Page 11 of Sweet Ruin

“No problem. Like I told you, I was headed to Toddy’s anyway. I’ll see you at practice in the morning.”

“See you then.”

Wes closed the door and shrugged as he turned to show me the brown paper Toddy’s bag. “I guess that wasn’t the worst interruption. You hungry?”

“Sure.” I smiled, but it was hard not to be a little disappointed. With the taste of Wes still lingering on my lips after the kiss we hadn’t been able to finish, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to enjoy my Toddy’s burger quite as much as usual.

We sat on the bed with our burgers, and while I usually liked to savor Toddy’s food, tonight I was eating very quickly. The thought of getting to kiss Wes again was probably speeding me up, and I only hoped I wasn’t making so much mess he’d be put off the idea of kissing me completely. In the end, it didn’t matter, because by the time we were finished, Sawyer had returned from soccer practice. It seemed as though our kisses were done for the night.

“What’s this on the door?” Sawyer laughed as he entered the room. “Is this why there was a cheer squad of hotties squealing my name at practice tonight?”

“There were too many girls calling on you here,” Wes replied. “It got so annoying I figured I’d send them to find you.”

“Good thinking.” Sawyer grinned. “I’ve got a tough decision to make before the gala. Any advice, brother?”

“Yep,” Wes replied. “Don’t ask me.”

Sawyer chuckled as he collapsed onto his bed and made himself comfortable.

“I guess you’ve already helped enough,” he continued. “I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, but dodging girls after training was harder than the session itself. I’m exhausted. What have you two been up to?”

Wes and I glanced at each other, not sure what to say. We’d been up to a few things I doubted Sawyer wanted to hear about.

“Uh, studying,” I answered.

“Yeah, we were thinking about heading to the library,” Wes added. He seemed annoyed with his brother for interrupting us yet again and, apparently, he had finally given up trying to ensure we had a bit of privacy.

I nodded. “Yeah, the library sounds great.”

Wes and I gathered our things and were out the door before Sawyer could go into any more detail about the selection process for his gala date.

Neither of us spoke as we walked through the dorm, out into the courtyard and made our way to the library. The evening had been a bit of a roller coaster. I’d really enjoyed hanging out with Wes. I always did. But we didn’t seem to be able to get more than a few minutes alone in this place. He seemed disappointed our study date hadn’t been very successful. So was I.

Just as we reached the entrance to the library, I stopped, reached out to take Wes’s hand and turned him to face me.

“What?” he asked

“I just wanted to say thanks for tonight. I know we didn’t get to spend all that much time alone, but I liked getting to hang out just the two of us.”

“I’m sorry we keep getting interrupted,” Wes said. “I didn’t get to kiss you nearly as much as I would have liked tonight.”

"There’s still time,” I said before I reached up and brushed my lips against his. He smiled as we kissed, and although it wasn’t quite as hot as the one we’d shared in his room, it still sent butterflies swirling in my stomach.

“Hmm.” Wes rumbled. “Maybe I should just go back and kick Sawyer out of our room.”

I laughed lightly and took his hand before leading him into the library. For a Monday night, it was pretty busy. It seemed like half the school was here trying to catch up on work. We were now well into the school year, so assignments and homework had been starting to build up. Still, Wes and I managed to find a spare study table. It was a quiet spot, but as I pulled my books out of my bag, the sound of whispering caused me to turn.

A group of girls sitting a few tables away were giggling about something. As I looked at them, I realized they were all watching me. One of the girls caught my eye, and I recognized her as the one who’d come to the twins’ room looking for Sawyer. The one who had seen Wes without his shirt on while I sat on his bed behind him. When she saw me watching her, she and all the girls quickly turned away, but I could still hear them whispering and giggling quietly.

I hadn’t been at Weybridge Academy long, but it had been enough time for me to learn how quickly gossip spread in this place. Clearly, this girl thought she’d stumbled upon some pretty juicy gossip after finding me on Wes’s bed. I tried my best to ignore her. Wes and I hadn’t been doing anything I should be embarrassed about. I knew that wouldn’t matter though. Once Weybridge Academy decided something was worth gossiping about, there was nothing you could do to stop it.

CHAPTERFOUR

By the next morning, I was once again the talk of the school. Everyone was discussing how I’d been found in a compromising position in Wes’s bedroom. I honestly couldn’t understand why people cared, and the speed at which the gossip seemed to travel around the entire school was shocking. I also couldn’t understand why I seemed to be the only one being judged for it. Girls gave me harsh looks and whispered about me behind my back while simultaneously talking openly about how good Wes looked without a shirt on. It was totally unfair.

A few people felt brave enough to ask me about it directly, and I bluntly told them nothing had happened even though it was none of their business. I’d also explained that to Cress and Anna and although I didn’t ask them to, they’d told everyone they could that it was just a silly rumor. Unfortunately, that did little to help. Instead, the rumor seemed to morph and change, like it was resisting my attempts to kill it. The next day, people were instead talking about how the rumor couldn’t be true because Wes and I lacked chemistry. I honestly felt like I couldn’t win.

Thankfully, it all blew over quite fast, and by the weekend people mostly seemed to have forgotten there was anything to talk about in the first place. Still, I didn’t think I was ever going to get used to the way people at Weybridge loved to talk.

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