I smiled faintly, watching the direction they’d gone. The way Jennie could tease him and still make him show up made sense now.
Then Layla turned to me, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “Wait. You’re December my year, right?” I nodded. “You said you joined last year… which is impossible because I joined last year, and with your birthday, this would be your first year.”
Aly tilted her head, eyebrow cocked. “We never saw you around last year, either.”
I nodded.
I know, I came at seventeen. Still in college in England and would be considered a high schooler here. But they let me in anyway because the interview process went well, because I didn’t give up when they rejected me for being young and for not being able to cover tuition. I guess I looked like a charity case, but it worked well in my favour.
And I normally ate under the stairs or was tucked away in the library. I guess that was why we never really met. I didn’t remember seeing these girls either.
“I got in at seventeen,” I said, awkwardly smiling
Aly’s jaw dropped as she placed her drink down. “You got in at seventeenandgot a full ride. You fucking genius. You’re like—” She lifted her hand up above her head, and the other just below the other one. “You’re just a bit above Miles.”
Ah, yeah, Miles also got in at seventeen. He told me once when he was driving me homewayback.
I nodded, smiling. “He mentioned.”
“He’s truly a prodigy just like you,” Aly said, then clicked her finger as if she had just thought of something. She turned to Aly and started muttering something about Miles’s older brother.
Layla turned to me, “Miles has a brother who went to high school at twelve, which is crazy, and graduated from university at nineteen. You might’ve seen him on the news. Mitchell James Miller.”
Oh yeah, I know him.I saw him on the news a couple of times. Top heir of the Miller healthcare system. A family that owns dozens upon dozens of hospitals around almost half of the country.
They were the brain-based empire, and I really looked up to them. A lot of my brain research came from their articles I read online. They were so useful.
No wonder Miles is a genius. It runs in the family.
“The brother who became a surgeon at twenty-seven,” I muttered, almost to myself.
Which was ridiculous, by the way. An average starting surgeon was around thirty, not late twenties. Mitchell Miller was just… ridiculously smart.
“You and Miles have so much in common,” Aly said, winking at me. I blinked before looking around to make sure Joshua wasn’t anywhere near me because I knew Aly wasn’t going to be breathing for long.
He’s not.
Good.
“Calm down, he won’t kill me. I’m your best friend,” she said, showing our matching rings on her middle finger. “You’d definitely dump him; he won’t risk it,” she added, making me chuckle.
Aly is so unserious.
“Has anyone seen Alex?”
I turned around, and there he was, Joshua, hair still a bit messy from practice, jersey half-tucked, backpack slung over one shoulder. He looked a little out of breath, like he’d been walking fast.
Layla tilted her head. “He went to paint with Jennie,” she said. “It’s their thing, remember? Art room.”
Joshua blinked once, then sighed, muttering something under his breath about Grayson being obsessed with paint. He walked closer, and before I could say anything, he dropped down right beside me, heavy and warm. And then, just like that, he rested his head on my shoulder.
My heart fluttered so hard I had to bite my lip.
“Hi, Princess,” he murmured. His voice was low, lazy, but there was that teasing smile hiding in it, the one that always made my chest tighten.
Aly let out the loudest groan. “Ugh, Lockhart,” she said dramatically, throwing her head back. “I’m still not used to you being like this. It’s sickening.”
Joshua didn’t even look up. “Then don’t look,” he said flatly, still resting against me.
