“I-”
Styx shook his head. “Look, I don’t know what you’re up to, or what Blackstone senior prank this is, but stay the fuck away from me.” He walked off without a second thought or backwards glance.
The tears fell, but the exchange was still far better than what I deserved.
Chapter 6
Styx~
How. Fucking. Dare. She.
Where in the fuck did she get off? Oh, but hell, she was Grace fucking Hale. She could do whatever the fuck she wanted, right?
Grace goddamn fucking Hale.
When I had first met Grace, I’d been fifteen and it had been the summer before our sophomore year in high school. There had been a musical program offered that summer at one of Dayton’s recreational centers, and I had jumped at the chance to go. Since all our extra money was going towards my tuition into Blackstone, there wasn’t anything extra for music. Especially, music as just a hobby. I might be good at it, but it wasn’t anything I was looking to make a career out of. The summer program had been a way for me to be able to play as many musical instruments as I could and experience music my way.
Unfortunately, I remembered the first time I ever saw Grace Hale like all the other significant moments in my life. I had been at the piano, playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, lost in the music, when she had walked into the room. Even though my eyes had been closed, I had sensed a disturbance in the air. I had known I wasn’t alone, but I had been so absorbed in the music, I had kept playing.
When I had opened my eyes, Grace Hale had been standing near the door, looking just as lost in the music as I had been.
She had looked fucking magnificent.
I had been surrounded by expensive pianos, legendary music, and positive energy, but none of it had compared to the breathtaking beauty of Grace Hale, unguarded and moved by the music.
She had only stood at around five-foot-four, but her presence had been larger than anything I’d ever come across in my young life. Grace had hair the color of black ink. It was that shade that could look blue sometimes because it was so dark. She had arched brows that matched in color, except one peaked a little higher than the other one. Her skin was porcelain perfection with bright green eyes that popped with those black lashes of hers. Her face was perfectly female with a pair of lush, pink lips. It was a face created by the Heavens.
Her body was another point of excellence. Grace was short, or at least short by my standards, but that short body of hers packed enough curves to turn a guy stupid. It certainly had with me. All summer-long she had worn shorts and tank tops and essentially had driven me crazy with each new outfit that she had worn.
We had become fast friends, and we had spent a lot of time together. I wasn’t sure about now, but at the time, Grace hadn’t had a musical bone in her body. She had given all she had to the violin, but it was nothing doing. She had given up and had spent most of her time in the program listening to me play whatever I was engaged in that day.
For me, it had been love at first sight. I had opened my eyes and that jolt you only read about in romance novels or see in romantic comedies had hit me hard. It had hit me so hard, I hadn’t been able to form any words at first. I had been struck by something I believed would never happen to me again.
And I still believed that.
Over the weeks we had become good friends. We had talked about her life and family, and we had talked about mine. I had found out she came from a wealthy family and had a twin brother. As soon as she had said his first name, I knew exactly who she was and where she came from and where she was going.
All of Dayton had heard of Sterling Hale.
But as intimidating as all that information had been, I had still felt comfortable telling her all about my sister and my working-class family. She had listened without judgement, or so, I had thought. Grace had seemed genuinely interested in my life. I had even felt comfortable enough to tell her about my I.Q. and she had already witnessed my musical talents.
Then, one day, that friendship had turned into something more. Classes had ended for the day, but some of the instructors would let me stay over sometimes because they knew I’d respect the instruments and put everything away when I was done. Grace had stayed after with me, and she had wanted me to try to teach her how to play something simple and fun on the piano. What had started out as something fun and comical as hell, because, again, Grace really had no musical abilities whatsoever, had turned hot and heavy and life changing.
Over the last month of summer, we had gone from kissing to hands that had explored each other’s bodies. We’d never gotten as far as oral sex or sex itself, but I knew the texture of her soft skin, the way her tits felt in my hand, and how tight her pussy felt wrapped around my fingers. She, in turn, knew the taste of my skin, the feel of my girth and length encased in her hand’s grip, and how long it took to make me cum from her desperate, eager strokes.
The music program had ended two weeks before the beginning of the school year, and while we had exchanged numbers and had kept in touch, I hadn’t told her about being accepted into Blackstone Prep Academy. I had wanted to surprise her. I had wanted to see the surprise on her face, and the happiness in her eyes at knowing what we had hadn’t needed to come to an end.
The surprise had been all mine, though.
Even though we had been alone, the humiliation of her telling me she’d never date me seriously, because of what her friends would think, had been swift and deadly. Grace had delivered the blow as if she had been addressing a clueless peasant and had walked away as if she hadn’t just shattered my heart.
As if she hadn’t just changed me as a person.
It had taken me months to be able to function and focus on the bigger picture. Grace Hale had annihilated me, but I hadn’t applied to Blackstone for Grace Hale. I had applied for the betterment of my future. My parents had sacrificed all their lives for the opportunity, and I wasn’t about to squander it for anyone.
Even Grace.
