I can’t wait to see their faces when I walk in
With diamonds dripping from my ears
And a perfectly exquisite, tasteful dress
To save the unfortunate children.
.
eight
Harper Apple
By Thursday, I’ve pretty much settled into school. I still don’t fit, but I try not to care. I’m not here to fit in and make friends and all that shit. I’m here to get an education that Faulkner High can’t come close to offering. Just two years, and I’ll leave this place and never look back. I’ll never have to see these people again. What does it matter if they think my shorts are too short or my midriff too scandalous?
I’m just sitting down at lunch that day when an ear-piercing whistle echoes through the room. Conversations die, the room falling silent.
“They’re calling you,” Dixie says, her eyes glimmering with excitement as she cuts them toward the Dolce boys and their girls.
“Yeah, well, I don’t answer to dog whistles,” I say. “If they want to say something to me, they can come and say it.”
“You have to go over there,” Susanna says, like it’s the perfectly obvious thing to do.
I shrug. “What are they going to do, lasso me and drag me across the room? I don’thaveto do anything for them.”
“It’s not that bad,” Quinn whispers. “I mean, they say some rude stuff about your boobs, and everyone laughs at you, but then it’s over. You don’t have to have it hanging over your head, wondering when they’re going to single you out and what they’ll do. You bring them their lunch for a few days and do a couple other demeaning things, and then they move on. It’s better to get it over with.”
I shrug. “I’m not going over there. If they want me, they can come and get me.”
“Hey.” A deep voice cuts through the expectant silence in the café. “New girl. I know you heard me.”
There’s no point in making a bigger spectacle by ignoring them. I turn in my chair. All three of the Dolces are looking at me. Baron, looking at me through his glasses like he’s examining a cadaver in biology, a sucker tucked into his cheek yet again. Duke, the brother who mouthed off to Mr. Behr in the parking lot, is the one who spoke. He’s a bit bulkier than Baron, his hair a bit shorter, but they look like twins anyway.
And Royal.
His shoulders are broad, filling out the collared shirt that must be custom tailored to his huge frame, his muscles showing even through the fabric. His big hands rest on the table in front of him, his fingers long and thick and tanned. Damn. Even his hands are sexy.
I let my eyes travel back to his face, the sculpted jawline that could cut glass, a strong, straight nose, lips that would make any girl melt. But it’s his eyes that really get you.
I don’t like to meet Royal’s eyes. There’s too much there to unpack. It doesn’t help that when he looks at me with that quiet, intense stare, I feel like he can see right through me. It also doesn’t help that all three of the guys are fucking gorgeous, the kind of gorgeous that makes butterflies swarm in your stomach and gets your mind all confused because you’re not sure if you’re hot and flustered for them or terrified of all that strength and power coming at you. Even though Royal doesn’t say much, I can tell he’s the one in control, the one with the most power of all of them. And now he’s staring at me like his eyes want to consume my soul.
My soul wants to let him.
I jerk my gaze from his, offer a little wave, and turn back to my table.
“Get your ass over here,” Duke says behind me.
“I’m good, thanks,” I call over my shoulder, but I don’t turn back to them. I answer to no one but myself.
“It wasn’t a request.” Royal’s voice is quieter than Duke’s, but it carries across the room even better, everyone going dead silent to hear when he speaks.
“Go,” Dixie says, her eyes wide with alarm. “They’re going to kill you.”
I do a double take when I realize she looks genuinely scared, her face pale beneath her freckles.
“Yeah, go,” Susanna says. “Before they take it out on us.”
“Really?” I ask, skeptically cocking a brow.