Savage Royals (Boys of Oak Park Prep 1)

I hunkered down in my dorm to study, spending most of my free time there, but there was another reason I was avoiding the Princes, if I was honest with myself.

That kiss.

I didn’t know quite what to make of it, or what to do about it. The kiss itself had been amazing, but in the aftermath, I really didn’t know what it meant. Cole and I had kissed twice now, and the first time, he’d used it to hurt me, to twist a fucking dagger in my heart that’d wrecked me.

This kiss hadn’t felt the same at all, but my self-preservation instincts still told me not to trust it.

Not to believe the lie of how good his lips had felt.

Not to get attached.

But that didn’t stop me from replaying it in my head. Over and over.

Neither of us mentioned it though, and I was almost certain he hadn’t told the other guys. If Finn had known, I definitely would’ve heard about it. That boy couldn’t keep any thought or feeling to himself for more than two seconds.

Each of our midterms was two hours long, and they were staggered throughout the week. I wrote down the name of each class in block letters in my notebook and took vicious joy in crossing them out with a big red sharpie as I knocked out each one.

By the time I emerged into the bright afternoon sunshine on Friday, my brain felt like mush. Finn was waiting for me outside Craydon Hall, and he wrapped an arm around me as he escorted me back toward my dorm.

“You ready for tomorrow?” he asked.

“Yeah. What time are we leaving?”

“Probably like 11:30.”

Elizabeth Thomas’s parents were in Spain for half the year, so she’d invited a bunch of kids to spend part of Spring Break at her house, which was about two hours up the coast.

I was actually kind of excited, although nerves still jostled in my stomach. Adena and her friends were still bitchy and rude to me, but the rest of the student body had become welcoming and friendly. That overt friendliness still freaked me out a little, and I found myself hiding behind the Princes sometimes, using them to deflect would-be hangers on. They were better at dealing with that shit than I was.

But they’d all be there, and even if Adena would be too, I felt confident I could handle her. Plus, I needed a break. It’d been a long time since I’d actually been able to take time off on school holidays instead of just picking up extra shifts at the diner, and my body felt like it was revolting, demanding a little rest and relaxation after the years of stress I’d put it through.

Finn sighed as we rounded the corner of Hammond Hall, and I glanced up at him.

“Rough midterms?”

?

?Yeah.” He looked thoroughly disgruntled. “You could say that.”

“You know, Finn, if you ever want help studying, I’d be happy to do it,” I offered, craning my neck to look up at him.

I thought he might smile down at me with his lazy grin like he usually did, but instead, I felt his body stiffen next to mine.

“Um. Yeah. Thanks, Legs. Maybe.” He stopped walking abruptly, his arm slipping away from me as I continued forward. When I turned toward him, he was already backing away, his jaw clenching slightly. “I gotta get back, but I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah? We’ll come get you. 11:30.”

“Uh… okay.” I shrugged vaguely, watching as he turned and headed for his dorm.

That was fucking weird.

He wasn’t one of those guys who had a hard time with a girl being smarter than him, was he? Not that I was necessarily smarter—I just knew he’d struggled with finals last semester too, and if he needed help studying, or even a study buddy, I’d wanted him to know I was available.

Maybe I’d hit a nerve somehow without meaning to though.

I shook my head as I continued on to the Wastelands alone. Even though they’d become generally less dickish, these fucking Princes could drive a girl out of her mind with their quirks and secrets.

Packing took about an hour as I laid things out on my bed, mixing and matching various combos. I threw my bikini and a pair of flip flops—two things I’d never owned before I moved to California—into the bag too, and then spent the rest of the night watching stupid comedies on my laptop.

Jacqueline texted me, inviting me to stay with them over the holiday. I told her I couldn’t come for the whole week, but I agreed to stop by for a few days before school started back up.