My fingers rolled over the cigarette. “It’s not important.” He wasn’t important. That was basically what I was trying to tell Micah. “And neither is my name,” I snapped to Sterling, shoving my waterlogged phone into my bag. Dropping the cigarette on the ground, I smashed it under my foot, smothering the cherry.
The playful smirk on Sterling’s lips widened. My purpose hadn’t been to amuse him, and yet that was precisely what I did. “See you around,Splash.”
Splash! Not funny. Or cute, for that matter.
Micah didn’t think so either. He stiffened beside me, and for a second, I thought he might do something like hit him.
“The next time you fall in the fountain, I’ll try to be around to catch you,” Sterling added with a wink before strutting off.
My mouth dropped open. The audacity.
This was turning out to be the weirdest day I’d had in a really long time, probably since I found out that Josie, my best friend, turned out to be my not-so-dead cousin who had been kidnapped as a baby.
Yeah, my life was complicated, but not as complicated as Josie’s. Some days, I didn’t know how she handled it all. Her mom—well, kidnapper mom. A new family. Suddenly having a brother and a sister the same age as you. They were triplets.
Although my problems weren’t on the same scale as Josie’s, that didn’t mean my life wasn’t without its bumps and bruises. And I concluded that Sterling liked drama. He also had a death wish.
This might only be the first day of class, but I’d bet my left tit that most students had already heard about the Elite. Whether he knew it or not, Sterling had just put himself on their radar, not a place you wanted to be.
The last guy on their radar was in jail. But he deserved to be there.
Micah’s hand came around me to rest on the small of my back. His touch, as light as it was, sent a tingle dancing up my spine. There had always been something about Micah that my body immediately responded to. “Stay away from him,” he warned, his eyes trailing after Sterling.
Brock also glared at Sterling’s retreating back. “I have to agree.”
I shook my head, sighing. “Do you trust anyone?” I didn’t expect an answer. It had been more of a rhetorical question, and neither of them responded anyway. “It’s too early for this. I need to go change. I’ll see you later tonight?”
I left Brock and Micah scowling.
Rushing back to the dorms, I hit the elevator call button and waited, tapping my foot on the floor as the numbers counted down. In a dorm this size, it often took a few minutes to retrieve an elevator, and I was too damn antsy to sit still, not to mention the odd looks I received from my fellow dormmates.
I contemplated hiking up four floors of stairs when the elevator finally dinged, the doors opening. Waiting for a few people inside to shuffle out, I ignored their weird glances and brushed past them, hitting my floor number. Water dripped from my clothes, leaving behind a tiny puddle on the elevator floor.
Annoyed. Anger. Confused. Frustrated. Disappointed. Those were only some of the emotions spinning within me. I had this picture of what college life would be like, and so far, nothing was going as planned.
Ding.
The elevator door opened, and I shoved off the wall, dragging my soggy ass to my dorm six doors down. I wiggled my key into the lock and opened the door to my shared room. Four beds butted up into each corner, a nightstand beside them, and a small desk on the wall parallel to the beds. More than half the room was divided down the middle by a bathroom and closets. A small entryway connected the two spaces. We had one of the nicer rooms, which had everything to do with how much money our parents had, minus Ainsley. She lived on the other side of Elmwood and didn’t have her parents’ wealth to rely on. Since she didn’t have classes today, she was out looking for a part-time job.
We had each decorated our little corners of the room to fit our personal style. I found that it helped to have familiar things around me. Regardless of how excited I was to be spending the next four years here with Micah and my friends, I did miss home and my parents.
My older brother, Jason, was in his last year at the University of Dalton, the same school Fynn and Grayson attended, before heading to medical school. He wanted to be a doctor. It was still hard for me to imagine Jason having the discipline to finish four more years of medical school and then go on to his residency. With my brother and me gone, my parents were empty nesters, but instead of moping around the house missing me as I thought they would be, they had taken off on vacation to Tahiti.
God, some sun, the beach, and a rum barrel sounded divine right now
I dropped my bag in the entryway as the door swung closed behind me, then stripped out of my wet clothes, letting them fall to the floor. Kenna had left a minute or two before me for her Intro to Business class, which just left Josie.
A candle burned on top of her desk, scenting the room with oranges and smoked vanilla. She and Ainsley shared the right side of the space, while Kenna and I had the other half. Josie’s bed was closest to the door, as was mine, but I didn’t see her.
In nothing but my lace bra and underwear, I padded over to the small dresser and rummaged through the clothes I carelessly shoved inside. My side of the room might look like a bomb went off, but it was an organized mess. At least, that was what I liked to say. Unlike Josie or Kenna, who were two of the neatest people I knew, I hated order and thrived in clutter.
But I was beginning to think my life was too much of a mess. Especially if today was an indicator.
“What happened to you?” a soft voice behind me asked.
I glanced over my shoulder at Josie, my hands still digging through the disorder. “Don’t even ask.”
Josie still rocked her vibrant pink locks, freshly colored before school started. She had similar features to her sister, Kenna. The same chocolate eyes, high cheekbones naturally dusted pink, and golden skin. The shape of Josie’s face was a bit more like Grayson’s, rounder than Kenna’s, but there was no mistaking when the three of them were together that they came from the same gene pool.