I peek a look over at Drew, Caleb, and Dom, the twins are transfixed to the headmaster on the stage but Dom, Dom is staring intently at me. I return his stare, he is not hard to look at, with steely grey eyes, long ashy blonde hair dramatically flopping over his face. But, it is the combination of that with his lips, his mouth, that is mesmerizing. He is hard not to keep watching and he lets me ogle him, his eyes full of encouragement and that perfect mouth of his offering a slight smile, until the headmaster beckons my focus again, only for a moment. I throw a quick glance back to Dom and his pretty eyes again before physically turning in my seat away from him. He is that distracting. I really wonder about St Joseph’s, full of beautiful, like, gorgeous people that are all confident in themselves and in this setting already, I am not sure I will have what you need to survive here. I already feel like a fish out of water.
“We have a series of smaller gathering’s coming up over the next couple of days and you will be expected to attend. Those evenings will break us up into year levels and will be an opportunity for you to meet department heads as well as your cohort. Tonight though we will also present to you the School Captains and our School Champion, and then we will get to enjoy a lovely dinner. Before I start with the awards, I remind you that classes commence bright and early, tomorrow at eight am. Now please let me introduce to our newest students, our School Captains, Beatrice Hastings and Connor McDougall,” he sweeps his arm to the curtained area off the left of the stage and I watch as both Beatrice and green-eyed Connor walk out and go to stand next to the headmaster on the stage, they shake hands warmly with each other and you get a real sense of genuine regard.
“Thank you Dr. Nelson for your kind words, Beatrice and I are looking forward to this academic year and meeting all the new St Joseph attendees. We have been asked to keep it very short and simple, so that is what we do. I will take the opportunity however to reiterate, that we are your elected representatives, so please know that our door is always open. Stay safe and work hard. Thank you again Dr,” Connor finishes by grabbing Dr. Nelson in another handshake while Betsy smiles on.
Dr. Nelson is a suave, fit, fifty-ish looking man with salt and pepper hair, dressed and groomed impeccably. He wears the academic robes of a doctor of philosophy and it certainly suits him. He walks back to the microphone, “Now new students, this may be you in twelve months, although our award winner, our school Champion who sets a very, very high standard. We certainly encourage you to achieve your goals, set them high for the rewards are endless. Tonight I have the privilege of presenting to you our academic award winner. It is really no surprise, he has taken out this prestigious award surpassing his peers, despite his age, for the past two years. He is academically brilliant and we are blessed that he continues to accept the honorary scholarship we offer him, please congratulate Hunter Hollingsworth,” he finishes and the room is suddenly alive with thundering feet and whoops from around the room.
And there he is again.
I am not sure how I react, maybe I gasp out loud, but Drew looks at me quickly, his eyebrow quirking up in question before we are thankfully interrupted by the food service. I really don’t want to explain knowing Hunter, it just sounds so silly, him refusing to acknowledge me, and me for some reason agreeing to it.
The meals are all set down as the applause dies down to a few lingering claps, the waiters continue around the ballroom discretely finishing the service as Hunter addresses the ballroom. Honestly, I will not be able to tell you what he says, I barely hear anything over the ringing in my ears. Hunter finishes his acceptance speech on stage and Dr. Nelson completes the announcements for the evening to exit the stage with Hunter, Betsy, and Connor trailing behind him. Pretty much all the students continue to watch Dr. Nelson and the others leave the stage, all smiling, they disappear behind the curtains only to reappear at the stairs to make their way to their table. As one the entire ballroom stands to their feet, I am a little slow off the mark, but I quickly stand despite my wobbly legs. We all wait until they are at their table and seated, before we follow suit. A soft murmur stirs through the room as people relax around their tables and chat amongst themselves.
Everyone at my table sits down and they immediately start on the entree, the guys are talking quietly with each other and Hartley is on her phone. I am still a little shocked, as I sit back to catch my breath. I can’t help the pull I feel towards his table, despite my best intention to ignore everything about Hunter, something about him calls to me and I quickly look in his direction. Hunter is seated between Betsy and another beautiful girl our age, her blonde hair rolled in a chignon and even from here she looks like a young Grace Kelly. His whole table is in animated happiness, and I feel like I am intruding upon their celebration, as I take note of their happy smiles, handshakes. And then the pretty Grace Kelly sitting next to him, leans into Hunter and pulls his face to hers to kiss him chastely on the lips. He smiles into her kiss. My hands are shaking so badly after watching them, that I drop my glass and it smashes to the travertine floor, the sound echoing around the room.
I am pretty sure that everyone turns to stare at me. Including Hunter, his eyes flash at me in anger.
“You okay Ginny?” Drew asks quickly from across the table, rising from his seat, before a team of waiters run from all sides of the room and the broken glass, the mess on the floor is gone in a matter of moments. The noise of the ballroom starts up again, I am quickly forgotten.
“Oh shit, I am sorry everyone. It has been a long day,” I offer quietly to the table. They all wave it off with a series of sympathetic smiles and a few murmured words before they start chatting amongst themselves again. Everyone, except for Drew who is now squatting at my side.
