When she looked at me, she gave me a small, apologetic smile and I returned it. I didn’t have time to actually say anything, as Cass threw on some music and dragged me to my feet.
“Come on, Oz, let’s dance,” she giggled.
“You’re such a weirdo.” I smiled.
She whipped me around the floor and I saw that Jax was chatting with Lily.
Lily smiled and laughed at whatever he said with such readiness that her words earlier hit me with more force than they had when she’d uttered them. Did she really like Jax better than me? Even when he was quite clearly enamoured with someone else? Oh, who was I kidding? Of course she did. I’d given her very little reason to like me.
And, you have no reason to give her reason, I reminded myself.
“You’re very preoccupied tonight,” Cass said. “I’ll forgive your terrible mood if you’ll tell me what’s up.”
“Nothing Cass, I’m just thinking about school.”
“You most certainly are not. You’re thinking about Lily, again. Why don’t you ask her to dance if you’re so very interested in her?” I looked at her and she was smiling; so, not as putout as her tone suggested.
“I don’t think she’ll dance with me.” Although, I would have very much liked her to.
“You’ll never know unless you ask.”
I sighed. “Will you leave me be if I ask her? And not laugh if she says no?”
Cass laughed. “If she says no, she’s a better woman than I.”
I nodded. “Fine.”
Cass pulled us towards Jax and Lily, letting go of my hand and throwing herself on the couch.
“Uh, do you want to dance?” I asked.
I saw her pause and smile, but she said nothing.
“Lily? I don’t suppose you’d like to dance with me?”
She turned on me with a pleasant smile. “Someone as proud as you will want me to say yes, but I’m going to have to pass on that one, Austin. I’m a terrible dancer and expect I’ll only step on your feet. Instead of have you hate me for a broken foot, you will have to hate me for refusing you.”
“I don’t think I could do either,” I said softly.
I could tell by her face she was trying hard to tease me but not insult me, not this time. She looked at me with such openness in her eyes, her smile sincere, apologetic and humoured all at once.
I couldn’t hate her for anything in the world. I could despise her family all I liked, but her… Never. I reminded myself heavily of Gemma and Kate, and of Aunt Celia’s email, for the rest of the night as we all talked.
Cass gave me strange looks over the course of the night, but I wasn’t sure what she saw on my face. She spent a lot of time looking between Lily and me, frowning at me every now and then, then laughing much too loudly at something Lily had said.
Perhaps she, like me, saw that, if I forgot who her family were, I had the capacity to entirely forget myself and be in a serious way to be very much falling in love with her.
****
Lily was upstairs with Anne and I sat in the kitchen with Jax and Cass while we ate breakfast.
“So, I saw you making eyes at Lily last night, brother.” Jax smiled.
I looked at him over the rim of my coffee cup. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I do,” Cass said. Like the day before, though she smiled, her eyes were… There was a hardness to them I hadn’t been able to identify.
“Well, you two can form some sort of club and discuss these fictional ‘eyes’ then,” I replied.
“I can think of the first topic for discussion.”
“And, what’s that, Cassandra?” Jax teased.
“The advantage of being able to tell Daniel Brewer to shut up when Oz and Lily are married,” she giggled, taking a bite of food. “You’ve surely got money enough for the lot of them, so you can hopefully convince Gemma and Kate to be less outrageous flirts.”
I glared at her. “My God, you’re hilarious. Anything else I should be doing once I’m Mister Brewer?”
Cass tapped a finger against her chin. “You could temper your wife’s wit somewhat. It’s all very well to have this insulting back and forth in your courtship, but surely you’ll tire of it after you’ve dealt with it every day for the rest of your life.”
“Cass, you are wicked,” Jax laughed. “Lily is a perfectly nice girl. It won’t hurt Oz to have a wife who won’t just smile and simper to him, but who matches him in intelligence and argument.”
“I’m sorry, brother, are you in on this, too?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I put my cup down. “First, there is no way I’m not going to marry Fleur, and now I’m already married to Lily? Bloody hell, I should hurry up and convert to Mormonism, lest I not be able to marry Fleur when the time comes.”
