by Callie Rose
And now that things had shifted, I felt guilty, confused, and most of all… sad.
If things had been like this all along, I could’ve seen us becoming good friends. They were all charismatic and funny—even Cole, in his own way—their light shining so brightly it made people want to be around them.
If they had treated me the way they were treating me now from the moment I’d met them, I could imagine something really great developing between us. I probably would’ve asked one of them out, if I was being honest with myself—although I wasn’t sure who.
But it hadn’t always been this way.
For three months, they’d been the bane of my existence.
And I could never, ever let myself forget that.
A strange thing about suddenly being in the Princes inner circle was that I found out about a whole other side to the school I’d never known existed.
The rich boy fight club wasn’t the only illicit activity they organized. Apparently, there was also a standing arrangement where once a month, the resident advisor of Clarendon hall turned a blind eye while they threw a raging party in the dorm. Parties weren’t technically allowed on campus, which was why the two I’d been to last semester had been at Petra’s house.
Students with parents who traveled a lot or were just generally absent tended to be the ones to host those, and although I hadn’t gone to many, I’d heard about a lot of them.
But the dorm thing? That was new to me.
I’d been to Clarendon Hall a lot in the past couple weeks, but as I walked inside on a Thursday night in mid-February, my head swiveled around in amazement. The place was totally transformed.
The common room, usually lit by bright overhead lights, was dark, with only a few colored lamps providing purple and blue illumination to the space. Music thumped, although a little quieter than at the house parties I’d been to.
During Biology, Elijah had leaned over and whispered in my ear that they were throwing a party, and I was invited. And in English Lit, Mason had tugged my desk closer to his, a question reflecting in his bright green eyes until I’d nodded.
It had taken me about thirty minutes of pacing around my dorm room and changing my outfit a dozen times to work up the nerve to actually walk across campus and step inside though.
Part of me was sure this was going to be the night it all came crumbling down—the truce, the peace treaty, whatever it was.
My track record at parties wasn’t great, after all, although at least there wasn’t a fucking pool at this one. Not unless we crossed all the way over to the gymnasium, where the Olympic-sized pool was probably locked up for the night anyway.
I blinked in the dim light, tugging nervously at my strapless top. My boobs weren’t huge, which was actually a good thing for a dancer, and it made wearing tops like this easy enough. The fabric was a shimmery blue, and it hugged my body, showing just a hint of my stomach above my black skinny jeans. But I had a sudden moment of panic that it was all wrong, and I was about to turn around and go home to change—and maybe never come back—when an arm wrapped around my waist.
“Legs! You made it!”
Finn grinned broadly at me as he raised his voice over the music, his blond hair shining pale blue in the light.
“Yeah. I said I would.”
It took effort to speak. His hand had landed right on the small patch of bare skin around my middle, and the feel of his fingertips brushing my skin was doing strange things to my body. I swayed into his touch unconsciously, and he wrapped his other arm around me too, bringing us chest to chest as he bent his head to speak into my ear.
“I know you did. But I wasn’t sure you would, after…” He drew back slightly, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth as his eyes searched my face. Then he shook his head, moving his hands to my hips and squeezing gently. “I’m glad you’re here.”
I wasn’t quite sure what to say in response, so I didn’t say anything. He kept his hands on my hips for a second longer as mine rested on the soft fabric of his t-shirt, feeling the warmth of his chest underneath.
Then his broad grin appeared again, the one that made it basically impossible not to smile back. When my lips twitched upward, he nodded in satisfaction and spun me toward the drinks table.
I caught sight of Leah, Maggie, and Dan in a corner, gathered in a tight circle, clutching red Solo cups and laughing about something.
Wait? Leah knows about these parties?
I shouldn’t have been surprised she’d never mentioned them to me. She’d known I wasn’t much for social events, and she’d also known I was trying to avoid the Princes. She probably hadn’t wanted to throw it in my face—but I still felt a little hurt that she’d been going to the monthly parties without telling me.
As if drawn by my thoughts, her gaze flicked up to meet mine. The laughter on her lips died at the sight of Finn’s arms wrapped around me, and for a moment, she just stared at me. Then she shook her head, going back to her conversation with Maggie and Dan and angling her body away from mine to put me completely out of her line of vision.
Well. That message couldn’t have been any clearer.
I knew it. She is pissed about this.
She might’ve said it wasn’t a big deal when I had to bail on our shopping trip, but ever since then, things had been weird between us. We hadn’t even talked in a few days. I was used to getting texts from her at odd hours about random things, but there’d been radio silence for a week.
I didn’t know how to get things back to normal.
But I missed her.
My footsteps faltered. I wanted to go over and say something, but I wasn’t sure what would repair the damage. I’d gotten swept up into a whole new life, a whole new world when the semester started, and I didn’t know how to bridge the gap between the old and the new.
“Come on, Legs.” Finn’s voice tugged my attention back to him, and he swept his arm out in front of the booze table like a game show host. “What do you want?”
I scrunched up my nose, sending one last backward glance at Leah, Maggie, and Dan. “Um… anything but vodka, whiskey, or beer.”
