I
lay on my bed wide awake since twelve A.M. this morning. I had been dreading going to school for the past few hours and was completely horrified to face Grayson.
My housekeepers come up to bring my uniform up as I groan, “Ms.
Adrianna, you’re going to have to get up.”
I sat up taking a blueberry from the plate she held out for me. “Why can’t I be homeschooled?”
Ellen smiles while bringing out my Prada bag, “Because you love being in charge in school.”
“They are just afraid of me. They don’t even like me.” I get up from my bed and finally walking into the bathroom to brush my teeth.
I took a shower and made sure to do my whole skin care routine, and applied little make up, I could tell I wasn’t going to like today’s plans.
“Julius is waiting outside for you, and don’t forget your father will be home today.”
I roll my eyes, “It doesn’t matter, I’ll be out of the house tonight.” Ellen interrupts, “Unless, Mr. Prince will be picking you up today?”
“No, he will not be. Make sure he doesn’t breach the premises unless I tell you he will be here. Keep an eye on the back door.”
I was compelled to absolutely shield myself away from Grayson and his antics. He made it perfectly clear that he didn’t want anything real from this fake relationship so it makes sense that he shouldn’t be allowed into my house.
“Tell Julius I’m on my way down.”
Ellen nods as I take a deep breath, pulling out my phone and calling Margo.
“Hey babe,” She greets as I make my way down my staircase. “You need to help me.”
“How about, Hey Margo! I’m so glad you answered! Good morning to you too!” She exclaimed.
“No time for nonsense, I’ve been feeling like a dumpster the past week and I’m in the mood to be a bitch today.”
“And you need my help, why?” She sounded concerned and it only made me smile even more.
“You have my back up phone, right?” “Well, yes.”
“You remember all those guys who asked me out?”
“Do you?” She counters as I walk over to the car, opening the door, greeting Julius before taking a seat.
“No, that’s why I’m asking you to tell them all I’m interested.” “Are you?”
“Of course not!” I make a point as she laughs.
Her face settles into a calm expression, “This doesn’t seem like a good idea. Some of these guys hate each other, Anna, I mean they are all alphas in their own categories.”
I smile at the thought because they all have something in common, other than having spectacular taste in women, they all want to be better than Grayson Prince.
What’s a better way to declare you are better than him like taking away his girlfriend? Sorry, fake girlfriend.
“Did you see what Brooks posted?” Margo asks. I roll my eyes, “A football lineup?”
“Says that a psycho punched him in the face and broke his nose,” I smile again, “He deserved it.”
“You did that?”
“For legal reasons, no, I did not.”
I spotted Margo on the phone as she waited for me in the front of the university, “Glad to know you wore your Hangisi Pumps, they look beautiful.”
“You creep! Out of the car!”
I laugh, thanking Julius for the ride and telling him I won’t be needing it for the afternoon, I walk up to Margo who smiles wildly.
I hung up the phone, approaching her, “You finally wear that pair after a month of owning them?”
“Yes, well I forgot I even had them.” Margo expresses, while looking around to see everyone, “You never told me how the talk with Grayson went.”
I walked up the stairs to the Snake pit, sitting since we all had no classes this particular morning, “There was nothing to say.”
“Seriously? Grayson looked pretty pissed when he left.” “Why do you automatically think it was my doing?”
Margo shot me a face that looked like she was being extremely serious. I mean, sure, I tend to piss Grayson off but this time it had nothing to do with me.
I should be the one upset, and I was but I wasn’t going to show I genuinely cared.
“Hey, Margo… You feel like going to a bar tonight?” I smiled. Her eyes shined, “Actually!?”
“I mean why not?”
I prop myself up as Juliette and Verina come over, “Why do you guys look so excited?”
“Margo and I are going to a bar, want to come?”
Verina’s eyes widened, “Oh my god! Of course, I have the perfect outfit planned already!”
“Over my dead body!” Juliette yells at us as we give her a contemplative look.
“J, come on.”
“We can get in trouble, we’re supposed to be studying! Our parents can find out!” Juliette looked stressed and it was the perfect reason we all should go out, but then again, she was always the logical thinker.
“My dad doesn’t care,” I rolled my eyes as she looked at Margo, “Everyone is stressed, and we all have things to drown our sorrows over.”
“Not me! I’m fine!” Juliette sits down angrily.
“Come on glasses, it will be a blast! Besides, we can sit in the VIP section. My father owns all the clubs and bars, I’m sure we will be fine.”
“It’s a school night! And may I remind you that you have to go to your community service thing after-school?”
Margo rolls her eyes, “It will take me like an hour or two for practice and I’m all yours.”
I smile, Margo winks at Verina, “And I have fake IDs just in case.”
Juliette looked like she was about to wave a red flag when she turned to her last reasonable option, “Adrianna, you’re on my side on this right?”
Now, I normally would be, because I hated going out in public and flaunting myself to strangers, but it seems that it piqued my interest over night. I was ready to lose my virginity.
