Paradise Lost (Private 9)

She used her knife to demonstrate the point before digging into her salad.

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I looked around. "And you guys are friends with him?"

"I use the term lightly when it comes to Daniel," Noelle clarified, munching on some greens.

'What? Daniel's cool," West said defensively. "He just has a temper."

"Aw. So cute how you're defending your little lacrosse mentor," Noelle said, giving West a big fat kiss. From across the patio, Dash noticed and blushed, which was, I think, the point of her doing it. I was starting to wonder if there was anyone in this crowd who wasn't jealous of someone else, if anyone was immune to the drama.

"Speaking of lacrosse boys, I'm thinking I might hook up with Graham tonight," Kiran said, glancing over at him as she took a swig of her iced tea.

"Really? Why Graham?" Noelle asked.

Kiran's eyes sparkled. "Because he's the only one left."

"You haven't hooked up with Sawyer," West pointed out.

Kiran, Taylor, and Noelle all laughed.

"What? What's wrong with Sawyer?" I asked.

"Sawyer is the pure one," Taylor explained.

"I don't think he's ever even kissed a girl," Kiran added.

I looked over at Sawyer, who was slumped down in his chair, his book open in front of him. He wore three woven bracelets on his arm, two very tattered, the other a lot newer. "Maybe he likes guys."

"Oh, no," West said. "He's into girls. Trust me. He's just too scared to seal the deal."

"Or too polite," Taylor amended, crunching on some ice from her now empty tea glass.

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Sawyer turned the page in his book and sighed, glancing out at the ocean. He didn't seem quite as stoked to be in St. Barths as the rest of us were. I wondered if he thought he was above all the partying and debauchery, or if he wished he could get involved and didn't know how. Either way, I felt for him. I knew what it was like to be an outsider in a crowd like this.

And it was never fun.

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CHAPTER 13 A FRIENDLY GAME

"That's you, Farm Girl!" Gage shouted as the volleyball arced in my direction.

"I know, jackass," I replied, bumping it forward toward the net.

Graham easily set the ball, and Tiffany jumped up and spiked it into the sand at Taylor's feet. Taylor barely made a play for it, then made an "oops" face and giggled in Upton's direction. Apparently she was more interested in the Upton Game than the volleyball game.

"Yes!" Tiffany and I cheered, slapping hands over our heads. Graham gave me a pat on the back as Gage whooped it up. As if he had anything to do with the point.

Dash hurled the ball under the net and it bounced along the sand, where I stopped it with my foot. I popped it up to my hands and turned my back to him, never once looking him in the eye. How the hell had I ended up on the other side of the net from the last two guys I had

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kissed? Two guys with seriously unresolved relationships with other girls, no less.

Answer? I was the unluckiest chick on the planet.