“Stupid?”
I startle and look up at Aiden, who’s finished my thoughts for me. The corner of his mouth is tilted up in a smirk as we fall into step beside each other.
“Did I say that out loud?” My face heats up.
“Mumbled. But I still caught it.”
“I’m guessing you got an A?”
He shrugs in response.
“Yeah, me too. Amelia Collins? More like Amelia Calculus because I just love it so much.”
He smirks one more time before walking down a different corridor without so much as a good-bye. Weird. I get to chemistry and sit beside Charlotte, who’s talking to Chase sitting behind her.
“How was the calculus test? I have it fifth period,” asks Chase.
“Oh, just peachy. I’m thinking of majoring in calculus in university because I just love it so much.”
“Whoa, I didn’t order a basket of sarcasm with a side of sass. Did you, Charlie?”
Charlotte glares at him. “Damn it, Chase. How many times do I have to tell you? Call me Char or Charlotte or don’t call me anything all!”
“Whoa.” Chase’s eyes widen. “Maybe I did order the sarcasm and sass, with extra snarkiness on top.”
The three of us walk to the cafeteria together after class, and I run right into Annalisa.
“Hey!” she says to all of us. “This is perfect. You just made hunting you down so much easier.”
She grabs my wrist and drags me toward her table, but not before I grab Charlotte. If I’m going down, she’s going down with me. When we get to the table, Annalisa shoves me down in a seat and sits in front of me. Charlotte’s on my right and Chase settles in on hers. Julian’s already there.
“Hey, why weren’t you in calculus second period?” I ask Julian when I remember that he has calculus class with me and Aiden.
“Skipped,” he confessed. “How was it by the wa—”
“Don’t!” interrupts Chase, causing us all to look at him. “It’s a touchy subject.”
I scoff and pull out my Nutella sandwich, carefully unwrapping the plastic wrap. I’ve been looking forward to this chocolate hazelnut goodness all day—it was the only thing that kept me from breaking down during calculus. Who doesn’t like Nutella? Do they put drugs in that spread? Because I am seriously hooked on it. While I’m savoring this godlike sandwich, Aiden and Mason arrive at the table. Mason plops down in the seat on my left, and Aiden sits on his left, beside Annalisa.
“What’s a touchy subject?” Mason inquires.
Julian starts, “Amelia and calcu—”
“Don’t!” yells Chase.
“It’s fine, Chase. Everything is good as long as I have my Nutel—” I gasp and almost choke on air.
Mason has just reached out his hand, snatched up the other half of my Nutella sandwich, and shoved it in his mouth.
“You—I—but—Nutella?” I stutter, unable to even comprehend such a heinous act.
Mason carries on as if he didn’t just steal the one thing bringing me joy, finishing the sandwich half in two bites. “Oh, the calculus test? Yeah, I have that fifth period, totally didn’t study. Wow, Amelia, that was a good sandwich.”
“But—but—Nutella?”
“Use your big girl words, Amelia.” Aiden smirks.
Oh, so today he’s deciding to be sociable? Of course. He can’t resist commenting on my personal torment.
Mason holds up his hands. “Whoa, retract the claws, k-bear, I didn’t know your sandwich was sacred. I’ll take you out for ice cream today after school to make up for it. My treat. They have a Nutella flavor!”
Stupid boys.
“If they don’t have Nutella flavor, you’re dead.”
If it was possible for someone to look relieved and worried at the same time, that would be Mason’s facial expression. Grabbing my wallet, I get in line to buy something else to eat since I only got half a sandwich.
Mason comes with me to keep me company. “Are you sure you don’t want my sandwich?”
I give him an incredulous look. You couldn’t pay me enough to eat his sorry excuse of a lunch. I mean, really? Ketchup hastily slapped between two pieces of toast? I almost don’t blame him for stealing half of my mouthwatering Nutella sandwich.
“What? I was in a rush and no one went grocery shopping lately,” he defends his sandwich.
I order chicken fingers from the hot table and move over to the cash register. Mason offers to pay but I shoo him away.
We walk back to the table and when I try to sit down in my seat, someone roughly bumps into me from the side, sitting down instead and causing me to stumble. My innocent chicken fingers go sprawling to the floor. The. Hell? I tear my gaze from my lunch on the floor to my now occupied seat. Sitting where I previously was between Mason and Charlotte is a platinum blond-haired, blue-eyed girl from hell.
Kaitlyn looks at Charlotte sitting beside her and sneers. “Who invited the trash to sit with us?”
Everyone but Aiden wears a shocked expression. His face is blank, clear of emotion. I look from Kaitlyn, who pulls out her lemon water like it’s just any other day, to my tender chicken fingers on the ground, and back. Charlotte frowns at the trash comment and glances at me. She’s slowly standing when Chase grabs her wrist and forces her to stay put.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he growls at Kaitlyn.
“I’m enjoying my lunch period with my friends,” she says, as if it’s the most obvious answer in the world.
“What the hell? We’re not your—” Mason is cut off when Kaitlyn spots her second-in-command, Makayla, and shouts at her from across the cafeteria. “Over here, Kay!”
Stupidly, I’m still standing there trying to comprehend what’s going on. Did she actually just steal my seat as I was sitting down, make me drop my chicken fingers, and then not even acknowledge me?
Makayla arrives at the table and Kaitlyn glances back at Charlotte. “Ugh, you’re still here? I thought you knew that peasants don’t sit with royalty. Move, peasant.”
Unlike Charlotte, Annalisa lives for confrontation. Aiden is about to open his mouth when Annalisa beats him to it.
“Okay, I think we’ve had enough of this,” Annalisa snaps. She narrows her eyes at Kaitlyn. “I get that you feel like you have some sort of claim on Aiden since you screwed him that one time—”
Aiden interrupts her with a growl, but she turns her burning gaze to him. “Oh, now you talk? Shut up, Aiden.” She looks back at Kaitlyn without missing a beat and continues. “As I was saying, you think you belong here. You don’t. Get over it. We don’t need your attitude and quite frankly, I think we’re all sick of hearing your grating voice all the time. Aiden’s made it more than clear that he wants nothing to do with you. So run along to your little cult followers and stay the hell away from us.”
“Shut up, Annalisa.” Makayla defends Kaitlyn like a loyal dog.
Kaitlyn’s calculating eyes narrow at Annalisa across the table from her. “Stay away from you? I don’t want to be anywhere near you. Why are you even here? In fact, why do you even bother coming to school at all? Everyone knows you’ll just end up like your pathetic moth—”