Page 2 of Cruel Elite (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 3)

Not to say I don’t like Lily. I do.

I just assumed Finn would end up with a trust fund baby. A spoiled rich girl who said “wine o’clock” unironically and had aspirations of being a “stay-at-home mom” with a full-time nanny.

You could throw a rock and hit ten women like that in this godforsaken town.

I spit on the forest floor. “I don’t need a girl to make me happy.”

Viktor throws up his plastic cup in a salute, liquid sloshing over the side. “That’s right, Miss Independent! You don’t need no one, nuh uh.” He snaps his fingers to complete the joke.

Everyone else laughs.

I roll my eyes.

“I don’tneeda donut to be happy, but it helps,” Lily argues when the laughter subsides.

“Good idea,” Finn says, wrapping an arm around Lily’s hips and sliding her closer to him. “Maybe if you get a bite of someone’s cake, you won’t be such a drag.”

Lily gasps. “That is not what I meant!” She turns to me. “It was an analogy. I just meant you could talk to one of them. Maybe get to know them.”

Finn barks out a laugh before I can. He pats Lily’s head condescendingly. “Oh, sweet Lily. Naïve, idealistic Lily. That is never going to happen.”

Lily opens her mouth to argue, but I cut her off before she can. “It’s never going to happen.”

Her shoulders slump forward. “Why not? They seemed nice.”

“That’s exactly why! Because they seem nice!” Finn answers. “Does Noah lookniceto you? Does it look like he wants anicegirl?”

Lily studies me.

I look away, tired of being under her magnifying glass.

Ever since she and Finn came back to Ravenlake for the holidays, she’s been watching me. I mentioned it to Finn last week, but he brushed it off.

“Lily just wants to help people,”he said.

“No shit,”I’d replied.“Why else would she be with a charity case like you?”

We laughed, and I let it go, but it still bothers me.

I don’t need help.

Not from him.

Not from her.

Not from anyone.

J.C. jumps over the log I’m sitting on with both legs, kicking up a cloud of dust, and flops down next to me. “Please tell me you aren’t looking to become monogamous. Because I just accepted the offers of a pair of very lovely, very naughty girls who want to meet the two of us in the woods.”

He hitches a thumb over his shoulder. I turn just in time to see a curly redhead and a box-dyed brunette strutting into the woods on their heels.

Who wears heels in the woods?

“Are you talking about Penny’s Dreadfuls?” Haley asks, top lip curled in disgust. “I saw you talking to them.”

Finn immediately asks the question we’re all thinking: “How did you do that with Caleb’s tongue down your throat?”

But apparently, Haley is capable of swapping spit with Caleb and eavesdropping on the party at the same time.

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