WHO ARE YOU?

NORA’S POINT OF VIEW.

If the kiss was meant to brand me with Asher’s essence, it worked. Because by the time we pulled apart, the entire student body had its eyes entirely on us….or rather, on me. I was no longer Nora Macie, daughter of the housekeeper in the home of a wealthy family; I was now one of them……a fraud nonetheless. I gulped as I tried to avoid their stares. Asher didn’t make it easier. He held onto me as if he wanted them to see even more that I was his.

I could still feel him, and the force of his kiss… my first kiss. When we’d had sex six months ago, he made sure not to kiss me, but now….he’s taken that from me.

My lips tingled, swollen and buzzing like they’d been struck by lightning, and my heart refused to slow down with its frantic beats. I was painfully aware of how tightly his arm remained locked around my waist, how his thumb drew slow, possessive circles into my bare skin as if he owned the right to touch me.

This wasn’t part of the plan. 

At least… not the way it felt.

“You did great,” Asher murmured, leaning close enough that only I could hear him over the pounding bass as the DJ played away from his booth. People still hadn't stopped staring, gawking at us as if we were stars from some famous soap opera… at this point, we probably are. His lips brushed the shell of my ear in that same deliberately intimate way he did six months ago. My skin tingled from his touch. “See? Still breathing… so be a good girl for me, and relax.”

“I hate you,” I whispered back, my voice shaking despite my effort to steady it, a fake smile on my lips mirroring his.

He laughed softly in a dangerous way, almost as if he enjoyed every second I squirmed under his touch, and their staring. “No, bunny. You don’t.”

Before I could argue, someone collided with us, jolting me forward. Asher tightened his grip instantly, shielding me with his body, his expression snapping from lazy confidence to lethal warning in half a second. “Watch where you’re going,” he snapped at the guy, his tone sharp, making the poor boy mutter a shaky apology and disappear into the crowd.

That was when I realized it.

People weren’t just staring anymore.

They were fully watching with their phones out. I noticed Serena, the queen of the school’s gossip blog, typing away at her phone while her minions filmed Asher, and I… fuck, I'm about to be on the blog again. The last time I was there, it was because they were laughing at my, or rather, Nora Macie’s shoes. I’d spent a butt load of my savings on mom’s hearing aid, so I couldn’t afford to get shoes. I’d decided to use my old shoes, only to see pictures of them blasted across the school’s gossip column less than five minutes after I got off the school bus. The phrase, not so Cinderella, accompanied the image, and from then on, I was called that, no matter how hard I tried to hide from everyone, and I hated it.

This time around, I wonder what she’s going to say about Nora Feathers.

Girls whispered behind their manicured fingers, gathering in their cliques to gossip while the guys openly gawked, their eyes sliding over me like I was something new, something shiny….I was no longer the unfuckable Cinderella shoes girl. It was almost funny what Asher managed to do in less than ten minutes with one kiss. I was now something worth wanting. 

"Look at her shoes..." 

"I heard her dad owns half of Sydney..." 

"What about Lydia? Is she just going to let this happen?" Someone whispered from the far right corner of me. 

“I just searched her. I’ve never seen her at school at all. Is she a new student?” 

“I smell drama. We both know Asher belongs to Lydia, and she doesn’t share….ever…..not even this new girl named Nora Feathers is going to change that. We just have to watch as Lydia obliterates her in front of all of us.” They snickered, and for a moment, it got to me as my straight posture cracked, but before I could fall even lower, Asher grabbed me even tighter, but not to hurt, just to keep a firm hold as he pulled me to stand straighter.

"Stop trembling," Asher snapped, his hand rubbing slowly on my exposed lower back due to the backless dress he’d forced me into. His palm was heavy, hot, and sent a jolt of electricity straight to my gut that I hated myself for feeling. "You’re the daughter of a wealthy merchant from Australia. You’ve attended private galas since you were in diapers, dealt with even meaner people than these from your very elite former school overseas. Wealth is something you have lived with all your life, so stop acting as if this fazes you. You’re rich enough to feed a third-world country ten times. Act like it."

