“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about me?” I say it as a joke, but I am serious. Eli was my only friend five years ago. It will be nice if he still wants to be now.
His eyebrows rise to his hairline. “Forget about you, Rory,never.”
Hope blooms inside my chest.
Maybe this place doesn’t suck so bad. One friendly face is better than none.
“I almost didn’t recognize you,” he muses softly. “You’ve changed your hair.”
I look down. It has been this color for so long that I almost forget sometimes that my hair wasn’t always this dark-brunette shade. That girl’s existence seems separate from the one standing here today.
“The color suits you. A good change.”
He has no idea how much. Thegood, still up for debate.
Eli is different too. He’s grown lean, but tall. Like everyone else, he seems to tower over my petite five-foot-three frame.
He runs his hand through his short dirty-blond buzz cut, looking past me. A mix of urgency and reluctance cross his face.
I cock my head to the side, ignoring that lingering shift in his eyes.
“It shouldn’t be a surprise to find you here.”
His fidgety response makes me feel awkward. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe Eli isn’t that witty kid who used to make me laugh while we read together any longer.
Time changes things, people mostly.
Not being able to stomach seeing that expression from him, I look down, spotting a pair of monochrome books under his arm. I can’t make out the names, but they are bulky, too large for a casual read.
He opens his mouth, but it’s not his voice I hear. These words are from someone else, the tone less vengeful, almost friendly. His words never sound like that with me.
“Already trying to bum a ride home off someone?” Finn’s words twist and turn dark at my back.
Eli’s observant eyes study me. His top lip flattening out, deducing his own theory.
“You’re friends with Finn?”
Eli doesn’t have to say anything. I can see the truth in his eyes. Still, a third voice chimes in, answering anyway.
“Why wouldn’t he be?”
My heart drops at the sound. I would always be able to recognize that voice. It is deeper now, but it still carries that razor-sharp edge that could only belong to one person.
I steel my spine when he steps into my space. Those cerulean eyes as clear as glass taking me in. The leader of my oppressors and, ironically, part of the family the school is named after.
Cole Kellet.
My enemy too close to be casual. I want to step back but I don’t because that is what the girl from five years ago would have done. She no longer exists, I, her replacement.
We stay like that for a moment, taking each other in. His gaze forward, not bashful. Slowly raking his eyes down my body and coming back up with a slow pretentious smirk. That cocky expression on full display.
Chills break out across my body. His entire demeanor growing more lethal and dangerous with each passing moment.
“Are you going to answer?” His voice is low, patronizing.
I don’t need to, the answer obvious.
Eli looks down, silently apologizing, but it does nothing for me.