As I made my way across campus in the dark, an odd feeling settled in my gut.
That had been… fun.
I hated to admit it, but I’d actually had a good time hanging out with the Princes. The Princes. The four boys I’d sworn to hate forever, the four who had gone so far out of their way to make my life miserable for an entire semester.
Just like they’d sat down today and dug up dirt on Evan’s family, they had systematically gone after me just because my presence threatened their worldview.
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?