I blink, literally shocked at her nerve. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” she tsks, her eyes mirroring disgust.
Without even realizing it, I find my hands balling up into tight fists. I want to punch that look right off her face.
Banks shakes his head, his lips turning up at the corners.
“Ignore them, they’re just jealous that you managed to bag three of the hottest guys at Bayshore.” The way he speaks of them, with a smidge of snark, makes their words hurt a little less. The girls roll their eyes and carry on past us like nothing happened at all.
“Were you really going to punch them?” Banks asks, giving me a quirky look.
My shoulders raise into a shrug. “I don’t know. I just wanted to make them eat their words.”
When we get back to the car, Sullivan and Oliver seem tense. “What took you so long? We were about to storm up there and start knocking heads together,” Oliver berates.
“Shelby says that our parents hired her to spy on Harlow,” Banks announces as soon as we’re back in the car with all the doors closed.
“Son of a bitch,” Sullivan growls as he slams a closed fist against the dash. “It’s not surprising, not in the least, but I am shocked that they went to Shelby.”
Oliver speeds out of the parking lot, and we tell them the rest of the story, including the run-in with the skank squad in the hallway.
“I’m going to have a talk with Mom and Dad, and see if I can get to the bottom of this. And about those girls they’re nobodies.”
All I can do is shrug. I want to tell them that it’s easy to say something like that when they’re not the ones being called a whore or looked at with disgust. How am I supposed to let go of the things they said and did?
I know I shouldn’t care about what other people think… I know that, but that doesn’t mean I can just turn off my feelings or forget what they said.
“I’ll try, but it’s not that easy.”
“Forget them,” Banks assures me with a gentle hand, and something tells me it’s going to be a lot harder than just forgetting them.
11
Walking toward the front of the class, I hand in my essay to Professor Paulson, who gives me a curt nod as I exit the room. Oliver follows in stride right beside me, our fingers interlocked as we step into the hallway together. The brothers find their way into every single one of my classes, ensuring that I’m safe. Adjusting my backpack, I walk down the long hall with Oliver in tow. I’ve gone maybe ten feet when a hand lands against my shoulder, halting any further steps.
Seriously. I half expect it to be one of the stupid guards, so when I turn around there is nothing but barely restrained rage painted on my face.
“Hey, guys…” Caroline greets and immediately my features soften.
Not Bert, or Ernie, thank god.
“Hey, sorry, I thought you were one of the guards my father assigned.”
Oliver looks around us, scanning the area. “Now that I think of it, we haven’t seen either of them for a while.” He shrugs. “Hopefully they got fired. I mean, they did do a terrible job. We kidnapped you in broad daylight, and they couldn’t even figure out where you were,” he teases, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
“I would definitely fire their asses if I was your father,” Caroline chimes in. “I just wanted to see if you wanted to get coffee or something?” My stomach rumbles in appreciation of her offer. It’s been nearly six hours since I last ate anything because I stupidly chose to skip lunch and finish my paper.
“Sure. I’m done with classes for the day, and I could use a cookie, and a coffee right about now.”
Caroline gives me a megawatt smile.
“You okay with that?” I direct the question at Oliver.
“Anything you want,” he winks and presses a soft kiss to my hand that makes my stomach quiver. At Oliver’s words, she leads the way, taking us to this little coffee shop a couple blocks from the library. We sit down at a small table near the window, and I watch as Oliver walks up to the counter and orders us some coffees and pastries. Our gazes clash when he catches me staring at him, and I look away, my cheeks heating instantly.
Caroline giggles softly, and then asks, “How’s it been going? Last I talked to Sullivan, he told me you were staying with them for now?” Her question has images of me curled up in Sullivan’s bed last night popping into my head.
“It’s been going good,” I grin. “Actually, it’s been great.” I already know I’m blushing up to my hairline, giving my indecent thoughts away but it’s not like I have anything to hide, least of all, from Caroline.