Shadowlands (Shadowlands 1)

I made my way to the other side of the bonfire, snagged a bottle of water from the cooler, and tried to look perfectly content sipping from it while I watched the surf. Surreptitiously, I kept an eye on Darcy and the others. She was getting her flirt on with Joaquin now, but every so often he’d look over in my direction. Olive and Tristan were chatting alone, their heads bent close together, while Fisher, Kevin, and Bea had found a pair of coolers to sit on, facing the fire. Lauren and Krista stood alongside them, whispering and glancing in my direction.

Just breathe. Just breathe and recite.

Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine…

A round of girlish laughter caught my attention. A few feet away, closer to the edge of the water, a guy about my age was talking to two younger girls. He had brown hair and brown eyes, a nice face, and was the only other person wearing sneakers. He was listening to what the girls were saying, but every once in a while, when they weren’t looking, he would glance around, like he was bored.

As he surveyed the party, his eye caught mine. A moment later, he excused himself from his conversation and walked over to me.

“Care to save me from the most ridiculous conversation ever?” he asked in a lilting British accent. Clearly, he wasn’t from the island, which meant he was not part of the Juniper Landing Super-Popular Crowd. I glanced at his wrist, testing a theory. No leather bracelet. It seemed like it was some kind of local trend, or maybe a cliquey-club-type thing. Maybe there was some secret society of locals, letting everyone else know how excluded they were by wearing the same piece of jewelry. Very mature.

“What was the conversation?” I asked.

He blew out his lips. “Would you believe they were going on and on about the royal couple, asking me if I knew them? Like all British people k

now one another.”

“You don’t?” I joked.

He laughed, and the warm sound of it put me at ease.

“I’m Rory.”

“Aaron,” he said with a slight nod. He moved next to me, surveying the party. On the far side of the fire, two guys were mock-wrestling while a group of girls squealed. Over to my right, a “chug” chant started up as a shirtless dude attempted to do a keg stand. Something I wouldn’t have even recognized if not for a recent exposé about frat hazing on the nightly news. Joaquin and Darcy were among the chanters.

Aaron clucked his tongue. “Don’t you hate these things?”

“So, so much,” I replied. Then I tossed him a teasing grin. “Do your friends Lady Kate and Prince Will do keg stands?”

Aaron let out an exaggerated groan. “At my last party, I had to call the royal guard to come take them away,” he said, his brown eyes dancing. “But I did see you talking to the beautiful people. What’s the deal with the tall, dark drink of water?” he asked, looking Joaquin up and down appreciatively.

I shook my head. “No idea. Not my type.”

“But so mine,” he said, taking a sip of his drink. “They don’t make ’em like that across the pond. Unfortunately, he seems to play for your team, not mine,” he said, flicking a look at my sister, who gripped Joaquin’s arm as she laughed.

“If it makes you feel any better, he kind of seems like a jerk,” I said.

He smirked. “Thanks for that.”

I smiled. “So what part of England are you from?”

“I’m a Birmingham boy, but I’m going to Oxford in the fall.”

“Oxford, wow. So you’re ridiculously smart,” I said.

He shrugged, shaking his head. “Nah. I’m ninth generation so they had to let me in. I’ve decided to study archaeology, much to the chagrin of my literary-minded parents.”

“Archaeology doesn’t sound too shabby to me,” I said.

“What about you? What do you want to study?” He sipped his drink, turned slightly to face me, and planted his feet, as if deciding this was where he wanted to stay, at least for the time being.

“Me?” I put my water bottle down on the cooler, then pulled my braid over my shoulder and started to fiddle with the end. “Science. Medicine, specifically. I want to be an oncologist.”

I wanted to save people like my mom. People who didn’t deserve to die. People whose families didn’t deserve to be left behind. But I figured that was too morbid for party banter.

“Wow. You’ve got your life mapped out. Impressive,” he said. There was a long moment of silence between us, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. We both sipped our drinks. “So, are you on holiday, or—”

I bit the inside of my cheek. “Yeah. We just got here yesterday.”