Eventually, I had perfected the art of pushing all those unneeded people into the background. I had learned how to not see them while seeing them. I had made friends with my kind, and for the past couple of years, it’s been working out perfectly for me. I haven’t spoken to Grace since that first day of sophomore year, so what’s changed? Why in the fuck would she want to talk to me now, and why would she think there was anything we needed to talk about?
I wasn’t blind or stupid either. I saw how nervous she had been. I heard the stutter as she had spoken. I saw the panic in those emerald orbs of hers. I knew it had cost her to approach me, but what I didn’t know was why she had approached me.
We’ve ceased to exist for each other that day, two years ago. I wasn’t part of her crowd, and she’s never lowered herself to get to know my crowd. We had a few classes together, but we didn’t sit near each other or speak.
I had done such a good job of erasing Grace from my existence, I knew nothing about her, other than the drama that had swept through Blackstone a few weeks back. There’s been no escaping the talk of how Sterling Hale had almost beaten Seth Burns to death before announcing that Grace was no longer dating Seth. And if the rumors were to be believed, Seth Burns would have to have a death wish to ever go near Grace again. Apparently, Sterling Hale had beaten him so badly that he’s been laid up in the hospital for over a week.
Then, there was also the tragedy of Leah Moffet killing herself. No one knew the details, but Leah had slit her wrists at the beginning of the year and a lot of people were pairing Leah’s suicide to Seth’s beatdown because of the timing. However, no one who knew the facts were talking. It was all speculation. It was rumored that Leah had left a suicide note, but the family was protecting Leah’s privacy fiercely. As they should.
My problem now was that, with one word-Hey-Grace Hale had undone everything I had worked so hard for. It had been a painful and daunting process to erase Grace from my mind, heart, soul, and life.
But I had done it
.
I had managed to move on from what she’d done to me. I had even managed to date other girls and experience pleasure with them. I had managed to find my place at Blackstone, regardless of the Hale royalty that ran this school. My future was still mine, and I was only a few months away from holding that future in my hands and becoming something great.
Why in the goddamn fuck would Grace approach me now? After all this time?
And because I had been so irrevocably in love with Grace Hale when I was fifteen, I couldn’t just wake up tomorrow as if she hadn’t spoken to me this morning. I was going to have to start all fucking over and force myself to erase her from my mind and heart.
Again.
What the fuck, Grace? Why now?
Chapter 7
Grace~
It’s been three weeks, and I still felt hollow. I knew I was going to have to try again with Styx and hope he was willing to give me just five minutes, so I could tell him how so very sorry I was.
The hardest part of that day had been building the courage to show my face in first period. I had both Styx and Seth in first period, but while Seth was a nonfactor, I was acutely aware of Styx.
But then, I’d always been.
It was one of the reasons I had started dating Seth last year. I had needed to move on from Styx even though I’d been the one to call it off so cruelly. I had known dating him would have been hard, and I hadn’t been strong enough to commit to that kind of struggle. It would have gotten ugly and I had been too absorbed in my status as Grace Hale to see that anything worth having was worth the fight.
And I had lost the best thing-
No.
I had thrown away the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
When we had fallen into the routine of pretending that neither one of us existed, I had foolishly believed we had both moved on. I had considered it a blessing that Styx had bowed out gracefully because, that way, I hadn’t had to wrestle with my conscience over what I had done.
I had so much to make up for.
Over these past few weeks, I’ve put myself out there and have accepted whatever I’ve been given in return. I’ve started saying hello to everyone who’s made eye contact with me and I’ve even given them some smiles. Some have smiled back. Some have said hi back. Some have thrown me wary glances. Some have ignored me. And, yes, some have been snide and have told me exactly what they think of my hellos.
And yet, it’s still far less than I deserve for the horrible person I’ve been.
“Hey,” London greeted as she leaned up against the locker next to mine. “I can’t hang out today after all.” I turned just as she was rolling her eyes. “Bernice’s future stepson is down for the weekend from Stanford. Bernice wants us to have a warm family dinner.” London’s parents were divorced, and her father lived in Texas. His family had struck oil when she was very young, and it had been the beginning of the end for her parents. Her mother, Bernice, had gotten half and her father, Griffin, had moved to Texas to further his wealth. Then, last year, her mother had started dating Mark Manson, who had a son named Cash who was a freshman at Stanford.
I shut my locker door. “How lovely,” I teased.
London grinned. “If it’ll shut her up and get off my back, I can sacrifice one afternoon.” Bernice was high maintenance and needy. Whenever Mark started to neglect her, she’d latch onto London for companionship and London wasn’t exactly her mother’s biggest fan.
“Well, tomorrow you’re going with me into town,” she announced. “The screen on my phone’s cracked again.”
“Why not just buy a new one-” I winced. “Sorry. Habit.”
London gave me a soft smile. Besides Sterling, London was the only other person who knew that I was working on becoming a better person. When I had told her what I was feeling, she hadn’t judged or tried to steer me in another direction. She had simply agreed that she’d been a dick, too, and had announced that we’d work on being better people together. She also knew about Styx.
