can get down with this obsession of yours.”
I raised my brows, chewing a cookie.
She sighed. “Okay, more like I’ve learned to accept it. It still borderline creeps me out and makes me scared for you. But this?” She stabbed a finger at the wall inside. “How the hell do you know he’s a Slytherin?”
I thought that would have been obvious. “I took
the test for him.”
Cory hadn’t been there when I’d started reading Harry Potter in the seventh grade. It was my very first obsession. I’d walked into many a door and tripped over a bag or two in the halls during middle school, one of them being Silas’s.
Jude hadn’t even looked up from his tablet.
Meanwhile, Silas had been annoyed I’d squished his banana muffin. I’d been annoyed I’d irreparably bent the pages of my book in the process. Thankfully, Mom bought me another copy.
Cory knew this about me, about my personality. When I really liked something, I loved that something.
But the way she was staring at me now, as though she’d never truly seen me before, struck a nerve. The pang of it rippled all the way to my eyes.
I wouldn’t let her make me feel crazy.
“Look,” she started, but I jumped up and ran downstairs to the kitchen.
Unsure what it was I even wanted, just that I knew I needed away from that weird look in her eyes and the note of concern in her voice, I opened the fridge and stared at the contents inside.
She followed, leaning a hip against the island behind me. “I knew you liked him, but I didn’t think it was this…” I could see her nose crinkling without looking. “Bad.”
“I don’t remember asking for your opinion,” I said, perhaps a little too coldly.
I heard her expel a loud breath, and I snatched a squeezy strawberry yogurt before slamming the door.
“Okay, I’ve gotta go.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, concentrating too hard on unscrewing the plastic lid.
Cory lingered a moment, and I tossed the lid into the trash, only turning around once I heard the front door close.
Back in my room, I slammed the door of my walk-in and sucked voraciously on the yogurt, crossing to the floor-to-ceiling doors.
Mostly, I kept the curtains half closed, but I opened one to see a sparrow dancing across the wooden railing outside. A flash of movement caught my eyes moments later, and I braced a hand on the doorframe, the yogurt hanging between my teeth.
