“What was that?” Grey asked.
“Nothing if no one’s running.” He had a point, Grey thought.
Sky traced kisses on her neck and Grey was powerless to resist. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him close. She didn’t want to cross the line but she’d already done something she shouldn’t have. Her lips stopped moving, but Sky continued to ravish her mouth, urging her on. Against her raging hormones Grey slipped away.
“I should get back inside.” Grey said.
Sky hit the back of the cabin and smirked. He chuckled and shrugged.
“We should do this again.” He said.
Grey felt like the biggest loser, but it would have been worse if he got into her pants.
“Crap.” Grey whispered.
“I’m going to get a drink.” Sky staggered into the cabin.
She didn’t know where her emotions were. Enraged, but frightened? The power she had when Sky kissed her as if there was no other woman on earth. She was barely into the kitchen when glass shattered one after the other then the screaming started and footsteps shook the cottage. Constable was here.
“Shoot.” Grey said.
Grey struggled to get through bodies. She should have just out through the kitchen exit, but she dove into the chaos hoping to find a friend. The outside was in eyeshot, but it felt like a mountain to climb. Once outside Grey searched for Mia’s car and the rest of the girls. Expect she found Constable and his vice Monica. They watched as the students fled down the hill. Constable and Grey’s eyes met, but no exchange was made. She hurried to where she knew the car was parked and found all the girls hanging around there.
“Someone was clearly busy.” Porsha teased.
“Oh my gosh,” Grey grumbled.
They laughed and piled into the car.
The dashboard clock read after two. The girls acted as if being busted was the most natural thing. They laughed and spoke about how much trouble they would be in the morning. Porsha made it clear that she wasn’t going to class.
They made it back to their dorm room all laughing but one. Grey wanted to climb under her covers and let it all go black.
“Aren’t you going to tell us who you had fun with?” Mia’s voice stopped Grey a meter from her bedroom door.
Grey turned and scratched the back of her head, still backing up.
“No one,” Grey chuckled.
They all gasped. Patty whistled, “I hope you know STDs are real.”
“It was nothing. I don’t even want to talk about.” She could guarantee she would spend the remainder of the night thinking about how much of a fool she’d been. He didn’t even stay five minutes after he came. His job was done or the game was over.
“What I really want to talk about is what the hell you were thinking kissing Brandon.” Porsha said.
They lingered in the living room that all dorms had. There was also a kitchen and storage that none of them used. Grey got a room that belonged to a girl named Cassidy White. She withdrew before last semester ended. The girls didn’t talk about her much, but Mia told her they’d all been friends since high school and went to the same social clubs.
Mia pressed herself against her bedroom door and rolled her eyes.
“It was just a stupid game.” Mia said.
Of course it was. “You aren’t mad that he—’
“That he kissed you? It’s probably better it was you. Couldn’t imagine if he picked one of those bimbos that have it out for me.”
“Glad that’s out in the air.” Patty said, everyone was thinking the same thing.
“Did anyone see West at the party?” Ela asked as she used a wipe to remove her makeup.
“He never goes, Ela.” Patty sighed.
“Too bad makes it hard to shag him.” Ela pouted.
“Oh my gosh,” Mia groaned.
“Actually, I saw him walk into the woods.”
The girls stared at each other, but didn’t expose their silent conversation.
“Such a mysteriously handsome man.” Ela muttered.
West was Sky’s older cousin whose father was an illegitimate child. He was a man that made crazy fortune without the Kiszinger last name, but he was still marked as an outsider in the billionaire universe to some because his father had a child out of wedlock.
He was in his fourth year and mere months from leaving the university. Most of the people Grey knew were in their third and fourth years of university. Grey and Ela were the only ones in the group doing their first year. Thank goodness it wasn’t as bad as the first year of high school. However, in this environment not everyone minded their own business. There were too many scandals not to be sticking your nose in the next man’s business. Something Grey hadn’t fully come to learn.

***
“I can’t wear that.” Grey threw the tank top she wore last week to the other side of the room.
The downside to living a lie was never having to repeat clothes. She’d never seen Mia or the others wear the same outfit twice not even to sleep. Grey only had one pair of clothing that the girls hadn’t seen yet and that was a white fitted dress that her aunt bought her for a wedding last year.
“It’ll have to do.” Grey slipped on the dress and found a pair of black sneakers that she’d worn enough times, but there was nothing she could do about them.
She let her curly C3 type hair fall down her back. She didn’t look half bad. The dress hugged her well and she didn’t feel so bad about going out with the same pair of shoes she wore yesterday and a couple other days. Hopefully she could get that campus job Constable recommended two months ago, she hadn’t taken it because didn’t want the girls to suspect anything.
Grey stepped into the lounge and found the girls half ready with bowls of cereal in hand or a tube of lipstick.
“You sure like those shoes,” Patty said, drawing her brows in front of a mirror in the lounge.
Grey bit her lip, well she kind of did. They were the only black sneakers she owned.
“They go great with this dress.” Grey said, but Patty didn’t turn to look at her.
“I remember a girl that wore the same dress for a two weeks straight.” Porsha smirked at her twin.
“I was five Porsha!”
The girls burst into laughter. When it died down Mia turned to Grey with her eyeshadow palate in hand.
“Seriously, though Grey, did you not bring enough stuff?”
“I…well…” Grey’s eyes went from every face that were now on her. Think Grey, damn her head was tired of coming up with lies.
“Well, yeah I didn’t come with enough stuff. The airline lost my other bags. They could be anywhere.”
The girls sighed or scrawled then went back to painting perfection on their already clear faces.
“That happened to me once. Still don’t know where those two bags ended up.” Patty said, applying blush that added a rosy affect to her cheeks.
“Why didn’t you just ask if we could go shopping?” Mia asked.
Because she needed to sell an arm and a leg first.
“I really don’t need to. The airline is really helpful. I could get my stuff any day.” Grey nodded.
“You can never have enough clothes.” Ela sang.
The girls agreed and Mia suggested they go shopping tomorrow afternoon. How did she end up in a group of girls who all had black cards? They were all ready for class, expect for Grey who was meeting whoever her new boss would be.
“Ela, aren’t you moving?” Patty asked, her perfect ponytails bounced as she headed for the door.
Ela shook her head, “I don’t have class and I don’t feel like going to the castle to do something.”
“I don’t feel like going at all.” Porsha mumbled.
Mia grabbed her wrist and dragged her to the door.
“I don’t want to flunk our assignment because you aren’t there.”
“Grey, wait a sec?” Ela asked, she was sat on the couch in her pajamas.
“Sure,” she said.
The rest of the girls walked out the door. It was only a ten-minute walk to the castle, but they all drove in Mia’s car.
Ela tilted her head and folded her arms. “I know what you did last night.”