Chapter One
Raine
Gatlin slid me a milkshake before he dropped his bag onto the floor and took a seat across from me. He was my tutor this semester, and I was hoping he could do better than my previous tutors had. I didn’t learn the same way other people did, which made it difficult for me to follow along in class withanysubject. And most people didn’t have the patience to break something down or explain it in different ways until I grasped the subject.
I wasn’t dumb. I just learned differently. It was everyone else that was the problem. Not everyone learned the same way.
“I got you chocolate. Hope that’s okay?” he asked, jerking his chin in the direction of the milkshake.
“Um, yeah,” I said, frowning. “Is this something you usually do?” Gatlin and I had only really spoken through a couple of phone calls and some emails to get things arranged for our tutoring sessions. This was our first face-to-face meeting, though everyone knew who he was considering he was dating the campus heartthrob-slash-asshole, Finn Trivelis.
He shook his head. “Nah. I wanted a milkshake, so I figured I’d grab you one too while I was at it. Thought it might be rude to be slurping on a milkshake while you’ve got nothing.”
My brows furrowed, and my chest tightened at his kindness. I wasn’t used to kindness. “That’s oddly thoughtful. Thanks.”
Gatlin smiled at me before leaning down to grab his bag. I watched as he rummaged around in his bag, pulling out a notebook, a pencil, and a red ink pen. I took a moment to really take him in now that I was seeing him in person rather than through a phone or computer screen. He was a good looking guy with messy brown hair, warm chocolate eyes, and a sort of androgynous look about him. I’d heard most people used to avoid him, but now, they flocked to him.
Couldn’t really blame them. Gatlin glowed like a full moon on an otherwise pitch-black night. Rumor was, he used to hide and keep to himself, but since he’d started dating Finn, he’d come out of his shell.
There wasn’t a single soul in school who didn’t know who he wasandwho his boyfriend was. Gatlin and his boyfriend were one of thoseitcouples. Gatlin was practically a fucking genius, and his boyfriend was extremely popular and also a bit of an asshole. They were polar opposites, but they worked. Hell, there was a whole Instagram fan account dedicated to the two of them.
It was weird.
“So, you mentioned you need a lot of help with English and math, right?” Gatlin asked. When I nodded, he tapped his pen against the table like it was a nervous tick instead of him being impatient with me. I was pretty good at picking up on the differences considering my grandmother, the woman who’draised me after my mom went to prison for drug running when I was a kid, was a cruel and impatient woman.
Leaving home for college hadn’t happened fast enough.
“Do you have your textbooks with you? We’ll start with English today.”
I leaned over and grabbed my textbook out of my backpack and set it on the table. I flipped open to where we were currently at in class, and turned the book toward him. He nodded and leaned in, immediately getting to work on breaking everything down for me in a way no one else ever had before.
My shoulders relaxed a bit as I took notes while he explained and broke things down further for me.
Maybe I had a chance of graduating college yet.
“Baby, it’s damn near six,” a rough voice spoke from above us.
I flinched back from where I’d been hovered over my assignment. Gatlin tipped his head up from his phone and smiled at Finn, who was looming over our table. The man was intimidating, to say the least. He was tall and muscular with dark hair and equally as dark eyes. And the way he tracked every single move Gatlin made was predatory.
“Is it already?” Gatlin looked at his phone again, frowning. Then, he looked at me with a sheepish smile. “If you finish that and send me a picture later, I can look over it and tell you what’s wrong and what’s not.”
I shook my head. I didn’t want him to have to work outside of our scheduled time. As it was, we’d already gone way over today. Tutoring was only supposed to last an hour, but somehow, we were going on two.
“This isn’t due until Friday,” I told him. “We can just look over it on Thursday before we dive into math?”
“Sure,” he said, standing. Finn was already packing Gatlin’s stuff into his bag, his impatience clear. I swallowed thickly, nervous as hell. I didnotwant to be on Finn’s bad side—I’d heard what happened to people who ended up on the wrong side of him—and I needed Gatlin to be able to tutor me. He was the only tutor I’d ever had that could break things down enough for me toeasilyunderstand.
“Um, Finn,” I said quietly, hiding my hands under the table so he wouldn’t see me fidgeting. He looked at me, a single eyebrow arched, his impatience with me clear on his face. I swallowed thickly. “I’m sorry for keeping Gatlin past our scheduled time. It won’t happen again.”
Finn grunted and shrugged Gatlin’s bag onto his shoulder. Gatlin rolled his eyes at his boyfriend but smiled at me. “Don’t worry about him,” Gatlin assured me as Finn grabbed his hand. “He’s just a grump. I’ll see you on Thursday, yeah?”
I nodded, watching as Finn tugged Gatlin after him. Sighing, I focused back on my homework, forcing myself to finish the assignment so I could go back to my dorm room, warm up a cup of ramen noodles, shower, and then crash into bed.
Crashing into bed soundedsonice. I was soexhausted. School was draining me, and the semester had barely started.
I rubbed at my tired eyes as I made my way along the dark path that led toward my dorm building. There wasn’t any light since the street light had gone out a couple of weeks ago and campus maintenance had yet to replace it. But it was the shortest walk to my building, and I didn’t have the energy to take the safest, well-lit route that would take me an extra five minutes.
Yawning, I closed my eyes, my jaw popping. My foot connected with a raised part of the sidewalk, and I tripped, falling to my hands and knees, my backpack smacking me hard in the back of the head before tumbling down beside me. Groaning, I reached up and cradled my head, wincing when I felt blood there.
