Prep School Experiment (15 page)

“There are some dance classes in the city. I’ve been interested in looking into one or two. I could go check them out, so it wouldn’t even be a lie to dress like that.”

Geneva rolled her dark eyes. “Whatever.”

“I can change like I’m leaving for dance class, and stop off at his locker to say good-bye.” Her voice squeaked.

“God no.” Geneva took a drink. “Dress up and look at any guy but him. Say good-bye to some other guy. Walk straight past Rhys.”

“Oh. He has a thing about that. He’ll feel slighted.”

“Please.” Again, Geneva drawled out the word and her familiar tones made Kaitlin smile. “He’ll be at your side so fast, and if he isn’t? Well, screw him. He’s not worth your time.”

Kaitlin twisted her fingers together. “And if he does show up?”

Geneva’s bright polish flashed as she put her fingertips on her mouth. “First, you lightly touch the tip of your tongue to the top of your lip. Like you’re nervous, but only for a second. Not so much that you mess up your lipstick. Then you say…” Geneva paused and looked square into the camera. “Kaitlin, you committing to this?”

“Yes. Yes. Promise.”

“Okay, say,
I get that you won’t be my first kiss. That we can’t be lovers. I screwed up. But maybe we can be friends. Think about it, okay? I’d like that.
” Geneva made her voice breathy as she said it, using a sexy tone, and then her tone straightened. “You put the idea in his head of what he’s going to miss out on.”

“Ooh, that’s good.”

“Yeah it is. Now, don’t call me back until you get up the nerve to do it.” Geneva reached for the switch. “Kidding. Call anytime. Night, Kaitlin.”

“’Night, Geneva.”

Kaitlin stood in front of her locker wearing the outfit Geneva had suggested, but she didn’t have the nerve to turn around. Even with her back to the school hallway, she’d heard five greetings from guys she didn’t know, two wolf-whistles, and one unacceptable suggestion.

“Hey, Kaitlin,” a male voice said.

Kaitlin looked left and saw Tyler from English class. Her shoulders eased. “Hey.”

“I’ve been thinking—”

Before Tyler finished his thought, a warm, solid hand landed on her bare waist. She jumped, startled, but a quick glance up showed her it was Rhys. He dropped a kiss on her shoulder, an electric press of his lips to her skin. “I see you took my suggestion. New dance class?”

Kaitlin couldn’t think for several seconds.

Rhys had just kissed her in public. On her shoulder, yeah, but he kissed her.

Tyler assessed Rhys, gave a guy nod, and pointed his books at Kaitlin. “Catch you later.” His eyes dropped to her bare waist. “Tomorrow. We’ll talk in English tomorrow.”

Rhys watched Tyler walk away with narrowed eyes. “What does he think he’s going to talk to you about?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hmm.” His fingertips drummed against her skin. “That’s not going to happen.”

The possessiveness in his voice made her spin around, but his hand didn’t fall away. She blanked on Geneva’s advice. “Really, Rhys? You don’t want me? But no one else can have me?”

“Oh,” his voice deepened, “I never said I didn’t want you.”

Kaitlin fought the urge to lower her eyelids and simply enjoy his voice and the feeling of his fingers. His touch was like in the dream, but more, like it was directly connected to her nerve endings.

Wait.

She grabbed his wrist. “Open up to me. Or tell me what I can do to make things go back to the way they were.”

His lips firmed and his jaw tightened. “Back to when you thought I’d be your dirty little Alaskan secret? Guess NYC intruded.”

So that’s how he felt.

Rhys blinked and his eyes dropped to her waist. His fingers made a small circle on her skin. “You need a shirt.”

“I know.”

Rhys shrugged out of his Shay uniform jacket. Kaitlin slipped it on, and despite her new height, the hem fell past her hips. Rhys’ eyes widened and he muttered an expletive. His hand slid inside the jacket, flat against her abdomen, making her startle at the sensation. She jerked back, hitting the lockers, and his hand followed.

Oh. My.

Rhys moved his mouth to her ear. “The strip of skin showing makes you look like you’re wearing less somehow.” His thumb brushed back and forth over her stomach. Slow. Steady. A rhythm she felt all the way to her toes. Her head fell back, until it propped against the wood of the lockers.

“Kit Kat.” The nickname intruded loud and clear, jerking Kaitlin back to the noisy reality of the school corridor: the rush of exiting students, the curious glances coming their way, her two friends hurrying over. They stopped two feet away and stared from her to Rhys.

