“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 grinning at me, and Caiden, standing next to him, staring at me with icy disdain. How could they be related? Their personalities were as different as night and day.
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.”
“Funny. That’s what they say about you four.” I gave him a huge fake smile, and he curled his lips in a snarl, baring his teeth at me.
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.
My eyes narrowed as I glared at Caiden. At this point the girl, Portia, had her arms clasped around his neck, and she was kissing his cheek as he sat, an amused, slightly mocking expression on his face as he watched me growing angrier and angrier. I tore my eyes away, and I saw salvation.
Or more accurately, I saw James Granville.
Flying out of my chair before any of the Four could react, I made a beeline for his table.
“James.”
“Winter.” He smiled up at me, a genuine, pleased smile, and I felt like crying. At least there was one man here who was normal, who didn’t want to play games with me or make my life miserable.
“Winter? What’s wrong?” He stood up and tugged me into his arms. I wrapped my arms around him, letting his comforting embrace soothe me.
“Nothing. It’s just nice to see a friendly face, that’s all.”
He stepped back, looking down at me with concern. “First-day nerves?”
“Something like that,” I muttered.
“It’ll get better. You’re bound to find it tough coming in a year later than everyone else, when friendships have already been established. Stick it out, though. Things will improve.”
“I hope so,” I sighed, glancing back over to the table I’d left. The Four were all staring at me, with varying levels of hostility. Kinslee was staring between them and me, her expression helpless. As I watched, Caiden shot me another icy glare, then lowered his head deliberately to the girl on his lap, nuzzling her neck. A tiny, frustrated sigh escaped before I could stop it. Why was I so affected by him?
“Cavendish, huh?” James looked at me with a mix of resentment and sympathy in his expression. “I wouldn’t waste your time with him. He’ll discard you once he’s had his way.”
“Caiden doesn’t like me. And I don’t like him. And you know what? Funnily enough, he said something similar about you.”
James laughed. “I bet he did. The difference between me and Cavendish is I treat women with respect. I like to stay friends with anyone I sleep with, and if we’re both lucky enough, maybe we’ll take things further again.” He winked at me, and I laughed.
“I’d better get back. I don’t want to leave Kinslee alone for too long.”
As I turned to walk away, he called me back. “Winter? I think you’re wrong about him not liking you. He looked at me like he wanted to take me down a dark alley and beat the shit out of me when we were talking just now.”
I shook my head. “No. It’s all part of his game. He has it in for me, and I don’t know why. To be honest, you’re better off not being friends with me. Apparently, he’s declared I’m ‘off limits’”—I accompanied my words with another eye roll—“and I don’t want to give him a reason to cause trouble with you.”
“I’m not worried,” he assured me, and I raised a brow at him, unconvinced.
“If you say so. Anyway. Thanks for…being there, I guess. See you around?”
“You can count on it.” He smiled, sitting back down, and I made my way back to the table to join the others.