Savage Royals (Boys of Oak Park Prep #1) - Callie Rose Page 0,56
all of each other’s buttons and exactly how to push them.
But they also had each other’s backs. Always.
It was strange to be on the inside of this tight-knit group looking out, rather than on the outside looking in. It felt strangely safe inside the circle, although I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Leah had walked into the dining hall on the first Tuesday back, and the second she’d seen me sitting stiffly at the Prince’s table, her jaw had practically hit the floor. I’d seen her body lock up, seen her internal debate about whether to leap in and try to save me or run for her life, and I’d shaken my head at her quickly.
It wasn’t her job to try to save me from… whatever this was.
She’d blown up my phone the rest of the day with text messages demanding to know what the hell was going on, and as soon as we got out of Chemistry, she’d dragged me back to my dorm before the Princes could get their hands on me.
Ensconced in my room, we’d picked apart every detail of my interaction with the Princes at the party and beyond, trying to pinpoint what had caused the abrupt about-face.
“I mean, shit, girl. If you have a chance to get back in their good graces, take it! I saw how miserable they made you last semester. If they’re willing to drop the whole thing because you called them names at a party—which I can’t believe I was inside the house for, by the way—then take that deal and fucking run.”
“Yeah…” I wrinkled my nose. “I just wish they didn’t want me to be part of their stupid Royals club.”
“You know, it does kinda make sense though. I mean, Mason’s not wrong,” she’d mused, popping a pizza roll into her mouth as she lounged on my couch. “Your family are the fucking Hildebrands! You are on their level. Maybe they just got scared you’d send your grandparents after them if they didn’t stop being such shits.”
I’d chuckled and thrown a pizza roll at her face. Honestly, I didn’t think my grandparents had much interest in defending my reputation—they were more worried about me destroying theirs—but she had a point.
“It just kinda sucks,” she’d said as she hugged me goodnight. “If you really are being adopted by them or whatever, does that mean I have to hate you now?”
“No!” I’d assured her vehemently. “I’m not one of them. And I hate them just as much as you do. I’m just taking the little bit of peace where I can get it, like you said. They’re not my friends.”
And they weren’t.
I meant it.
Just because they were no longer actively tormenting me didn’t mean I was willing to forgive and forget all the shit that’d gone down the previous semester thanks to their unfair war on me.
But the thing was, I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until the bullying stopped. Hadn’t realized how much it had been wearing me down until it was over.
So maybe what they were doing now was nothing more than some new kind of psychological warfare, some new way to control me and assert their dominance over the whole school, but for the time being, I would take it.
By the end of the third week of this strange new dynamic though, I felt like I was crawling out of my skin. The Princes were everywhere, so fully integrated into my life that even I was starting to have a hard time remembering when they hadn’t been there. Their voices, so familiar to me already, were permanently ingrained in my brain now.
I was starting to know their quirks, their habits. I could read the expressions on their faces—even Cole’s and Mason’s, who presented themselves to the world as closed books.
And I needed a break from it.
In Chemistry, I typed out a quick message on my phone, hiding it under the table in my lap.
ME: What are you doing after class? Shopping trip?
Her phone was on silent, but she must’ve had it out of her bag too, because her answer came almost immediately.
LEAH: Um yassss! Sheesh, I was thinking I really was gonna have to start hating you.
ME: Sorry. Been a little tied up.
LEAH: Ew. Please don’t tell me you mean that literally
ME: What? No
LEAH: Hey, I dunno what kind of kinky shit the Princes are into
My whole body burned as heat rushed up my cheeks, and I turned away slightly so she wouldn’t see it.