The lies we tell

The best thing to do was to keep my head down and stay focused on my goals. I only had two: find out what had happened to my dad, and get my degree. Then I was getting as far away from Alstone as I could.

Mind made up, I walked slowly down the steps, Cassius a silent presence next to me. Several girls tried to get his attention, waving and calling his name, but other than giving a few of them blinding smiles and others salacious winks, he shook the attention off and didn’t pause in his stride.

We crossed the large square of grass to the Student Union building, and he left me at the door.

“I’ll see you around.”

“I thought you needed to keep an eye on me?”

“You can’t get into any trouble here. I’ll see you soon.” He raised his hand in a wave and jogged away from me.

Shaking my head, I went to walk into the SU but realised I was almost an hour early to meet Kinslee. I glanced around me. Ah. The library. I headed over to the tall modern structure, which somehow fit in with the old stone buildings, even though it was completely different in design. The doors swooshed open gently as I neared the entrance, students hurrying past me in both directions. I entered the large, cool foyer and swiped my student ID card to get into the library itself.

Once inside, I found myself immediately relaxing. There was something about a library that always made me feel so at home. Maybe it was because I’d spent countless hours in libraries with my dad. Being a professor, his entire life had involved being surrounded by books. I had vivid memories of being left in a cosy corner of a library, a pile of books in front of me, while he lost himself in hours of research.

I spent the next half an hour familiarising myself with the layout of the library and decided the top floor was my favourite. It was so quiet up here—most students seemed to be staying on the busier lower levels, and I could see over the entire campus all the way to my apartment building from the floor-to-ceiling windows that spa

When it neared twelve o’clock, I made my way into the SU, stopping for a moment to check the sign-up lists for the university clubs and societies. As Alstone was a small specialist business school, there wasn’t a huge range of choices, but I noticed a couple that caught my eye, and I snapped some photos with my phone camera so I could look at them in more detail once I was back at the apartment.

Making my way into the large cafeteria, I sca

“Is this seat taken?” I glanced up from my plate to see Cassius and Zayde drop into a chair either side of me.

“Be my guest,” I muttered sullenly. “More orders from His Highness?”

Cassius snorted in amusement. “I dare you to say that to his face.”

“Maybe I will.”

Zayde stared at me silently, his sharp gaze u

I felt hot, jealous stares boring into me as girls seated around us took in the fact that I, the new girl, was sitting with two of the Four. Like I’d had a say in the matter.

“Is Caiden going to grace us with his presence?”

“Miss me already, babe?” The mocking voice came from right behind me, and I jumped, placing my hand on my heart.

“Told you she was jumpy.” I turned to see Weston gri

They slung themselves into chairs opposite me, placing their trays down, and just like that, the table was full.

“Hey. My friend needs somewhere to sit.”

“She can sit right here.” Cassius pointed to his lap.

“What if my friend’s a man?”

“Hey, I don’t discriminate.” He winked at me, and I rolled my eyes, noticing Kinslee standing in line to pay for her lunch.

“Look, she’s here now. Can someone please find a chair? I’m going to have to sit somewhere else, otherwise.” I could feel my blood pressure rising. Why couldn’t I have a simple lunch with my friend, in peace?

Everyone looked towards Caiden. “Calm down, Snowflake.” His voice was dangerously soft. “Cass, get her friend a chair, will ya.”

“Snowflake?” I looked at him across the table, puzzled.

“Yeah. You know. Winter. Snowflake.” He gave me another disdainful look, as if I should be able to read his mind so he didn’t have to waste time explaining.

“Original,” I commented with yet another eye roll. At this rate, I was going to be needing an appointment with an optician to check my eyes weren’t being permanently damaged with all the eye rolling going on around these boys.

“Appropriate nickname.” Zayde’s low drawl came from my right, and I turned to stare at him, raising a brow. “This university is full of snowflakes, always taking offence at the slightest thing, thinking they’re so fucking special and unique. You should fit right in with them.”

“Fu

Turning away from him, I waved at Kinslee, and she waved back, then frowned when she took in the people that were sitting with me. She quickly shrugged it off and sashayed over to us with her usual confident strut.

“Well, well, well, Winter. You didn’t tell me you’d found me some eye candy to look at while I eat my lunch.”

“That’s because I didn’t know they’d be here.” I injected my voice with as much sarcasm as I could muster.

Everyone ignored me, talking amongst themselves. Kinslee mouthed are you okay? and I nodded. I was fine. Just pissed off. Still, if they thought that by following me around everywhere they’d scare me away, or find information they could use against me, they’d be severely disappointed. Nothing was going to deter me from my search for answers.

A tall, curvy redhead dressed in a skimpy black top and tight jeans approached our table, her eyes flicking over me dismissively, a small sneer on her lips, before her focus turned to Caiden. “Hi, Cade.” Her voice was all breathy, and she batted her lashes, pushing her tits into his face.

He smiled up at her, and an irrational stab of jealousy hit me. No, it was hatred. Definitely hatred. She sunk down onto his lap, and he continued to eat his food as if having a gorgeous girl sitting on him during lunch was an everyday occurrence. Maybe it was. I noticed Cassius and Weston exchange knowing glances, and I tried to decipher their expressions.

As the girl wriggled in Caiden’s lap and he put his arm around her waist, I found myself growing more and more irritated. I clenched my fork so tightly that the metal dug into my hand.

Cassius slung an arm around the back of my seat, as Weston engaged Kinslee in a discussion about a film club or something. He moved his head closer to whisper in my ear. “Babe, you’re either jealous, or you want to stab one of them. You need to chill the fuck out, before Caiden notices.”

“Yeah, it’s not jealousy.”

“Right. You want to kill one of them. If it’s Portia, I’m down with it. Fucking psycho bitch,” he muttered, so quietly, I didn’t think he meant for me to hear him.