Chapter Two

Leah

After Darius stormed out, Corvin, Saint and Crue took me out to a local Mexican restaurant where we sat and laughed for hours before the guys dropped me back at my dorm. Settling into my new school has gone smoother than I thought. I expected to have trouble with my roommate but Cody is actually really freaking cool and loves to hang at the beach like me, is on the dance team I just tried out for and doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks of her! The best part though, Cody doesn’t push for answers. When she asked me why I transferred, I clammed up, so she dropped the subject straight away and took me to Starbucks. The week has been a cluster of days with me trying to navigate my way around the new school and finding my place among the hordes of people here.

“What have you got after lunch?” Katie asks from her spot next to me on the picnic table, she is beautiful, legs for days, blue eyes, incredible body and has the blonde poofy Dolly Parton hair going on. Oh, did I mention she is from the south and has that crazy, sexy twang to her voice?

“Calculus.” I groan, making the girls around me pull sour faces. Cody introduced me to her friends on my first day and we all hit it off. It helps that they are on the dance team and has made getting adjusted easier.

“Girl, you are gonna hate it because Mr. Thompson is an ass,” Becca supplies, making me feel even more defeated. I suck at all things numbers unless it’s the counts for a routine.

“He fails everyone!” Cody interjects. I peer across the table at her, trying to gauge if she is joking. When she doesn’t crack a smile, I drop my head to the table and sigh.

“I’m so fucked,” I mumble into the wood, causing the girls to laugh.

“Oh shit, three o’clock. We got incoming!” At the excited tone of Chelsea’s voice I perk up and look toward where she said, then scrunch my face. Turning back to the girls, I find them all sitting straighter and pushing their chests out. Well not all the girls, Cody and Katie seem annoyed that we have incoming.

“There’s my pretty blonde!” I turn to the side and straddle the bench seat as I look up at my brother and his friends. I learnt on my first day that Corv and the others run this place, they are gods amongst us lowly humans. “Gonna introduce us?” Saint teases as he waggles his brows at me, so I throw him a bone.

“Girls meet the guys, guys meet the girls.” Saint narrows his eyes playfully at me before walking around the table and straddling the bench seat behind me and rests his chin on my shoulder. Instead of looking at my brother, my gaze snaps to Darius waiting to see his reaction. It’s stoic as usual. Him and Beck never allow you to know more than they want you to.

“Get the fuck away from my sister, asshole!” Corvin snarls as he grips Saint over my shoulder and hauls him away from me by his shirt. The girls, gasp gaining my attention. When I look at them, I find their shocked, almost gleeful gaze on me. I look to Cody for an answer but she just rolls her eyes. Unhelpful much?

“You never told us Corvin was your brother?” Becca says in the most high-pitched tone, that I’m sure she thinks is sultry and alluring. My face contorts and this is the part that I hate and the reason I chose to go to a different college. Whenever any of the girls find out that Corv and I are siblings they flock to my feet and pretend to be my friend just to use me to get close to my brother.

“Must have slipped my mind,” I mutter as I turn back toward my brother and his friends, shooting him a look that I hope conveys fuck off .

“Don’t look at me like that!” Corv growls. All that earns him is a raised brow from me, prompting him to get to the point of his unwanted visit. “Fine. I came to see if you wanted to come to a party with us tonight?” The moment the words fly from my brother’s mouth, I feel his gaze on me, burning a path down my body and bringing it to life like no other can.

“I do–”

Before I can finish declining his offer, Becca, Chelsea, Molly and Zara all agree on my behalf. It grates on my nerves but I don’t want to cause trouble on my first week here and alienate myself from the friends I’ve just made, all because they have the hots for my brother and his friends.

“Cool, well come round about eight and we’ll leave from ours,” Corvin states. I flick my gaze to Darius as I answer my brother.

“I thought no hoes were allowed at your house?” Darius’s eyes spark with vexation telling me I just poked the bear. I feel the stares of the others on me but my focus is on the tall, dark, handsome man before me. It should scare the hell out of me but it doesn’t, all that look does is excite me.

“He didn–” Before Corv can finish speaking, Darius cuts in.

