Chapter 14 #2
“No way,” she laughs. “Me too. Wanna walk together?”
Did I just make a new friend?
“Yeah.” I smile, nodding and feeling a bit more giddy than I should.
It’s not that I didn’t want friends growing up, it’s just that no one wanted to be my friend. No one but the guys, that is. And that was only until they decided that I didn’t fit into their world.
“Let's go before we’re late on our first day. I’d never hear the end of it from my brother.” She groans as we start to walk towards the building our class is in.
“Is he controlling?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “Just protective, they all are.”
“They?”
“My brother and his friends. They’re kind of like my brothers, too. They’re just as fucking annoying as he is, that’s for sure.” She rolls her eyes, making me laugh.
“I wouldn’t know what that’s like. I’m an only child.”
She sighs. “Once I left for boarding school, I kind of felt like one. I only came home to visit a handful of times. It was just me, alone in another country."
My brows furrow. “What about your mom and dad?”
“It’s complicated.” She looks off into the distance. “My whole life is.”
“I can understand complicated.”
She turns to me with a soft smile. “At least I’m not alone.”
Yeah. Me too.
Callie and I sat in the front row of our biology class, both of us enthralled with everything our professor talked about. It was mostly an introduction to the class and what we should expect to learn, but I find myself excited.
Crest Wood wasn’t a bad school, academically, it’s one of the best in the country, but a university is a whole different ball game.
One I’m looking forward to playing. I’m just going to have to make sure I keep up with my studies so my… extracurricular activities don’t bleed together.
Get it, bleed, murder.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Callie comments at the end of class as we walk out of the building.
“I’m looking forward to it. You?”
“Same.” She grins. “What’s your next class?”
I look at my call schedule before answering. “I have nothing until the afternoon. But it’s physics.”
She tosses her head back and laughs.
“What?” My brows furrow.
“Is it in the Benson building?” she asks, eyes glimmering with amusement.
“Yes, why?”
“Because that's my next class too.”
My brows jump, and I huff out a laugh. “Really?”
She nods. “Let me see your schedule.”
I hand my phone over, letting her look it over.
Turns out we have biology and physics together Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this semester, and biochemistry next semester.
I didn’t realize how much our careers would blend together.
“Thank fuck we’re in some classes together.” Callie hands me my phone back. “While I’m not actively searching for friends here, I’m glad I’ve made at least one.” She winks.
I just blink at her. Okay, so we’re doing this? We’re friends?
“Yeah.” I can’t help but smile. “Same.”
“I’m starving, and it’s a little after lunch time. I told my brother that I’d meet him and his friends to go out and grab something since we have a few hours to kill before our next class. Did you want to come?”
“I don’t know,” I say hesitantly. “I’m not good around new people.”
“How about you meet them first, then decide? If you don’t feel comfortable, I’ll totally understand, and we can just meet up after for our next class.”
She’s not judging me, not pushing me, not making fun of me. She’s just letting me be… me.
And that's the only reason why I agree to at least meet her brother and his friends. Who knows, maybe they’re not complete assholes. She seems pretty cool, so maybe that same sentiment will extend to them.
“Sure, I guess.” I nod.
“Yay!” She smiles. She types something on her phone before looking back up at me.
“Just finding out where they are now.” Her phone dings as she gets a reply.
“Guess they’re in the parking lot waiting by my car.
” She rolls her eyes. “Honestly, I’m surprised he’s not waiting nearby, following me like some overprotective bodyguard. ”
“He’s really that bad?” I grin.
“He’s all I got, really.” She shrugs. “I don’t mind. But he'd better let me live my life, because this girl has been locked up for far too long. I’m now free.” She throws her arms out. “The world is at my fingertips.”
“You only got one life to live, why not make it the best one you can?” I laugh, loving her energetic vibe.
“Exactly.” She snaps her fingers and points at me. “You get it.”
We head towards the parking lot, talking about the other courses we’re taking next semester.
“Yup. There they are. Waiting like big scary guard dogs,” Callie sighs.
My eyes search in the direction she's looking, and my heart leaps into my chest as I nearly trip over my feet when I see who's there.
Sylas, Jasper, and Wesley are leaning against a deep red car.
With each breath I take, my mind spins.
How can this be?
Jasper and Wesley don’t have any siblings, and Sylas has a younger sister, but she's…
Oh fuck. How the hell didn’t I put two and two together!
