Page 11 of (Un)Rivaled

Despite our rocky history, Gray was my best friend now. He was the one who held my hand when I was scared, the one I called when I missed my dad and couldn’t hold back my tears. He’d seen me at my worst, yet he still stuckaround, never bothered that I couldn’t always keep up the perfect act my family demanded.

It was the best feeling in the world—like popping your head out of the car window and letting your scream get lost in the wind. It made me feel alive, even when the rest of the world was trying to corral me into a tiny little box.

Gray turned around to face me, breaking me out of my thoughts. “I want a fresh start,” he sighed. “I’ve been stuck with most of these kids since I was in diapers. I want them to see me differently, not...” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.”

I knew what he meant without him finishing his thought.Not like I’m stupid. And even though I’d told Grayson it wasn’t true, that there were different kinds of intelligence, he never took it to heart. He might have struggled in school, but that didn’t change the fact that he was one of the most brilliant people I’d ever met. He understood physics and body mechanics in a way I could never. He could take one look at an engine and figure out how to take it apart and put it back together. It was the kind of life skill I would kill for.

I turned toward the dressing room, propping my hand on my hip. “You know if anyone else talked about you like that, I’d punch them in the throat.”

“Oh yeah?” Gray chuckled as he pushed open the door and stepped in front of me. “You gonna have my back, Ace?”

My nose scrunched. “Ace?”

“Yeah,” he said; his eyes suddenly darted down to his shoes, and a blush filled his cheeks. At least, I thought it did. By the time he looked up again, it was gone. He shrugged. “Seems fitting, considering how smart you are. We both know you’re going to kill it this year.”

My cell phone rang in my pocket, and I looked at the screen. My mother’s number glided across the front, so I tucked it back into my pocket without opening it. I shook my head, already knowing what she would say. She and my stepfather disapproved of my friendship with Gray, and I had no idea why. David, I could probably guess. The man hated our hometown and almost everyone in it, thinking they were all beneath him. But my mother was a different story. It was like when she married my stepfather, she’d decided to cut out everything from our former life, including the Anders family.

While our parents were no longer friends, Gray and I refused to let that happen to us. I’d already lost enough, and I refused to lose Gray too.

Gray met my far-off look in the mirror, the corner of his mouth ticking up. “You okay back there, Devy?”

“Yeah,” I answered, swallowing to push those thoughts away, but the sight in front of me was just as distracting. It took a significant amount of effort not to drool over this new look, especially with his signature long hair tied in a bun at the base of his neck. Just once, I wanted to run my fingers through it, to feel what it would be like to have all Gray’s attention. But instead of saying anything more, I just cleared my throat and shook my head. “Just think this is a very different look for you.”

“Too much?” Grayson asked, turning around to face me. His hand slid down the front of his shirt, accentuating the muscles in his forearms. Was that a thing? I wouldn’t really know. Honestly, most of the boys in my school were fellow trust fund brats, more obsessed with their clout than their muscles. The only thing they regularly flexed were their mouths. But Gray was always different from that world, more down-to-earth and centered. Maybe thatwould change as we started high school, but I wanted to hold onto that feeling for as long as possible.

“No,” I said, looking up to meet his steely eyes. “Not bad, Grayson.”

He rolled his eyes, taking a step away from me. “Told you not to call me that, Devy.”

I chuckled as he tucked back into the dressing room, tossing the shirt over the door. I closed my eyes, trying not to picture what was on the other side. “It’s only fair. You’ve gotten away with far too many Devys today. You’re lucky I’m distracted.”

“What’s got you so distracted?”

“It’s nothing.”

Gray emerged from the dressing room and stepped into my space. He looked down at me and arched his brow. It was ridiculous, but I was unable to lie to him, even when I wanted to. I flinched, stepping away to catch my breath. It was hard to focus with Gray so close. “Besides the usual stuff with my mom and David? There’s this kid back home who has been bothering me, and he got my cell number.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and showed him the messages. “He keeps texting me that I should smile more. It’s annoying.”

Gray rolled his eyes as he thumbed through the messages. “He’s hitting on you.”

“By being a dick?”

“Yup,” Gray enunciated. “Some guys think that’s the best way to get a girl’s attention.”

“That’s stupid.” I took my phone back out of his hand. “And it’s not even true. He just likes to get under my skin. He did it all last year too. He would see me in the halls at school and yell at me to smile.”

“Want me to talk to him?”

I snorted as I turned to walk away. “I don’t need you to fight my battles, Gray. I’m perfectly capable of handling one jerk.”

But before I could get too far, Gray caught my elbow, pulling me back toward him. “I know you don’t need my help, Ace, but I’ve got your back, just like you have mine. No one messes with you and gets away with it.” He smiled down at me. “Besides, I like that you don’t smile too much.”

I glared at him. “Why is that?”

“Because when you smile at me, I know you mean it. It’s like you’re saving them all for me.”

Later that night, I snuck back into the hotel, taking the service elevator up to our apartment on the top floor. My family had owned the Isadora Hotel for over a hundred years. It sat on an island in the middle of Saint Stephen’s Lake, only accessible by twin bridges on the north and south sides. When my great-grandfather first opened its doors, it had only ten rooms and a small lobby. Now, over a hundred years later, it was a massive compound, complete with several guest houses all over the property.

When we lived in Saint Stephen’s Lake full time, my parents always talked about buying a home away from the hotel but never got around to it. Secretly, I was glad. People often gave me weird looks when they found out we lived here, but I loved it. It was like being a part of history. There were so many secrets hidden in these walls, and my sisters and I loved trying to discover them all.

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