He quirked his eyebrows. “Hmm. A woman of discerning taste. Do I dare give you tequila?”
“I dunno. Do you?”
“Fuck yeah. Let’s live a little.”
He poured some into a cup, then grabbed an open bottle of orange juice and topped it off before handing it to me with a flourish. I took a tentative drink, but all I could really taste was orange juice. There was a slight burn, but nowhere near as sharp as the whiskey. I liked it.
Finn watched my face carefully, and as I swallowed the first sip, he crowed triumphantly. “She likes it! All right, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“Out of here?” I asked, glancing up at him as he led me through the crowd. “I just got here.”
He squeezed my waist again, making my breath catch. I got the feeling he was a few drinks in, and it was making him friendlier than I could handle. “Oh, Legs. We’re not leaving the party. Just going to a better one.”
As he spoke, he nodded at two junior boys I recognized and pushed through the door they were lounging in front of, leading us into the back half of the dorm’s first floor. The front was where the main common room was, but the back had smaller study rooms and meeting rooms.
I could feel the difference in the atmosphere immediately. This area was dark too—even darker than out front—and soft moans came from some of the small rooms off the main hallway. Through an open door, I saw Crista King lean forward and hold a rolled up bill to her nose. She pushed it along a thin white line on the table in front of her, holding her other nostril closed with one finger. When she came up for air, she smiled, her eyes glazed as she pinched her nose and settled back on the couch.
Holy fuck.
My gaze flitted up to Finn’s. Somehow, my arm had made its way around his waist too, and my fingers dug into his side. He winced slightly then pressed his free hand over mine, flattening my fing
ers against his hip. “Don’t worry, Tal. This is the VIP area, so we let people do whatever they want, but none of us are into the hard shit… anymore.”
I caught the last word, even though he said it softly. But before I could ask anything else, he pushed through a door into another small study room off the main hall. It clicked shut behind us as Mason, Elijah, and Cole looked up. They were all lounging comfortably on the couches and chairs in the room, and Elijah smiled when he saw me.
“Hey. Wasn’t sure you’d come, Princess.”
“That’s what I said!”
Finn grinned down at me, guiding me over to the couch where Elijah was sitting. I sank down between the two of them, taking a long pull from my cup.
“How’s it going out there?” Mason asked Finn.
“Good. Pretty chill so far.”
“So, wait.” I leaned forward, my gaze bouncing between the two of them. “You throw a party for everyone, and then you escape to the back and hang out in here with each other?”
“Yup.” Finn chuckled. “Why? Does that make us sound like losers?”
A laugh burst from my lips before I could help it. “Actually, yeah. It kinda does.”
“Everybody wants something from us,” Mason said. They were all out of their school uniforms, and he wore a long-sleeved Henley with dark, carefully distressed jeans. They made his long legs look distractingly good. “We host this party every month to give them all something. But that doesn’t mean we want to hang out with them.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. He really could be a cock sometimes.
“Wow. How noble of you,” I drawled.
“Hey, wait until everyone here puts two and two together and realizes you’re the sole heir to the entire Hildebrand fortune. See how you like a bunch of random assholes coming up to you and offering to suck your fucking dick if you can just help them out with this one little thing. Have fun trying to figure out who your real friends are then.”
There was a bitterness to his voice that took me by surprise, and I flopped back lightly against the couch, taking another sip of my drink.
“Okay. I see your point. But I really hope nobody offers to suck my dick.”
“Yeah? What kind of offers are you taking?”
He smiled lazily at me, but the glint in his eyes made me blush, and I was suddenly very thankful for the low light.
Then he jerked his chin at Cole, and the raven-haired boy leaned over, grabbing a small box off the floor by his chair. He flipped it open and started rolling a joint as the conversation continued around us.
I studied his dexterous movements, fascinated in spite of myself. Kids had smoked behind the back entrance of Sand Valley High all the time, but I’d never joined them.
When he finished, he scooted his chair closer and passed the joint to me. He held it out, silent as always, and raised a brow when I didn’t take it right away. I licked my lips, hesitating for a split second longer before I accepted it, holding it gingerly between my thumb and forefinger. Cole pulled out an expensive looking silver lighter and held it up.
“Stop staring at me,” I grumbled. The other three had all leaned forward expectantly, making me feel like a zoo animal on display.
“Then stop dickin’ around,” Mason commented dryly, but when I glanced over at him, he was grinning.
“All right, all right. Give me a light.”
I stuck the joint between my lips, still holding onto it tightly, and Cole’s blue eyes flickered in the glow of the flame as he lit it for me.
When I sucked in a breath, acrid smoke hit the back of my throat in a rush, making nausea rise up in my stomach. My eyes watered before I quickly exhaled, choking and hacking. It tightened my throat and made my head buzz and spin. I groaned, and as someone plucked the joint from my fingers, I realized I was doubled over with my head between my knees.
“Oh, shit. Cole, I thought you said you got the good stuff!” Finn sounded like he was trying not to laugh, and I reached back and swatted at him, still working to breathe.
A hand ran soothingly down the length of my spine, and my nerve endings crackled with awareness. I peered up, brushing aside the curtain of my hair. Elijah smiled crookedly at me before leaning toward Cole, his hand still stroking up and down my back.
