Chapter 2

AUREL

I've been holding the same cup for an hour so people stop handing me new ones.

"Hey dude, great game," some guy that I've never met before says while shaking my hand. "You really were fire out there."

"Thanks," I smiled, soaking in the praises as the room erupted in my chants. Everyone except a certain purple head.

I don't think I've seen her before but the frown on her face intrigues me. It sits on her face and piercing blue eyes call out to me. She's in a red dress that shows a good portion of her thighs and boobs but she keeps trying to drag it to her feet.

"You're doing that thing again," Finn says, dropping down onto the arm of the couch beside me.

"What thing?" I turn to my best friend and housemates. One of the perks of being an only child is that you get absolutely anything you want including a mini mansion.

"The thing where you smile at everybody but your eyes go completely dead. It's honestly kind of disturbing," he sips his drink. "But somehow people eat it up." He nods at the beer pong table across the room like it owes him money. "You know you've said 'great game' to like nine different people in the last twenty minutes?"

"You're counting now?"

"Somebody has to keep track of how weird you're being."

I don't argue, because he's probably right. I take a sip just so I have something to do with my face when the thoughts of my worst nightmare hits me.

I've got a Con Law paper due in eleven days and I haven't written a single word. I read the same forty pages three times last weekend and none of it stuck. The words just kind of slide off before they mean anything, and I can't tell a single person that, because everybody already decided a long time ago that I'm the pre-law guy.

My dad told my uncle who in turn told half the church and once they knew, my dad threatened to cut me off if I mess up. A threat that hunts me in my sleep.

I cannot survive without my trust fund, the thoughts of getting a job is something I cannot wrap my head around so I have to figure out a way for me to pass this stupid course.

"You should break up with Elise," Finn says and I nearly choke on the beer.

"Where did that come from?"

"You heard me, she's too toxic for you."

"We're at a party, man."

"That's exactly why it's a good time to bring it up. You can't turn it into a big dramatic thing when you can barely hear me." He shrugs like he's done me a favor. "Look, she's been talking about you like you two already broke up. It's all 'Aurel used to be more fun' and 'we're figuring things out.' Nobody says they're figuring things out unless they already figured it out."

I don't say anything to that, because the thing about Finn is that he reads people before anybody else does, and he's basically never wrong, and I hate it.

Elise and I have been off since September, I just never actually did anything about it. It's easier not to. As long as you don't say the words out loud, you don't have to be the one who ended it.

The last time we broke up, my parents were already filing for divorce and the thought of being alone scared the shit out of me.

"It's complicated," I tell him.

"It's really not. You just don't want to be the bad guy, so you're waiting around for her to do it for you."

That's a little too accurate as his words find their landing in my heart so I stand up. "I'm gonna go get some air."

"You've still got a full cup." He mocks.

I set it down on the speaker and turn to leave, and that's when I see her again.

This time, she's standing by the kitchen doorway. She's got one shoulder against the door frame, this look on her face like her mind is a hundred miles away, and it takes me a second to figure out what's actually strange about her.

She's bored.

Everyone in this house is trying so hard to look like they're having the time of their lives, and she's just standing there, openly bored out of her mind, not even trying to hide it.

"Who's that?" I ask, pointing in her direction.

"Oh now you need my help?"

"C'mon man, I'm serious."

He cranes his neck. "I believe she's the newest addition to your girlfriend's team."

"I should go talk to her, you know introduce the star of the show," I brag. "I don't think she has had a tour of campus yet."

"You fucking bastard," he scoffed. "Out of all the girls that literally throw themselves at you, you decide to pick the one that looks like she has zero fucks to give. You are insane."

"What?" I grin. "I love a good challenge. Besides, no one can resist the charm of Aurel Castell."

I turn my attention back to her just in time to see the mean look she gives to a guy that's obviously trying to hit on her.

I've never seen anybody turn down a free drink like they're shooing away a bug.

"Don't," Finn says. "You already promised your mum a drama free semester."

"Don't what? I'm not doing anything."

He finishes the last of his drink. "You've got a girlfriend, dude. You better break things off with your crazy girlfriend before you drag another girl to this. Remember last time?"

How could I forget? Elise had turned to a feral beast the last time she heard I was seeing someone else. She even tried to harm herself and her mum called begging me not to hurt her daughter because she was mentally ill.

But because the Castell men act before they think, my legs are already moving before I've decided anything.

She watches me come the whole way over, and she doesn't smile or fix her hair or even try to push off the door frame like most girls would.

She just watches, like she's already bored of whatever I'm about to say.

"Hey, Red."I say flashing my perfect set of teeth.

She blinks at me, slowly. "What did you just call me?"

"Your dress." I gesture at it, which doesn't help, because now I'm a guy gesturing at a girl's dress. "It's red. I like it."

"That's the worst thing anyone has said to me all week, and I had a conversation with Elise Beaumont this morning."

I laugh before I can stop myself, which surprises both of us. Even though she doesn't laugh back, something in her face moves.

"You're on the swim team," I say. "With Elise right?"

"Yes. Your girlfriend has made it her mission to remind me about that every day."

"I'm Aurel." I extend a hand that she doesn't take.

"I'm aware of that too." She looks at me for a second longer, and I get the strange feeling she's deciding whether I'm worth one more sentence. "Everyone in this house is aware of that. They've been chanting it for an hour."

And that's when her eyes leave me.

They go over my shoulder, somewhere toward the far end of the room, and her whole face changes.

I watch as the bored thing drops off completely. She looks, for one second, like a person who just saw something she wants.

I've been talking to her for two minutes but she hasn't looked at me like that once.

I turn around to see what she's looking at but don't catch who it is because the room is crowded tonight.

"Hey Red, who has your attention when I'm here trying to talk to you?" I asked, still trying to find who she has her eyes on.

When I turn back, she's already pushing off the door frame.

"It was nice meeting you, Aurel," she says, in a voice that means it was not particularly nice and then she's walking past me, toward whatever it was.

For the first time in my life I walked towards the room for a girl and she walked toward someone else.