Rhys slowly pulled his hand from her abdomen, leaving a wicked sensation in its wake. Kaitlin straightened, using her locker for support.

“We got your text,” Raven said. “No shopping today?” She pouted. “You’re not really going to go south of 45
nd
to try out for a dance class. Are you?” She winked at Rhys. “I’ve told her never to go south of 45
th
. Everyone knows that.”

“I’m afraid I can’t agree,” Rhys said. “There’s a good deli on 42
nd
.”

He remembered. He remembered sharing pistachios from the deli with her in Alaska.
Surely that meant something? Did that mean something?

Regina raised her eyebrows, and her dark eyes grew bigger.

“You have the cutest accent,” Raven said to Rhys. “You don’t sound Alaskan. Where are you from again? I thought you didn’t know Kit Kat.” She turned accusing eyes on Kaitlin as if she hadn’t been told something. “Meow. Meow. Kit Kat.”

Kaitlin wished her friends would take off. Raven was trying too hard and Regina was staring like they were a new exhibit at the Bronx Zoo.

Rhys’ shoulders squared as he straightened and turned slightly away. “I don’t know Kaitlin.”

The words hurt more than they should.

Rhys took a step and paused. His jaw tightened. “Don’t call her Kit Kat. She hates it.” Rhys said the words firmly, as if knowing they wouldn’t call him on the fact that he’d just contradicted himself. And how did he even know that? Maybe by her expression, because she knew she hadn’t admitted to the nickname back in Alaska.

“No way.” Raven dug cinnamon stick gum from her pocket and offered them some.

Kaitlin took a piece and then tugged Rhys’ jacket close. She put the gum in her mouth and crossed her arms over her waist. She’d told them to drop the nickname a thousand times since returning. Or maybe she’d only told them that in her head. “Yeah. I’m not really a fan of that one.”

Raven nodded. “I’ll definitely stop. So what are you guys up to? Where are you going? Is anyone else in?”

“My driver’s taking Kaitlin to dance class.”

His driver. Not him. “Oh,” Kaitlin said. Knowing how he felt about her made the gesture seem like a pity favor. She didn’t want his pity. “I can take a cab or the subway.”

Rhys’ eyes hardened into green jade. “Not in that.”

Kaitlin flushed. “I have a T-shirt in my gym bag.” She opened her locker and snagged her pink gym bag. A note fluttered from the vent to the floor and she scooped it up too. Her heavy bag swung forward and back from her grip.

Rhys reached out and took the straps from her. He shouldered the bag, making the white cloth of the button-down shirt pull across his chest.

Maybe he wanted her with him and didn’t want to say so?

Raven opened and closed her mouth. “Well, we’re going shopping. The new J.R.A line of winter boots is in. They’re killer.”

Rhys turned further away.

“You filled out the senior year quiz yet?” Regina asked, trying to draw his attention back to them. They’d gotten the unofficial quiz in their inboxes earlier in the week. It asked all kinds of random questions and everyone was buzzing with the answers though no numbers had come in yet.

“No.” Rhys’ tone said he wouldn’t be completing it.

“Me either,” Raven said, though Kaitlin knew she and Regina had turned theirs in on the first day.

Kaitlin hadn’t done the quiz either. The intrusive questions had put her off. She’d clicked delete. She stirred up some bravery and stepped closer to Rhys, reaching for his hand.

Rhys moved sideways, not looking at her, and handed her back the gym bag. “I’ll catch a ride with Thayer. I’ll text my driver out front so he knows you’re coming.”

“Rhys.”

“Black Bentley.”

“Rhys.”

“The driver’s name is James.”

“Rhys.”

He ignored her again. His long legs took him down the hall. “Thayer, wait up,” he called out to his friend.

“Later, Rhys,” Regina said in an over-loud voice.

“Bye, Rhys,” Raven yelled, in an even louder voice.

Rhys waved, but didn’t look back. He caught up to Thayer, who was holding a pair of ski poles.

“Ooh, Thayer-on-a-stick and Rhys’s Pieces,” Raven spritzed the hallway air with a cloud of Jasmine perfume and walked through it. “I’m ready for them.”

“Yum.” Regina blinked and turned back to Kaitlin. “Spill. ‘Cause you know, I’m starting to believe you did know Rhys.”