“Oh, come on, mate. Everyone but Aunt Celia and Fleur know you’re not actually going to marry her. You could do worse than Lily Brewer.” Jax smiled.
“Could I, though?” I asked.
At the same time, Cass said, “wait, what?”
I looked at her. “What, what?”
Jax looked at her with as much confusion. “You didn’t think Oz had ever seriously thought about marrying Fleur?”
Cass looked between us, her face the only answer we needed. But, she answered, “I…I just didn’t realise you’d ruled it out so completely… I mean, she’s in love with you.”
“She’s seventeen, Cass, she doesn’t know what love is,” I replied, smiling.
“Hang on, Oz. I don’t think I can agree with you on that one,” Jax said.
I rolled my eyes. “Jackson, don’t tell me you think you know what love is?”
He looked at me in the way he did when he got stubborn. It was the look I’d seen when he insisted he jump off the roof like Mary Poppins when we were six. It was the look I’d seen when he said he was going to take breakdance lessons when we were eleven. It was the look I’d seen when he befriended that weird kid Aunt Celia hated when we were fifteen. It was also the look I’d seen when he’d told me he was getting a tattoo the day I got my first one… Until he’d seen the blood and decided perhaps he was better off not getting a tattoo after all.
I sighed and looked at him. I knew well that, when he got like this, he was the only one who could change his mind. But, I knew the look was over Anne, a girl he’d known all of a month. I ignored any comparison my brain tried to draw with Lily.
“Jax, just wait and see how everything goes, yeah? Don’t go leaping before you look,” I said slowly.
“One day, Austin Cooper, you’ll fall in love. Heaven help the poor girl you fall for, because you will no doubt be as unwavering and intense in your love for her as you are in your belief that no one’s good enough for us,” Jax grumbled, got up and left the room.
I heard him mutter, “hi Lily,” as he left and I threw Cass a look to keep her quiet.
Lily stumbled in, looking still half-asleep. “Point me in the direction of the coffee God, yeah?” She smiled and it nearly melted the icy cage I’d thrown around my heart.
“I’ll make it for you. Sit down and have something to eat.”
She yawned and stretched, the bottom of her t-shirt rising to show off her stomach. I looked to Cassandra and saw I wasn’t the only one checking Lily out.
I cleared my throat and made Lily’s coffee.
“Here,” Cass said, pushing a plate towards her.
“Thanks, I’m not really good at food in the morning. Plus, I want to go back up and check on Anne. I think she’s a lot better. We should be more than fine to get back to school before first lesson.” She chuckled wryly.
I dropped more than placed the coffee cup in front of her. “Oh, good. Well, just let us know when she’s ready and we’ll get you a taxi. Can’t have Anne catching the bus back.”
Lily stood, picking up the cup, and gave me a strange look. “No, no we couldn’t have that.” She smiled.
She watched me as she took a sip, then licked her lips. I was s
tarting to think she very much knew what that did to me.
Chapter Eleven
I headed back up to Anne’s room, my mind on the weird almost-niceness of Austin’s comment.
“Hey, look at you, you’re up!” I smiled as I walked into the room.
“Hey, look at you; you’re in your own clothes again.” Anne smiled from where she sat propped up in the bed. She was looking at her phone and she groaned. “Mum’s been texting like mad.”
“She’s probably just worried about you.”
She scoffed. “I assure you she’s not. She’s wondering when Jax is going to propose and when I’ll be rich and famous.”
I nearly spat my coffee out from laughing. “Sorry, it’s not actually funny.”
Anne smiled. “It’s a little funny. So, how have things been with Mr. Jerkface?”
I chuckled, “I don’t know. Honestly, he’s weird. One minute, it’s like he’s flirting with me, the next he’s staring daggers at me, then he’s ignoring me completely.”
“Sounds like he’s hopelessly in love with you!” Anne sighed overly-dramatically and I laughed.