“Ginny, are you okay? You are a little pale. Have you eaten? Maybe try to eat something, and then if you are still not feeling well, I will take you back up to your room, maybe an early night is what you need,” he says as he rubs my shoulder reassuringly.
“Thanks Drew. I am okay, honestly. Just super tired and hungry. I am crazy nervy for tomorrow too,” I reply tentatively, and with a final look at me, he returns to his seat. His friendly eyes, still watching me closely.
“Are you okay?” Dom asks almost as soon as Drew’s gaze drops from me, his interest returning to the food in front of him. Dom’s eyes are far from friendly, as I look into them, they are full of unabashed interest. His look, lingering.
I nod my head in answer, offering a small smile as I break our stare. He settles next to me, his chair inching insurmountably closer, before he too falls back into the conversation flowing around our table, starting his own entree.
The food looks amazing, not that I will expect anything less. The whole place is next level impressive, so the food and drinks will match, but honestly every plate offered tastes like ash. I insist upon myself to be involved in the easy conversation at our table and I will myself not to look at Hunter. I do a pretty impressive job, making it through the evening to coffee, despite my nerves and anxiousness.
The carefree chatter on our table is interrupted when Connor and Hunter suddenly appear.
“How are we doing folks? We are just doing the rounds, super fast tonight! I just really wanted to quickly introduce ourselves. I am Connor, and this is Hunter. Welcome to St. Joseph’s, we hope you have had a good night, no doubt one or both of us will hopefully catch up with you individually over the next few days. It’s great to see you all settling in,” Connor is a natural, people person, it is so evident in his words and how he stands, his confidence wraps around him like a wooly jumper. I focus absolutely everything I have on him. I will myself, not, to look at Hunter.
I succeed at my little game of ignoring Hunter, until Dom makes a move. Whether calculated or not, Dom takes the opportunity to place his arm over the back of my seat. To anyone else it will be a relaxed, innocent gesture but my body locks down in surprise, while my eyes flash to Hunter whose pretty eyes betray his aggravation, he avoids my gaze though, instead locking on Dom’s arm over the back of my chair. A quick look at Dom and I note a little smirk runs over his face.
“Ahh, there you are!” Connor says with a laugh on his face, unintentionally breaking the strange battle between the three of us, “I am glad you found your seat after I rescued your bag.”
“Um yeah, I’m a terrible klutz, thanks again, I appreciate you grabbing it. I seem to be dropping and breaking everything at the moment,” I reply back, good-naturedly, my words flying out of my mouth, trying to calm the rising tension that quickly descends over our table. Drew, Caleb, Hartley, and the unknowns ping pong their eyes over the four of us.
“You are breaking everything aren't you,” Hunter snarls back and silences the table completely. I drop my eyes in shock, instantly a heated flush starts from the bottom of my feet and rushes through my body. Hartley turns to look at me, but I refuse to look at her too.
My face continues to redden as I feel nearly everyone turn to look at me, no doubt trying to figure this out. Dom takes the rising tension even higher, placing his hand suddenly on my shoulder, “Come on, you have had a big day, I am walking you up to your suite,” he offers, ignoring everything happening around us, either ignorantly or not, standing beside me quickly and grabbing my bag. “Goodnight gents, ladies thank you for a pleasant evening. I will see you in a bit Drew, otherwise till tomorrow!” Dom takes command of the situation when he grabs my hand, pulling me away from our stunned table. I throw a half-assed wave over my shoulder and swear I hear a growl sounding from behind us.
It’s a strange feeling being dragged, rescued from the table by Dom. I am beyond thankful for his presence but at the same time I am a bit put out by his ballsy assumption. He doesn’t stop or even speak to me until we are back at the lifts in the main foyer, which is a good distance from the dinner in the ballroom. Still silent and a little domineering, he walks me towards the mirrored lifts, pushing the button for the lift before taking a stand behind me while we wait. I feel his presence at my back and strangely it fills me with comfort, a sense of protection almost. Dom shamelessly watches my every reaction to him with a burning intensity, that I feel and see in our reflection on the mirrored doors.
“Ginny, I would really like the opportunity of getting to know you. I think we have an instant connection, can you feel it?” he says softly as he watches my reaction before he allows his finger to slowly trail up over my shoulder to the base of my neck. He flicks my hair out of the way and lets his fingers linger in the intimate space. I honestly feel this connection he speaks about, but it feels too raw, too sudden and I can only focus on all the bad things it stirs in me at the moment.
Thankfully, or regretfully, the lift dings and his fingers still. It’s probably a good thing that the mirrored lift doors slide open, our reflection disappearing because he confuses the heck out of me and I am sure, it is written all over my face.
“Yeah Dom, I think I would like that, too. I need a lot of time and some space, but getting to know you sounds good,” I offer back to him, my face and body still facing the open lift, so he can’t get a proper read on me. I step towards the empty lift turning to face him, “thank you for bringing me safely here,” I say as the doors start to close between us, a small smile on my face. Movement behind Dom has me looking over to the glass doors that lead from the foyer, to the outside walkway back to the ballroom, where a visibly angry Hunter lurks in the shadows.
This night can’t get any stranger.