Yeah? She was starting to think she hadn’t known him at all. Kaitlin shrugged. “There’s nothing to tell.”

Raven rolled her eyes and her expression said
liar
. “Whatevs. You going shopping with us?”

“Next time,” Kaitlin said. “I really am going for an audition.”

“Good luck,” they echoed together and headed away, murmuring about calf-length boots.

“Bye.”

Should she even bother with dance class? Maybe she should go shopping with her friends instead of standing here alone and then going to meet with a bunch of strangers. Kaitlin swallowed and took a step after them. If she caught up by the time she reached the main grounds, she’d call for them to wait up. If not, she’d hail a cab and head over to the auditions. She tightened her grip on her bag and picked up her pace. The note from her locker crinkled under fingertips, and she flicked it open while walking. Who bothered with paper anymore?

Her gaze skimmed the page.

She froze.

Someone bumped into her from behind.

“Excuse you,” the girl said and went around.

Kaitlin didn’t acknowledge her. The blood drained from her face. The note said,
Complete the senior quiz. Complete the section on how you are feeling by tomorrow.

The note could have been from anyone. But, it had a weird vibe. She knew it was from their former science teacher. Maybe she was paranoid. But, she knew it was from him.

Kaitlin didn’t know how long she’d stood there when Rhys appeared in front of her. He tugged the paper from her stiff fingers. He read the message and cursed.

Thayer, who stood beside him, said, “What’s going on?”

The three of them blocked part of the hallway. Everyone filtered around them, heading for the exits and whatever normal life awaited them outside the doorway.

“One of the reasons we left boarding school was an over-attentive, creeper teacher,” Kaitlin said, telling Thayer the truth, if a somewhat understated version of it. “This note has the feel of something he’d write.”

Rhys cursed again.

Rhys got it. She could tell from his expression. He thought the same thing. The Scientist had sent her a message. Here in Manhattan. He knew where she went to school and where she lived. Dread ran under her skin. Kaitlin grabbed the note back. The paper tore under her fingers, and she ripped it in half. She folded and went to rip it again.

Rhys’s hand covered hers. “Give it to me. Let me take it to Grandfather’s security.”

Kaitlin nodded and trembled, feeling uncertain--like her blood sugar had dropped or she was cold and stuck out in the Alaskan wilderness again. Only this time she was on her own.

Rhys dropped his arm over her shoulders. “Thayer and I will go with you to dance class.”

“We will?” Thayer asked.

“Yep.” Rhys turned her toward the door, taking her silence for agreement.

Both guys walked her out to the Bentley and Kaitlin didn’t protest. Her pride and her worry about owing Rhys had taken the train south once she’d gotten the note. She gave the driver the address of the performing arts building, and he took them straight there. The car pulled up alongside a line of girls entering a door marked
Tryouts
.

She stared at the public street, reluctant to leave the anonymity of the dark-windowed car.

Rhys handed her the gym bag. “Text me when you’re done. I’ll meet you back at this entrance.”

Kaitlin nodded but didn’t move.

Rhys got out and held the door open.

Kaitlin shrugged out of his jacket and slipped on her T-shirt. She slid free, her hands clenched around the shoulder strap of the bag. She got in line and rolled up the waistband of her pants, looking around for any sign of The Scientist in case he was following her.

The other girls’ eager, excited chatter chafed her nerves. She shook off the sensation.

Stop. She had to stop
. The Scientist and the memory of him didn’t get to haunt her. The drugs were out of her system now. He was out of their lives. That note could have been from anyone.

She put her bag at her feet and shook out her shoulders.

Rhys assessed the area. The sidewalk was well lit and the line of girls wrapped around the building. Public. Busy. Safe.

Thayer was checking out the area too. His gaze was on girls in tights.

“How are things with you and Elle?” Rhys asked.

Thayer shrugged. “So over girls who date me to get ahead at Shay. I think I’ll date a chick from Bar Prep.” He named the other elite school not too far down 5
th
Avenue.

Rhys took in the high rise buildings, the busy streets, and the smell of exhaust that marked New York City. He looked at Thayer and tried to see him from Trallwyn eyes. “You need to date a regular girl.” He nodded toward the line of dancers. “Try someone not paying 100K a year in tuition.”

Thayer shook his head. “She’d have even more to gain than a girl at Shay Prep. Money and position.”