“Not likely. Not like Jax is with you. Woo girl, that boy has a serious thing for you!”
“You need to stop saying things like that and getting my hopes up.” She smiled, her tell-tale blush spreading across her cheeks.
“Do you want to go down for something to eat?”
Anne’s face scrunched up. “I don’t know about food, but I would love to get out of this bed.”
“Two secs.” I drained my coffee and helped her up. “You right?”
“Little weak still, but good.”
We headed downstairs and I helped her into a chair at the table in the kitchen. The others had wandered off God knew where and I wasn’t terribly fussed they were gone.
As I rummaged around, looking to make Anne some toast, Cass walked back in.
“Anne, you’re up! You look so much better.”
“Thanks, yes, I’m getting there.”
I listened to them talk while I busied myself in the kitchen, entirely without the help of the person who probably knew where everything was. When I turned around, I saw Cass looking at me weirdly, but she instantly turned to Anne and continued talking.
I finished finding what I needed and finally put two pieces of toast and a cup of tea in front of Anne. I sat down with them and we talked for a while about nothing of any consequence.
After Anne had managed to eat most of the toast and half her tea, I helped her move outside where we sat down under the veranda. Just as we were settled, I noticed Jax and Austin, obviously arguing, and both topless, standing over a soccer ball. I arched an eyebrow at them. They were the spitting image of each other bar Austin’s hair and tattoos; it was quite surreal to see the two of them together like that.
“You guys, quite right?” I asked, noticing Anne’s blush and downcast eyes from the corner of my eyes. “I’m not entirely sure we need so much of you both exposed. It is very distracting.”
Jax laughed, then his eyes fell on Anne and he rushed over to sit with her. I watched them for a moment, deep in conversation. Poor Anne didn’t know where to look and tried in vain to keep her gaze focussed on his eyes. Although, knowing Jax, she was just as shy about what she saw there as she was about his very buff, shirtless chest.
I was about to say something to Austin, but Cass had gone over to him. His eyes were on me, though, and I wondered what was going through his mind. As he talked to Cass, he pulled a shirt from his back pocket and slowly pulled it on. I tried not to laugh at the notion that he was showing off. Part of me thought he was doing just that, but the majority of me knew better; he was probably so used to being ogled by girls, he just moved that way naturally.
He and Cass came to sit down with us. Austin picked up a book and started reading. Cass sat next to him, looking at something on her phone.
I watched them with humour. I had been fairly sure Cass wasn’t into guys, but, the way she was acting with Austin the last couple of days, I had no idea what was going on.
My eyes flicked to Jax and Anne, and I smiled seeing them still engrossed in conversation. Anne had relaxed, seeming to no longer notice her gorgeous companion was half-naked. I watched her laugh at something he said and smiled, returning to my phone.
I busied myself sending messages to Gemma and Kate, and enjoying the rare English sunshine.
Kate: How goes the grandness?
Me: Lol, you should have seen Anne’s face when we found the twins both topless!
Gemma: God, that’s so unfair!
Kate: WHAT?
Me: Haha. I’m sure you’ve seen them around the place without their shirts on. It’s not that spectacular.
Gemma: You have to be insane!
Kate: Are you sure you’re not into Cass after spin the bottle? Those two are GORGEOUS!
Me: Trust me, I’m not against a good perve on either of them.
Kate: You should snag Austin before someone else does!
Gemma: There’s not much chance of that!
Me: True, the guy is about as charming as a cow turd.
Gemma: I was going to say he’s too scary for any girl to talk to him while not entirely inebriated, which isn’t really conducive to a relationship, but your description works lol.
I laughed aloud, more of a snort than anything, also surprised that Gemma knew the words ‘inebriated’ and ‘conducive’.
“You okay?” Austin looked at me, waving a hand at Cass as though shushing her.
I looked at him, trying to see him as scary, and trying not to laugh again. “Yes, fine. Just Gemma.” I nodded, then turned back to my phone, seeing a new message from Liam.
Liam: Coming back any time soon? ;)
Me: Tomorrow, as a matter of fact. Did you want to do something?