“Now, I could see why I was your best option, but it was my idea.” “You traitor!”
“Yes, but I love you and we need to have a fun time!”
Liam and Chris walk in together as we all quiet down, “Number one rule is not to let Grayson or any of the others know about this.” I whisper while smiling at the boys.
Liam took a seat next to Margo before she moved away from him, “I have an announcement.”
She took a deep breath as Grayson and Neil walked in with angry faces. I tried not to look at Grayson as he calmly sat next to me, placing his hand on my thigh. I shrugged him away, “Professional.” I coughed as he pulled away.
“Yes, but I meant in private. We still have to keep a good act in front of everyone, especially at the pit.” He suggested.
I snatched his hand, “Can you shut up now?” “I sense that you’re still upset with me.” “I’m not upset, I simply don’t care.”
“You don’t look like someone that doesn’t care.”
I grip his hand a bit tighter, “So you can look like you don’t care but I can’t?”
“Fuck you.”
“That’s not something that someone who doesn’t care would say.”
I felt like arguing with Grayson could lead to an ultimate battle that would take forever and it wouldn’t scare us one bit.
But through the mindless sounds or agony of using nagging at each other, “I’m engaged.” My body froze for a moment looking at where the statement came from.
And it led straight to Margo who looked like she finally took a breath of fresh air.
I looked over to Liam who looked like he just got shot a billion times, and suddenly everything went back into regular time, and I swallowed, “What?”
“His name is Ben.” She smiled at me as I got up.
Everyone’s faces were still agape at the news. I couldn’t really understand it myself.
“Ben, as in Benjamin.”
I approached her, “Yes, Benjamin Grimaldi.” Margo looked ecstatic, “He is from a very honorable family that owns a bunch of hospitals and businesses that imports from foreign countries.”
“He sounds like a momma’s boy who gets whatever he wants to me.” Liam grumbles.
Margo shoots him an unbothered smile, “Oh, so like you?”
Liam shoots an irritable look at Margo who looked happy about her current relationship, “Are you happy?”
“Yes, well he can provide, and my family approves of him.”
“I’m happy for you!” I hug her, “But if he hurts you, I’ll kill him,”
Margo laughs, “Is Liam looking?” She mumbles as I roll my eyes taking a look up to Liam who looked like he was about to break the next thing he sees.
“Yes.”
She squeezes me tightly, “Great.” She pulls away.
Juliette and Verina come to hug her as well, but “You’re engaged, like to be married.”
Verina interrupts, “Like ‘Will you be my lawfully wedded husband and wife’ type of married.”
“I feel like it’s what I need. I need commitment in my life. A man that knows what he wants.” She points out as Liam walks away with a scowl.
“Well, then you can’t go to the bar.” I whisper.
She sends me a shocked expression, and her eyes widen, “Nonsense, you guys can meet him there!”
Grayson smirks as Chris and Neil look at him.
Knowingly they all smile at each other, “You think your fiancé can meet us at the game tomorrow?” His eyes gleamed.
“Yeah, sure why not?”
“Who are you guys even playing tomorrow?” “Van Doren.” Neil notes, “Tough offense.”
“I’m sure no one is better than you, Prince.” I look at him as he coughs out.
I lower my eyes to the ground, “Well, everyone knows that the only way you can beat a good offense is a good defense.” Chris mutters.
“Wrong. The way you beat them is to have better defense and offense.” Grayson adds, “No reason to slack off on offense.”
“Your point?” I interrupt.
He rolls his eyes, “If you don’t know by now, Hamilton… You seem to be Liam’s catalyst.”
“What?”
“A catalyst by definition is a person or thing that precipitates an event.” Juliette looks up with a coy smile, “Or do you want a biological definition?”
“No, we’re good.” Neil groans.
“A catalyst for Liam.” She restates as I smile, “So you mean if he shows up at the game, he will…”
“Turn into a fucking monster.” Grayson eagerly interrupts as Margo looked pleased, “Anything to help our hockey team win a game, right Anna?”
She looks at me as I form a confused face, what’s that supposed to mean?
“Oh yeah! Grayson flipping the guy over was fucking crazy.” Neil fist bumps Grayson in the shoulder as I look at him without emotion.
“Talk about catalysts.” Verina laughs as Grayson stays quiet.
“I bet he would’ve done it for anyone.” August pops up as I look at her. My bitch radar had gone off the fucking cement roof.
“But he didn’t.” I smile at her, “He did it for me.”
“Yes, but Grayson likes to show everyone that he’s tough, but at the end of the day he would’ve done it for anyone.”
I sunk into those words, really thought about them, and she was right. Of course, she was right about Grayson. She knew so much about him compared to me. Grayson looked at her longingly and I felt like a damn fool yet again.
It was easier to hate him than try to be friends with him. And like my father said, I should’ve stayed away from him a while ago. And it was my fault for thinking I could handle this fake relationship.
I still believed I could. If someone was prepared to handle Grayson Prince, I knew I was still a willing candidate.
