Page 6 of Eleanor & Grey

Reaching into my bag, I pulled out my novel and fell back into the world of magic. It took me a few minutes to tune out the noise surrounding me, but J.K. Rowling made it easy for me to become fully invested in every single word she wrote.

Surprisingly, the party wasn’t that wild. Some people were drinking, but more seemed to be into the music choices and poor dancing. Two people a few feet away from me talked about basketball stats and workouts.

I thought more people would be tongue-locked. Though, I guess I’d gotten most of my preconceptions of school parties from television shows and over-the-top rom-coms.

It actually didn’t seem so out of the ordinary for a girl to be reading. Oddly enough, I kind of fit in.

It wasn’t until I heard two guys trying to whisper as they talked about Shay that I looked up from my book. Because they weren’t just talking about Shay—they were talking about me, too.

Me.

That wasn’t the norm. All throughout my years in school, I had been able to keep my head down and be left alone for the most part. I was almost certain no one even knew who I was, other than me being the random, oddly dressed girl Shay ate lunch with every day.

“Dude, Brace Face is here,” one of the voices whisper-shouted over the bad music.

“You don’t gotta call her that,” the other groaned.

“Uh, have you seen her mouth? I think we do. She’s Shay’s cousin, right?”

“Yeah, that’s her. Eleanor,” the other replied.

Hmm…

He’d used my actual name. Most people called me Brace Face or Shay’s cousin.

Weird.

“Go butter her up and get on her good side. Then Shay will see that I get along with her family. It will make her and me a sure thing again.”

I glanced over at the two guys, trying to act nonchalant, before looking back to my book.

Of course it was Landon Harrison trying to find his way into my cousin’s heart—or more accurately, her pants.

The two had been the leads in the school play the previous year. They’d hooked up during tech week while Shay was a bit intoxicated. After that, she’d made the most cliché mistake as an actress—she’d fallen in love with the fictional character the actor was portraying. Rookie mistake.

Landon was definitely no Mr. Darcy.

They’d dated for a week before he’d cheated on her on opening night of the show. Once she’d broken things off with him, he’d made it his mission to get her back, presumably mainly because he struggled with the idea of a girl not wanting him and his cheating ways.

Too bad Shay was too strong of a woman to put up with his crap. She hardly even looked his way, except when vodka was involved.

“Shouldn’t you be talking to her to make a connection?” the other guy asked.

I discreetly glanced up at him. Greyson East was one of the top-tier students in our class. He, like Shay, was loved by all.

Greyson was annoyingly handsome, well dressed, and, the star basketball player who could have any girl in the world. When I thought of high school popularity, Greyson was the one who always came to mind. I mean, it was his face on the homepage of the school’s website, after all. He was a big deal at our high school.

“Dude, I can’t talk to that thing. She creeps me out. All she ever does is read and wear those weird sweaters.”

I would’ve been offended by him calling me a thing, but I simply didn’t care. It was just a muggle being a muggle. They didn’t know any better. Sometimes they acted out in idiotic ways.

“What a waste of life,” Grey mocked his friend, sounding bored.

I almost smiled at the level of sass in his voice, but my hatred pushed away my grin.

“Just do me a solid,” Landon requested.

“I’m not doing that,” Greyson argued. “Just leave her alone.”

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