Callie is short for Calliope. As in Calliope Jones, Sylas’ little sister, who’s been MIA for years. His sister, who wasn’t even acknowledged enough by their father to share the same last name. Iinstead, he forced her to have her mother’s maiden name.
We’re the same age, but we hardly spent any time around each other growing up. While she wasn’t mean to me at school, she avoided me like everyone else.
Not that I really expected much from her. She was never at any of the parties I went to with my dad. They were always held at Jasper’s place, so I wouldn’t have run into her.
Once, my father asked why Nile, Sylas’ father, never brought Callie. Nile responded to my father with ‘This is no place for women. This is a man's world,’ while shooting me a pointed look.
My father wrapped his arm around me, kissed the top of my head, and told me to go play with the boys.
I knew none of them liked my being there, but they didn’t argue with my father. They allowed it. Until they didn’t.
One day in fifth grade, she just stopped coming to school. People asked questions, but no one got any answers.
For a while, I thought maybe something bad had happened to her, that maybe she had died. I knew how bad Sylas’ home life was, how evil his dad could be.
After his mother died and Nile remarried Starla, things went downhill.
Sylas didn’t talk about his sister often, but there would be times Skittles would pick up a conversation here and there where he’d mention Calliope.
He never went into details, but he didn’t look like someone who had lost their sister.
If Callie is Sylas’ sister and has been living abroad, then how come she’s only coming back now?
Sylas has been the head of his family for a year now. His father has been dead and gone, along with his stepmom.
From the way Callie made it sound, she hated living in London.
“Nola, are you okay?” Callie asks, stepping in front of me.
I shake my head, clearing my head. “Sorry.” I lick my lips, trying to gain control over my thoughts.
“Hey!” I can hear Sylas shout. “Calliope, get your ass over here. We’re starving.”
“I’m coming!” she shouts back over her shoulder before looking back to me. “Are you okay? It looks like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Not a ghost, just three demons.
“I’m fine. But… It’s Sylas who is your brother, right?”
“Yeah.” She nods. “Is that a problem?” Her eyes search mine. I get a feeling there's a wrong and right answer to this question, I just don't know which is which.
“No.” I shake my head. “Just taken by surprise.” My brows furrow.
Hold up. If Callie is Calliope, that means she would know who I am.
I’ve told her what my father did for a living, and I’ve never met another person with the name Nola. She doesn’t seem like a dumb person.
She gives me a guilty grimace. “Please don’t hate me.”
“You knew who I was all along?” I try to keep the anger out of my tone, but there's still a bit left. I hate liars.
“I did. And I’m sorry. When you told me your name, it kind of clicked.
I’m sorry I didn’t outright tell you who I was.
I know things are complicated with you and the guys, and the society as a whole.
I didn’t want you to write me off as soon as you found out.
I know I wasn’t exactly the nicest person to you growing up, but we were kids, and I was kind of jealous of how obsessed my brothers were with you—I kind of low-key hated you for that—but I’ve grown up, and I’m over it. I promise. Please don’t hate me.”
She’s spewing out word after word, seeming to be unable to stop herself until she's panting heavily, looking at me with pleading eyes.
She was jealous of me? Why?
“I think you're really cool and I’d really like us to be friends.”
I cock my head to the side.
“Do the big blue puppy dog eyes get you your way all the time?” My lip curves into a smile. She’s being honest with me now, and she knew I’d find out when she asked me to come to lunch with her brother and his friends, so it’s not like she was actively hiding it from me, at least not for long.
“With them? Yes,” she says innocently.
“No more omitting the truth?”
“I promise.” She nods vigorously.
“Okay—”
“Calliope, tell whoever you’re talking to to fuck off and let’s go,” Sylas shouts before walking up from behind Callie.
His eyes widen when he sees it’s me she’s talking to, momentarily taken by surprise before his lips curve into that playboy smile that always turns my insides into goo.
My body flushes, and I hate how my cheeks turn pink.
Those were the same lips that were between my thighs, eating my pussy like a starved man, and my arousal was some kind of elixir of life.
I came all over his face.
And here I am looking at him like some blushing virgin. I’m not a virgin anymore, they made sure of that.
“Well, look who we have here.” Sylas chuckles, throwing his arm over Callie’s shoulder. Callie shoves at her brother, trying to get him off her, but he just laughs, messing with her hair.
“You asshole!” She ducks out of his hold. “Not the hair. Never the hair.” She scowls at him.
“You’re so cute.” He chuckles.
Callie just glares, flipping him off.