Page 39 of Cruel Elite (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 3)

She slouches forward like we’ve dragged the information out of her. “Well, I thought maybe you guys would have heard who hooked up at the bonfire the other night.”

We both shake our heads, and her lower lip pouts out. “I’m sure the news will make the rounds soon, but… J.C. and I spent the night together!”

Anika claps a hand over her mouth. I raise my brows, dubious. “You fucked J.C.?”

Jennifer’s chest puffs out with pride as she nods.

“In his bed?”

Her confidence falters. “Well, no.”

“In his car?” Anika asks.

“No,” she says, more annoyed. “We were making out in the woods and things progressed pretty quickly from there. We were both so into it that there wasn’t really time to go anywhere else. We just—”

“You slept in the woods?!” Anika’s expression is horrified.

I’m sure mine isn’t much different. “That’s nasty, Jen.”

“It wasn’t nasty. It was…”

“Wild,” Anika finishes for her with a snicker.

This time, my laughter isn’t fake. That really was funny.

“You two don’t get it,” Jen says. “J.C. has been the perpetual bachelor of The Golden Boys, but I think I might be able to change him. He said the ‘L-word.’”

I wave my hands in the air to draw all attention to me. “Speak clearly. Did he say ‘I love you’?”

Jen’s cheeks flush. “No, not exactly.”

“Then, what exactly did he say?” Anika asks.

“He said… ‘I love the way you do that.’”

Anika and I both erupt in laughter, falling over each other.

“What were you doing at the time he uttered those momentous words?” Anika asks, making a vulgar gesture with her hand and mouth that, based on the way Jen’s face reddens, is probably very accurate.

“Whatever. You guys suck.” Jen takes a long drink from her beer can and crumples it before throwing it in the trash. “He seemed into it.”

Anika nods condescendingly and continues. “Okay, aside from the fated stars that are J.C. and Jennifer, who else do we think will hook up this semester?”

“What about Noah?” Jen asks, eager to get the focus off of her. “He hasn’t been with anyone for a while.”

Both girls turn to me, eyes hungry and expectant.

Very few people know the full story behind our falling out. I’d like to keep it that way.

They play the parts of my friends, but we all know they’d eat me alive like wild animals if they thought I had a secret they could sell to the rest of the student body.

I have no intention of making my private life public.

So, even though I want to inform them Noah is newly horrible and to be avoided at all costs, that response would raise too many eyebrows. I’d have to tell them about too many things I’d rather keep buried.

So, I fall in line with the rest of the female population of Ravenlake Prep and fawn over Noah Boone.

“He must be single of his own choice. Every girl in school wants to get with him,” I say.

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