Liam: I was thinking lunch. Will you be back by then?
Me: Not sure, I’ll check.
Liam:
“Anne?” I asked, looking up.
“Yeah?”
“What time did you want to head off in the morning?” I asked slowly.
She grinned. “Have you got plans?”
I gave her a sly smile. “I didn’t say I had plans.”
“When aren’t these plans going to be?”
“There aren’t plans possibly for lunch?” I replied, looking at my phone. “They could not be made for later?”
“Lunch should be fine.” She smiled. “For those plans you don’t have.”
I grinned and she winked at me. As I turned back to my phone, I caught Austin and Cass both looking at me with interest. Austin’s face was guarded, and I had no idea what he thought of the exchange. Cass looked a little disgusted, or something, and I was surprised. I smiled at her. She gave me a terse smile in return and looked back to Austin, saying something quietly to him.
Me: Lunch is all good. Where shall I meet you?
Liam: Want to text me when you’re almost here and I’ll meet you out front?
Me: Sounds good. How’s practice going?
Liam: Blerg, not great, we’ll lose epically at this rate.
Me: That is hardly an Aussie attitude!
Liam: Haha! Fine, we’ll crush them.
Me: Good, that’s what I like to hear.
My phone beeped and Gemma and Kate’s conversation popped up.
Gemma: Where did you go?
Me: I have a life outside you two, you know ;)
Kate: You do not, shut up. More disastrous!! Can you believe there are no parties on this weekend?
Gemma: It’s a bloody scandal!
Me: You make it sound like I can do something about that?
…
I sighed.
Me: What do you want me to do?
Kate: Ask Jax if he’ll throw a party!
Gemma: And the Military boys can come!
Me: I don’t think I can dictate the guest list, guys.
Kate: You have to try!
Gemma: It will
be soo boring this weekend if you don’t!
Me: Can’t you do normal things? Like stay in your room and study?
Gemma: God, you’re boring!
Me: Excuse me, who are you trying to convince to make this party a thing?
Kate: Yeah, Gemma, shut up!
Gemma: You shut up!
Me: You both shut up.
“Jesus.” I muttered, shaking my head.
Anne smiled. “Problems?”
“Sisters.”
“Oh, what’s up?” Jax asked.
“Gemma and Kate think you should throw a party next weekend because, scandal of scandals, there isn’t one currently planned. And they want the Military College guys to be invited.”
Jax looked thoughtful. “I can do that.”
“Are you serious?” Cass asked.
“Why not? Would be good to get to know them. We’ll have thrashed them that morning, think of it as a celebration.” Jax smiled. “Oz?”
I looked to Austin and saw the first look of uncertainty I’d ever seen cross his face. “Do what you like, brother. It’s your party.”
Jax grinned. “This is going to be great. Anne, will you help me plan it?”
She nodded and they seemed to busy themselves with preparations.
Cass stood up. “Lily, come here a second.”
I looked at her, surprised by the warmth in her eyes now. I got up and she met me halfway across the veranda. I saw Austin’s eye’s following me but ignored him when Cass took my arm and started leading me out towards the grass. She shot a glance at Austin, who’d closed his book and was following us with his gaze.
“Oz, I’m sure you could join us, if you wanted. We could kick the football around.”
He smirked at her. “I should think you have a plan in your actions, Cass, and I wouldn’t get in the way of that.”
“What can he mean, Lily?” Cass asked, mock-indignantly.
I laughed. “Don’t bother asking him, it will just feed his superiority complex.”
“No, go on, Oz. What’s my plan?”
He rested his hands behind his head, crossing one ankle over his knee. “Well, you either want to talk secrets with Lily, perhaps some scandalous love-affair you have planned, or you want me to admire your football skills. If the former, I promise you I have no interest in knowing who your latest planned conquest is. If the latter, I can hardly watch you if I’m with you.”
Netherfield Prep: A Modern Reimagining of Jane Austen's 'Pride & Prejudice' Page 8