“Not a problem, Grace.” Then she looked at her watch. “Gotta go, but I’ll call you later.” She headed towards her last class of the day, and I headed towards mine. An hour later, I was standing beside my car, staring down at a flat tire.
My first initial reaction had been to call my brother. My second rational thought had been to call my roadside car service. But as I stood staring at the flat tire with my phone in my hand, I had the overwhelming need to change the tire myself. I wasn’t so lost that I wanted to martyr myself, but I’ve taken inventory of my life a lot these past few weeks, and it felt as if I should be able to do something as simple as change a tire. I no longer wanted to be a spoiled rich kid who took basic services for granted. I wanted to change how I viewed life, not just my shitty attitude towards people.
When Sterling and I had turned sixteen, our parents had given me a white 2018 Mercedes-Benz S-Class and Sterling a silver 2018 Maserati Gran Turismo MC. Last year we had traded them for the same thing, just a current year model. And Sterling had done what most guys did, he had eyed and fiddled with every inch of his car and knew how to take care of it. I, on the other hand, had done what most spoiled girls did and took it to a shop for any maintenance or issues.
I knew how to put gas in it, and that was it.
Tossing my backpack in the driver’s seat, I hit the lever that popped the trunk. I might be ignorant about car maintenance, but I wasn’t stupid. I could figure it out. And if not, that’s what Google was for.
I walked around to the back of the car and lifted the trunk. I laughed when I noticed it looked just as clean as the day I had gotten it, and that realization had me pulling my phone out and pulling up a video on how to change a tire on a 2019 Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
Lifting the trunk board, I let out a sigh of relief that everything I needed was inside. I cocked my head and noticed how it was packed. I wasn’t sure if all this stuff had come with the car, but something told me our car service might have put all this stuff in here the first time I’d had gotten it serviced.
Thank God.
I paused the video and placed my phone on the ground next to the flat tire. I began pulling out items that I had no idea what to do with.
But I could do this.
Carrying the big X over to the tire, it fell out of my hands and clanked onto the ground when an angry-looking Styx Reinhart snapped, “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I could feel my eyes widened, and I was feeling a little cornered, but I quickly tried to hide it. “Uhm…”
His brown eyes flew towards the flat tire and back to mine. “What in the hell are you doing, Grace?” he repeated, and my stomach tightened at the mention of my name.
I turned back and hid behind the trunk lid. I needed a couple of seconds to collect myself. I grabbed the jack and took a deep breath. Knowing I didn’t have much time, I steeled myself and walked back out from behind the trunk.
I set the jack on the ground, grabbed my phone, and kind of faced it towards him. “I…I got a flat,” I said needlessly. “I’m going to change it.”
He no longer looked angry. His head reared back, and he blinked a few times.
Then he laughed.
I could feel the hot rush of blood heat my face with embarrassment. I had no idea what Styx was up to these days, but I knew he had worked for an auto body shop when I had first met him. I couldn’t imagine how ridiculous I must look to him right now. I wasn’t going to give up, though.
When he stopped laughing, his voice was full of incredulousness when he said, “You, Grace Hale. You’re going to change your car tire.” It wasn’t a question. It was an observation of my lack of ability to do the most simplest of things.
“Uhm, yeah,” I mumbled, doing my best to tap down my humiliation. I took a deep breath and looked down at my phone. I pressed the play button. I couldn’t concentrate on what the guy in the video was saying, though, because my heart was beating a painful tattoo inside my chest and blood was r
ushing through my ears. But I did my best to focus on the video.
“Grace?” My eyes stung at the way he said my name. I hated the way he said my name now. It was a harsh opposite of the way he used to say it that summer.
The guy in the video had the X in his hand, so holding my phone in my right hand, I reached down and grabbed the X off the ground. I noticed my hand trembled, but it didn’t matter at this point. Whatever pleasure Styx was getting out of watching me humiliate myself was well-deserved. These pockets of embarrassment, these moments of mortification were his for the taking. They belonged to him, and it was the least I could do to give back what I had taken from him that day I had ruined us.
“Grace?” he snapped, and it was his tone that had me looking up at him. “Why are you changing your tire?”
“It’s…because it’s flat,” I answered.
Styx was searching my eyes for something, but I wasn’t sure what. “Then call your roadside service,” he said.
“I’m…uh, I’m just going to do it,” I muttered, hoping he’d leave, but offering up my embarrassment if he chose to stay.
“Why?” he asked, sounding angry. “Fuck, do you even know how to change a tire?”
I could feel the heat in my face return. I waved my phone in my hand. “I…I’ll figure it out.”
Styx looked astonished.
Then pissed.
Chapter 8
Styx~
It’s been three weeks since Grace walked up to me at my locker, and it’s been three weeks that I’ve noticed her every-fucking-where.
And, unfortunately, I’ve also noticed what she’s been doing.
I’ve noticed how she says hi to everyone, and not just her people. I’ve noticed how some people respond in kind, some look at her nervously, and some are flat out rude to her. But it doesn’t stop her. She keeps saying hi to everyone, and I’ve notice London Addison doing the same.
The Blackstone Prep Academy Duet Page 4