finish this conversation, but I believe your friends are waiting,” he pointed out, prompting me to peer to my right. Sure enough, Toni was waving her hands wildly, hoping to get my attention.
I glanced up at Paulo again and, somehow, I wasn’t overwhelmed with a sense of how infuriated I was by his presence.
“Well, thanks for not ruining my Saturday,” I joked, grateful I’d get to swim and hangout as planned.
“No problem.” Smiling, he gave a nod. “Thanks in advance for not making me regret it.”
Being shown mercy made me feel moderately guilty for having broken the rules. It also had me reevaluating things. Like how, despite thinking I had them figured out, I had to admit it.
They surprised me a bit today.
Chapter Nine
Noelle
The two sets of eyes locked on me were hard to ignore. Even with Toni talking my ear off while we bobbed in the water, I was aware of them.
My guardians.
Pushing water from her eyes, Toni finally turned to see what had me so preoccupied, and when she faced me again there was no missing her huge grin.
“Ah, now I understand why I’ve basically been talking to myself,” she concluded. “I’ve been competing with Hotties Two and Four.”
My brow pulled together. “Two and Four?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I ranked them by hotness, because I can never remember who’s who.”
“Who’s number one?” I had to ask. Curiosity made me do it.
“Definitely the sexy, broody one,” she freely admitted, referring to Ori. “But it was a tossup between him and Two. I’m a sucker for the undercut/man-bun combination that one has going on.” I glanced toward Paulo when she described him. “Number one’s so into you, sometimes I think he’s in, like, actual pain trying to fight it. I imagine it’s frowned upon for mentors to get up on students even though we’re of age, but he wants a piece of that.”
The laugh that burst from my mouth couldn’t be helped. “Ori?” I asked, only half believing my own ears. “No way. I’m pretty sure he’d put a hole in my head if he could get away with it. Dude hates me.”
Toni had been shaking her head in protest the whole time I spoke. “You’re wrong,” she insisted. “Maybe you don’t pay much attention, but we do.”
“We?”
She nodded. “Me, the twins, and as much as he hates it, Tristan sees it too.”
My gaze lowered to the surface of the water when that last part made me mildly uncomfortable.
“Oh, come on,” Toni said with a smile. “You have to know our boy is crushing on you. Hard,” she added. “The guy practically thinks you walk on water.”
Shrugging, I peered up again. “We’re just friends.”
“Maybe that’s all he is to you, but he definitely sees you as more than that.” Her smile broadened again. “Seems you have all the guys,” she teased. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll decide to share you.”
This girl had one wild imagination. Starting with this nonsense about Ori secretly pining over me.
“You’re delusional, woman,” I assured her, splashing water into her face. She splashed back before leaving me to go rescue Marcela from the group of guys swarming her.
Meanwhile, I kept swimming, still pondering Toni’s claims. What she said was impossible, right? I mean, yeah, there may have been an underlying attraction between me and the guys, but it wasn’t anything more than that. Besides, how freakin’ messy was it that I found myself equally attracted to them all?
Water gurgled in my ears when I went under, enjoying the cool sensation as it covered me completely. Even just contemplating what Toni suggested was ridiculous, so I let it go, focusing only on that feeling of sinking deeper.
Being weightless calmed me instantly. This excursion was definitely needed. It felt like I’d been wound tight since I got here, and now we were finally taking advantage of being temporary residents of what I deemed one of the most beautiful places on earth. Only rivaled by my family’s land in Bahir Dar.
A tug at my ankle startled me from my thoughts, and my eyes popped open again. I fully expected to find a friend smiling back, proud of thoroughly scaring the crap out of me, but instead I saw nothing. Even deep below the surface, the water had been unfathomably clear. The white sand at the bottom, and the colorful reef, were easily visible even standing on the water’s edge.
But now … there was only darkness, and no sign of whoever touched me.
My limbs felt numb as fear