“It seems this hoe is exempt,” he snaps before storming off toward the gym. Beckett follows after him without saying a word. Corv sighs and shoots me a sad smile before racing off after his best friend. He has no idea what happened between me and Darius. Corvin just thinks Darius and I hate each other, that wasn’t always the case though.

“Don’t mind him, babe. He’s just pissed because he has blue balls,” Crue says as he shoots me a wink, then he and Saint follow after the others calling out that they’ll see me later. I can’t pull my eyes off Darius until he disappears inside the gym. How can somebody who used to make you feel like the center of their world change in an instant and make you feel like shit beneath their boots?

“Guurrrlll, we need the goss…” I tune out Becca and the others as they all harp on about what they are going to wear and who they plan to suck and fuck. I don’t plan on taking them with me. Katie and Cody are more than welcome because unlike the others, they aren’t panting like bitches in heat ready to get some meat between their legs.

When will women learn that desperation isn’t attractive?

The girls weren’t kidding. Mr. Thompson is an ass!

The asshole chewed me out because I wasn’t up to his level of where he says I should be. He didn’t even cut me some slack when Garrett, a friend of Katie’s that she introduced me to on my second day, tried to defend me. Instead of him listening to what Garrett and I were trying to tell him he ordered that Garrett be my tutor! Which is why I am now sitting in the library at five p.m. on a Friday night instead of being in my dorm getting ready to hang with my brother and friends.

“I know this must not be how you envisioned your Friday night.” I shake my head to clear my thoughts and smile sheepishly at Garrett. He has been nothing but helpful and I would even go as far as to say kind to me, when I have done nothing but be in a sour mood.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I guess I just didn’t expect my first Friday night here at CHU to be spent–”

“With me?” Guilt washes over me.

“That’s not what I meant.” He begins to pack up his books as he speaks.

“It’s okay, I get it. You probably have a boyfriend you have a date with and the last thing you want to be doing is staring at my ugly mug.” I balk at him, Garrett may be a lot of things but ugly sure as hell isn’t one of them. He has this whole football player cross surfer guy look going on. With blond hair with tinges of brown through it, shorter on the sides and long enough on the top for you to run your fingers through, and eyes that are filled with life and laughter. They are an odd color of blue, but with flecks of green throughout them. It doesn’t hurt that even through his shirt you can see he has a killer body. Reaching across the table I place my hand on top of his, halting his movements, his gaze cutting to mine immediately.

“I’m sorry if I made you feel that way.” Some of the tension in his shoulders eases at my words. “No, I don’t have a boyfriend but I do have a brother and I promised him I would hang out with him and his friends tonight.” His face lights up and I cringe internally at the hopeful look in his eyes. I may be single but that doesn’t mean I am emotionally available. I haven’t been available to anyone in a really long time.

“Well in that case, let’s save studying for tomorrow?” A smile breaks out on my face as I eagerly nod and start to pack my things away. “We can do this test Mr. Thompson gave you tomorrow as well so then we can chill on Sunday and not have to worry until Tuesday.” I beam across the table at him.

“I knew I liked you!” I declare, a tinge of pink hits his cheeks and I have to duck my gaze, not wanting to see the look I know will be in his eyes. I don’t want to give him the wrong impression but I also don’t want to be presumptuous so I decide to leave things as they are and wave goodbye to him as I make my way back to my dorm to meet Katie and Cody. No sooner do I walk through the door and the girls are on me to hurry my ass up and shower so we can get ready, have some pre-drinks and head over to my brother’s place. We may be underage but this is college and who the hell doesn’t have a fake ID these days?

After showering and changing into a pair of denim cut offs, I pull on a camo, thin-strapped singlet that is longer in the back and short in the front, short enough to show off the bottom of my toned stomach. Years of dance have been so good to my body and that is the only reason I’m excited for tonight. I can’t wait to feel the music and dance to the beat. I slip my feet into my low cut Chucks, dab a bit of lip gloss on my full lips and apply a tiny bit of mascara that I know will make my green eyes pop. I give myself one last once-over in the mirror before deeming myself ready. One thought lingers in my head as I follow the girls out of our room and head for the lifts.

I wonder if Darius will be there?