Chapter 11 #3
She was momentarily distracted by her food, and Sawyer’s hand darted out to grab the other hash brown patty off her plate. It was in his mouth before Anna could react, and he mimicked her moan of pleasure. “It is good,” he agreed, grinning as her eyes narrowed at him.
“We haven’t met,” the other boy said. Unlike his brother, his attention was on me rather than the food on Anna’s plate. He offered a hand. “I’m Wes.”
“Isobel.” I smiled and shook his hand in response. His grasp was warm and comforting, and he had kind eyes that smiled back at me.
“This is my brother, Sawyer,” he nodded at his twin, who was still chewing on the hash brown patty.
Sawyer swallowed his food before he gave me a beaming smile.
I had a feeling he probably got a lot of girls simply by flashing his teeth.
I took the hand he reached out to me, but instead of shaking my hand, he lowered his head to plant a kiss across the back of it.
“I’m surprised they let you in the dining hall, gorgeous, because you’re just too damn sweet,” he purred.
I burst out laughing as I removed my hand from his grasp. “Was that really a pickup line?”
Wes thumped his brother over the back of his head while Cress and Anna both groaned at him.
“Seriously, Sawyer?” the girls asked.
“What? Can you blame a guy for trying? The new girl is hot.” Sawyer honestly looked perplexed.
“Ignore my brother,” Wes said to me. “We spent the summer surfing, and I think he got dumped by a few too many waves.”
“Hey,” Sawyer complained.
“Yeah, it’s not the ocean’s fault he’s a pig,” Anna agreed. “He was like this long before your summer in Tahiti.”
Sawyer scowled at her, but she flashed him an angelic smile. “What? You know it’s true.”
He looked like he was going to argue back, but Cress interrupted before he got the chance. “Where have you guys been?” she asked. “You weren’t at Luther’s back-to-school party.”
“We got in really late last night,” Wes said.
“Yeah, Dad needed the jet, so our flight home got delayed,” Sawyer added.
“Besides, it’s not like we were in any rush to leave.
The waves were killer, and the girls were hot—not that Wesley would know much about that.
He was mooning over that girlfriend of his the whole time.
” Sawyer rolled his eyes before he continued.
“Anyway, Dad’s new hotel is sick. You guys should come next time we go there. ”
“And watch you pick up girls all summer?” Cress said. “I think I’ll pass.”
“Your loss.” Sawyer shrugged.
I began to feel uncomfortable as I listened to their conversation.
I’d barely ever left the town I grew up in, let alone the country.
Sawyer spoke so flippantly about his dad’s new hotel that I got the impression their father didn’t own just the one.
He talked so casually about having a jet and invited his friends to Tahiti like it was as simple as going to the mall.
It all made me feel very much out of place.
“Well, you guys missed a good party,” Anna said.
“Oh yeah?” Sawyer replied. “Can’t have been that good. I heard you hooked up with Angus again …”
“Ugh,” Anna groaned. “How have you heard that already? I thought you guys only just got here.”
“Ha!” Sawyer let out a triumphant laugh. “I didn’t actually know. I just guessed. You’re getting too predictable.”
Anna groaned again and turned to Cress. “Remind me, why are we friends with the twins again?”
“Because we take you skiing every Christmas,” Sawyer responded.
“I didn’t ask you.” Anna kept her head turned away from him. “Seriously, Cress, why?”
“Because they take us skiing every Christmas,” she said with a laugh.
Anna shook her head. “I’m really beginning to feel like it’s not worth it.”
Sawyer wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. “We’re also both very lovable. Even if I annoy you a little.”
“A little?”
“Okay, a lot.”
His grin was so adorable that Anna quickly gave in and started to laugh. “You guys are impossible to stay mad at.”
“It’s all a part of the Montfort charm,” Sawyer responded, grinning brightly.
As he let go of Anna, a few girls walked up to the table.
They acted like they were there to speak with Anna and Cress, but they just wanted to ogle the twins.
I didn’t really blame them because the guys were both really good-looking.
While Sawyer was clearly the cheeky, flirtatious one of the pair, Wes was more mysterious and quiet.
The girls introduced themselves to me, but their names went straight in one ear and then right out the other. I was absolutely terrible at remembering names. They were all on the dance team with Cress and chatted excitedly about the dance number they were performing later in the week.
When the bell for class rang, the girls scurried off. At my last school, the signal for classes starting was a dull buzzing noise that sounded over the PA system. At Weybridge, it kind of sounded like a church bell ringing in the distance. Who knew a school bell could sound so classy.
“That’s the warning bell,” Cress said. “We’d better get to class.”
A flurry of nerves churned in my gut as I packed my tablet away.
Every aspect of Weybridge Academy had felt foreign to me so far.
I wasn’t like the kids I ate breakfast with.
I didn’t vacation overseas or drive an expensive car.
I was more at home in a shabby café with a broken air conditioner than I was in a ritzy dining hall that served seven types of pancakes.
I’d always done well in school, but everything about this place was different from what I knew, and I hoped the lessons didn’t feel as alien to me as the rest of the place.
There was only one way I was going to find out, so I sucked in a deep breath and headed for my first class.