“Give it here.”
Cole passed the joint he’d reclaimed from me, and Elijah took a long drag, holding his breath for several seconds before releasing it in a cloud. He made it look so fucking easy. When he was done, he passed it over my head to Finn. Each of them took a drag, and I sat up slowly, watching them visibly relax as they passed it on. When it reached Elijah again, he turned to me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Wanna try again?”
I nodded wordlessly.
“Like this.”
He brought the joint to his lips and took a deep inhale, closing his lips as he handed it off to Finn. Then he moved closer to me, tilting my face toward his with one hand. Gazing into my eyes, he gripped the back of my neck, and I stared at him wide-eyed, heat flooding my body.
“Open your mouth,” I heard Mason say.
I slowly parted my lips as my heart did a strange little dance between my ribs. Elijah’s lips pushed lightly against mine, only touching in a few places, before he exhaled into my mouth. I felt the smoke fill it slowly before his lips moved against mine.
“You have to inhale, Talia.”
I sucked in a sharp breath at my name on his lips. The smoke rushed into my lungs, but this time, it didn’t burn the same way it had before. It still had an earthy, pungent taste, but it went down easier. And when it hit my lungs, it felt like I’d breathed in helium, like my whole body was filling with something light that might carry me away.
At the same time, electric heat sparked through my body, and I had the most insane urge to wrap my hand around Elijah’s neck in a mirror of what he was doing to me, to push the connection between us further, to slip my tongue into his mouth and—
Elijah drew back, licking his lips as if he could still taste me on them. “Good girl.”
My gaze stayed locked on him, and I pressed my legs together. Holy fuck. Did he know what he’d just done to me?
If he did, he was gentleman enough not to mock me for it. He just ran his thumb over my lips once and smiled at me.
They passed the joint around until it was finished, and when it came back to me, Elijah repeated the action, inhaling first and then breathing the smoke into my mouth. The guys all laughed and assured me I was in good hands, that Elijah was an old pro at this, but I thought I caught a look almost like jealousy on Finn’s face as he watched us.
After a while, he disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a bottle of tequila. It burned more going down straight than when mixed with orange juice, but the happy buzz in my mind drowned out any discomfort.
I felt utterly relaxed and strangely safe as I rested my head back against the couch, hands laced over the patch of bare skin on my stomach.
Four distinct, deep voices surrounded me. Elijah’s was smooth, Cole’s gruff, Finn’s teasing, and Mason’s low and serious.
Together, they created a pleasant hum that faded into the distance as my eyelids dropped shut.
Chapter 19
A loud beeping sound pierced my blissfully quiet brain, and I groaned, rolling over and throwing an arm over my face. Light was coming from somewhere, and I hated it.
Kill light. Must… kill… light.
The beeping stopped for little bit, but a few minutes later, it started up again, and I groped blindly around me until my hand settled on my phone. Cracking my eyelids, I squinted at the screen as I turned off the alarm.
7:35. My first class was at eight. I could just make it in time… if I could get my body to fucking move.
My head felt stuffy, like I’d poured cement between my ears and let it harden, and my clothes and hair reeked of weed. That meant showering before class wasn’t optional.
I was tempted to blow it off and
go back to sleep, but Jacqueline’s warning about attendance flickered through my brain. Goddammit.
Grimacing, I sat up. On the nightstand where my phone had been, a glass of water sat next to two small pills and a handwritten note. I picked up the paper and the pills, cupping them in my hand as I read.
Morning, Princess
These will help. Drink the water even if you don’t feel like it.
~F
A warm feeling expanded in my chest, and I traded the note for the glass of water, using it to swallow the pills before gulping down the rest. Finn had been right. I didn’t feel like it. But as the liquid hit my stomach, it seemed to radiate through me, clearing out the gross, heavy feeling the tequila and weed had left in my body.
I stood unsteadily, glancing at the clock again before moving toward the bathroom. My body was sluggish, and time seemed to be racing, but I showered as quickly as I could, skipped blow-drying my hair, and threw on my uniform. Then I snatched up my books and backpack and hustled across campus.
By the time I rounded the corner of Hammond Hall, the Aspirin were beginning to take affect, and the slight throbbing in my head had subsided. All in all, I didn’t feel that bad, considering I wasn’t sure how much I’d drunk at the party. I didn’t even remember getting back to my dorm.
I’d cut it too close, and first period was already starting as I approached the entrance to Craydon Hall. All four of the Princes were lounging at the bottom of the steps, and they straightened when they saw me walking up.
“She lives.” Finn grinned at me.
“Yeah.” I smiled tentatively. “Thanks to you. And thanks for setting my alarm too.” I glanced at the others. “You didn’t have to wait for me.”
“Wanted to make sure you didn’t throw your phone against the wall and sleep through the alarm.” Mason shrugged, turning to lead the way up the stairs. He glanced back at me over his shoulder. “I told you, Princess. You’re one of us now, and we take care of our own.”
We broke off once we entered the building, each heading to our own classes. All of us were late, although I was the only one who’d had to be.