"I've attended galas as a waitress, Asher, under my mother’s arm because I had to help her serve tables, and the so-called wealthy people you say I am a part of. I cannot act like who I'm not….especially when I have never lived the life you have forced me to lie into," I hissed, trying to shove his hand away. He didn't budge. His fingers dug deeper into my skin, a silent reminder of who was in charge. "The second I open my mouth, they'll know I'm a fraud."

"Then don't talk. Let me do the talking. You just look pretty and look at me like you want to devour me." He commanded, a smug smile on his face. Everyone still stared at us, not sensing the tension as we maintained the same dreamy smiles to keep face. "Head up, bunny," Asher murmured, his voice dropping into that low, silky tone that made me drop my panties for him once before. "The lions are hungry." I gulped.

I’d wanted attention from James… but now, I have that of the whole school; I hadn’t known it would feel like being hunted.

Before I could utter a word, I heard the voice of the one person I hadn’t wanted to speak with. She clapped slowly, her minions of five girls who looked almost exactly like her gathering around with sharp eyes glaring at me while the guys made taunting noises. 

“Well….if it isn’t Asher Collins,” Lydia said, her voice buttery as she walked over to the center where Asher and I stood. “So this is her,” Lydia said calmly. “The mystery girl you left me for.” They broke up?....when….I thought Asher said she knows about the fake dating plan…when the hell did they break up? I pinched his arm slightly at the news, only for the idiot to pull me much closer to him as if he didn’t have a damn explanation to give me later.

Asher’s arm stayed firm around me. “Lydia. Didn’t think you were coming.” He flashed her a smug smile, but she didn’t appear amused. She glared at him with a different kind of look I’d never seen from her. Her voice was loud enough for everyone to hear, and the DJ no longer played the music, so she might as well have had a speaker to her mouth from the way her voice echoed off the walls.

“I wasn’t,” she replied sweetly. “But then I heard you’d replaced me in record time.” And all of a sudden, her gaze snapped back to mine, and with a hateful expression as if she'd wished the floors would swallow me up, she hissed out a question, flashing me a condescending glare as if I were beneath her feet. “What’s your name?”

I swallowed, trying to keep the tremble and fear out of my voice. “Nora.” She didn’t say anything, so there was a long pause, yet just when I thought she wouldn’t say anything else, she added.

“Nora, what?” There was a sick, joyful glint in her eyes as she smirked at me, almost as if she knew something I didn’t.

Every instinct screamed at me to freeze. To fold. To disappear. To run far away from the crazy rich kids of Washington, D.C.

Asher answered for me before I could utter a word. “Feathers.”

Lydia raised a perfectly shaped brow on her very smooth, shiny skin. “Feathers,” she repeated. “Funny. My family deals with PR, and we’re acquainted with every wealthy family in Washington, but for some reason, I’ve never heard of your family.”

“They travel,” Asher said smoothly, answering for me again, and I didn’t know whether to feel grateful or angry. “A lot.” With that answer, she studied him for a long second, then smiled even wider. “Of course they do.”

Her attention returned to me, sharp as a blade. “You’re very brave, you know, for wearing red while having a body like that.” The jab came just as I expected….this was why I didn’t like vein visible. The rich kids of Riverbrooke High were spoiled, and they never failed to place someone beneath them.

“I…”

“She’s with me,” Asher interrupted me, his tone dropping as though it was a warning. “That’s all that matters, Lydia, so watch your tone.” 

The air between them crackled to the point where everyone could feel the tension in the air pressing down on us. Lydia laughed lightly, and it made all of them breathe easier….except me….she unsettled me still. “Relax. I’m not upset, Asher….it was just an observation, darling.”

I didn’t believe her for a second.

“In fact,” she continued, lifting her glass, “I think it’s… refreshing. Seeing you try something new. We should toast to that.” She downed the entire glass of champagne in one go, and with a harsh swallow, her eyes flicked to me again. “Enjoy the spotlight while it lasts, Nora Feathers….”

Then she turned and disappeared into the crowd.