Chapter Six Julia
CHAPTER SIX
“There is nothing quite as terrifying as the sound of the doorbell. Ding-dong, asshole, someone’s on the porch and wants inside.”
—Remington
Julia
I didn’t actually know what to do when I heard the doorbell.
Who could it possibly be?
I glanced down at my Dozer Day crewneck and ratty sweatpants, briefly considered running upstairs to change, but since we didn’t know anyone yet, what were the odds the person on the other side of that door was here to see me?
It was probably someone selling security systems or vacuums door-to-door.
Honestly, though, was it even safe to answer the bell when you lived in Manhattan, a place where random strangers were always walking past your house?
I got off the kitchen stool, where I’d been trying to get a handle on the massive amount of homework I already had, and I dragged myself to the door, not wanting to speak to any other living human who was remotely related to or familiar with Gardenwood.
Perhaps ever again.
Because it’d been a brutal first day.
Donovan and Jasmine had been nice, but they were the only ones (not counting adults).
To be fair, technically no one had been mean to me, at least not to my face, other than the girl who’d mentioned cows during my transition and of course… him.
No, it was more about the icy stares, the quiet comments I couldn’t hear but knew were directed my way, the loud laugh around the words “new money” when I’d had to cross paths with the Toms. In other words, it’d been a socially anxious girl’s worst nightmare.
At lunch, Jasmine sat with me for five whole minutes before she was called away to the office, leaving me to sit all alone at a table with the eyes of the entire student body upon me.
It would’ve been bad enough in a regular cafeteria, but the dining hall at the academy was ten times worse.
The shiny floors, stone walls, and high ceilings made it super echoey, so simple lunchtime conversation made the place feel like a thousand people were all shouting at each other.
And I just knew, without a doubt, that I was the main topic of said lunchtime conversation.
It had been a nightmare.
Add to that my hallway run-ins with Damion the Evil, and the day could be safely filed away as one of the worst ever.
I saw my brother briefly after school, but he was with two other guys, laughing too hard with his apparent new friends to say anything other than “Hey, Jules” as he walked by.
Typical.
I sighed before I opened the front door, but when I pulled it back, my sigh turned into a gasp.
Because Damion the Evil was on my front porch.
This day is CURSED.
“Hey…?” I leaned forward a little, looking to see if anyone was with him, because it didn’t make sense that he was standing on our stoop between the mums and pumpkins that Mom and Bernard had strategically placed on our front porch.
I blinked hard. This had to be some autumn-fueled nightmare.
“What are you doing here?” I heard myself ask.
“Oh, now that’s a polite way to answer the door,” he said, his mouth turning up in the mocking grin that set my teeth on edge.
His eyes dipped down to my sweatshirt and threadbare pants, and I regretted my decision not to change.
“Sorry,” I said, not at all sorry, “But I just didn’t expect to see you at my door.”
“Why do you stress the word ‘you’ like I’m the last person you would ever want to see on your porch?”
“Because we aren’t friends and I don’t even know you,” I said, irritated by the cockiness in his smile.
What the hell is he doing here, what the hell is he doing here?
And how does he know where I live?
“I thought you wanted me.” His smile grew even bigger. “To be your tutor.”
Oh. My. God.
I didn’t know what I’d expected him to say, but it wasn’t that.
I still couldn’t get over the fact that Damion was the brainiac Headmaster Green had raved about when I stopped by his office at the end of the day. He’d said he had a “brilliant” student with a “genius IQ” and a “real talent for teaching.”
His favorite tutor he was confident could turn around my scores.
And then he uttered the name.
DAMION.
I’d had a slight mental crashout when he said that, because though the universe could be cruel, it couldn’t be cruel enough to make the biggest jerk in Manhattan my best tutorial option, could it?
Why him?!
After realizing he hadn’t agreed to tutor me, desperation had forced me to swallow my pride and beg, yet this oversized tool on my stoop had looked at me like I’d bored him before he dismissed me with his little “we’ll see.”
We’ll see.
Yeah, no.
I shook my head and crossed my arms. “Um, I think I’ve changed my mind.”
“You think you’ve changed your mind?” he said, his grin creeping even higher. The late afternoon sun was giving him a killer glow as he smiled down at me from his high height. “How come?”
“Because you, like…,” I said, trying to come up with something. I didn’t want to bring up the wallet thing or the hallway thing or the homeroom thing because discussing his awfulness would make it seem like I cared, so I said, “I don’t know, it’s just not a fit—”
“Whatever,” he interrupted, still smiling like my rambling was hilarious, amused by my discomfort.
I wanted to slam the door in his face so badly.
But then I heard the headmaster’s voice like it was on a loudspeaker in my brain.
The scores alone will determine your ability to stay here or not.
The last thing on earth I wanted was to be in Damion’s debt, to owe him a favor—whatever that even fricking looked like—but if I didn’t nail those tests, my family might not inherit Remi’s money, which would send us back to Nebraska, where we would lose the store and probably the house.
And I couldn’t let that happen.
So if the demon in front of me was the best person for the job, I needed to suck it up and make a deal with this devil, right?
Damion shrugged and said, “I was just being a nice guy, stopping by, but if you think you’ve changed your mind, I’m out—”
“Wait,” I said, reaching out and grabbing his blazer, needing to stop him.
“Yes?” he replied, his eyebrows going up as he looked down at my gripping hand.
I quickly let go.
The cool autumn wind sent his scent—something expensive—right in my direction as he said, “What exactly am I waiting for here?”
I cleared my throat and said, “I actually do want you—”
“I knew it,” he said with smirk.
“—to be my tutor—”
“Ah—”
“—please.” It was hard to say with my teeth gritted, but necessary.
I needed Damion’s help, and I was going to do whatever it took to get it.
Even if it kills me.
I took a deep breath and tried to negotiate. “As long as I have your word that you’ll keep this confidential, I will grant you a favor in return for your services.”
“My… services,” he said in a low voice, those hazel eyes—very green at the moment, strolling all over me like he was considering multiple scenarios in his wicked imagination. I knew he was messing with me, but there was something about his expression that made my stomach get a little… flittery.
God, what is with this guy??
“I like the sound of that, Jules,” he said, “Although, your negotiation tactics are a tad bit moot because I already know your secret, so I could blab it to the world if I wanted to, regardless.”
“My secret?” Oh God, oh God—does he know about the inheritance? “What ‘secret’ do you think you know?”
That erased all teasing from his face, which went seriously intense. His eyes narrowed slightly as he gave me hardcore eye contact. His eyebrows screwed together, and he watched me for one second, two seconds, time and space hovering before he quietly stated, “That you need a tutor.”
“Oh,” I said, a little unsure what was happening between us. I felt accused of something, though I wasn’t sure what. “That.”
“Oh, that.” His voice lowered even more. “Tell me, Nebraska—is there another secret that you’re keeping?”
I rolled my eyes and pushed back the hairs that’d fallen out of my bun, disliking how off-balance this guy with the sharp jaw and muscular neck made me feel. “Dozens of them, in fact.”
And as he stood there on the stoop, watching me like he was waiting for some kind of confession, I wanted to curl up in a ball on the floor and whine at that realization that I needed him.
I had no margin for testing error. He did already know my secret, which left him as my best and only option.
God help me.