A blush blooms, and I can feel the heat on my cheeks. Which is most definitely not from the mimosa I’m sipping on. “Yeah.Obsessive.”
“You can have yourself a little why-choose situation.”
“What the hell is a why-choose situation?” I ask.
“She’s already not choosing with the way she’s treating their beds like musical chairs,” Felicity jokes. I slap her arm playfully.
“You two are idiots if you think those two men would be up for sharing me. They’d rather get in a ring and beat each other senseless.”
Sloane and Felicity both look at me with similar expressions. I read them loud and clear.
“Babe, you’re already doing that, though. How long are you going to jump back and forth when your heart clearly can’t make up its mind?”
Her question is valid, and the answer is completely unknown to me. I want both of them, and I can’t imagine my life without them. But I have no issues imagining what life would be like if I didn’t have to constantly choose, didn’t have to feel this awful sensation of being pulled in two different directions. Plus, the idea of being with both of them? Goosebumps scatter across my skin, and I have to suppress a shiver. They’d never go for it.
Would they?
Chapter 3
Leo
The only times I feel at peace are when I’m either alone or with Mia. Walking around the campus that every single generation of Ashcrofts before me has attended is the opposite of that peace. Out here, I can’t be myself. The introvert. The quiet one. The artist. The lover. No. I need to be Colton Ashcroft’s firstborn son, the heir to his legacy. The perfect embodiment of an obedient son who has been raised to be the spitting image of his father. If he only knew. I’ve played the part, done everything he has ever asked of me, prepared relentlessly to attend here and take my place at Corvus and within Crimson Veil, and I was fine suffering in silence.
Until I met Mia.
She’s everything I’m not, and truthfully, I don’t know what she sees in me. She’s strong and brave and does whatever the hell she wants. She’s completely and utterly herself, without inhibition or permission. From the moment I laid eyes on her, I wanted her. Even though she was in a relationship with ParkerKingsford. Is in a relationship. I don’t even know anymore. We started dating last year, and she’s gone back and forth between us no less than a dozen times, never staying too long in either direction.
Parker and I are opposites in practically every capacity. But maybe that’s the appeal for her, we’re different and tap into different sides of her. Regardless, Parker and I pretend like the other doesn’t exist, and that seems to work for now. I fell in love with a girl whose heart belongs to two people, and it’s just something I have to deal with.
The air in the corridors of the library hums with energy as I walk through the narrow stone walkway between rooms, the lanterns flickering as I pass. My father prepared me well for attending here, because anything less would have been unacceptable. Corvus College was created by five people to be a place of alternative learning, at least that’s the rumor. It’s invite-only and boasts incredibly high standards, both in academics and sports. But the most important part is why those five created Crimson Veil and require their direct descendants to attend here. That part, my father wouldn’t tell me. He said the school would reveal what it wants for me when the time comes.
At the time, I tried to push that quizzical bit of information to the back of my mind, but since attending here, it’s been nagging at me.
One doesn’t need to look far to hear the rumors about Corvus or the professors who teach here. The ravens that flock everywhere you go, always watching and waiting, croaking in warning or promises, the trees that howl and sway, the flames that seem to billow when there’s no breeze,and if you listen closely in the center of the library, you could easily be convinced that the school itself seems to breathe.
I’d listen to the signs, but I don’t want to, purposefully trying to focus on the brief moments of peace I get where I don’t have to do what everyone else wants me to do. In my room, I can paint and be myself. I can get lost in Mia and never come up for air.
I quicken my steps, my shoes rapping against the old stone, clutching the strap of my bag, only one thing on my mind before my next class. I push open the heavy doors of the library, the cold sweeping inside and chilling my bones. I quickly dig my beanie out of my coat pocket, pulling it over my head and ears, tucking away my wind-blown hair.
Mia is usually sitting under the Veritas Tree. A massive oak with thick, heavy boughs reaching outward. In the late spring and summer months, the green leaves spread out so far that it creates a massive canopy. The “truth” tree has been in the center of the quad since the school was founded in the early sixteenth century. Time will twist and change stories, but this tree has seen it all, and therefore, the only keeper of the truth. People will seek it out to confess, to vent, to confide in, and while I’ve never done it, I can see the appeal. There’s no response, no judgment, no need to approach it with fear. It just listens and accepts.
I find Mia easily enough, her back leaning against the massive trunk, legs resting over one of the surfacing roots. Her dark chestnut hair is worn down today, with several tiny braids scattered throughout her curls. She’s done her makeup today, a little black eyeliner that makes the caramel of her eyes pop. She’s so beautiful.
I glance at my watch, checking how much time we each have to catch up. Walking over to her, I drop my bag at my feet, taking a seat next to her. She looks up from her book, eyes sparkling, an instant smile on her lips.
“Hi, pretty girl, how’s your day so far?” I ask as I brush a strand of hair behind her ears. She answers by hooking her arms around my neck and hauling me down for a kiss. My arms wrap around her waist, pulling her closer to me just as her mouth opens, deepening the kiss. She tastes of something sweet, like cherry candy, which makes me internally laugh. She’s always snacking on something sugary.
I quickly lose myself, forgetting where we are, a momentary peace settling into my bones as I kiss her. Our tongues tangle, caressing one another as my hand snakes under her sweater, coming in contact with her warm, soft skin. She shivers in my arms, and I groan into her mouth.
“Get a room!” someone calls out as they walk by, pulling me from my trance. I slowly break the kiss, as Mia holds up her middle finger without looking away from me. I can’t help but smile against her lips, giving her several more pecks, never getting enough of her.
“Fuck those people. There’s nothing wrong with two people kissing.”
“No, but I was about to set you on your back and dry hump the shit out of you.”
“I’m in a skirt, could have just fucked me for all to see,” she jests, making me growl into her hair as I yank her close one more time to inhale her cherry shampoo.
“I’ve got to get to my next class. I’ll see you tonight. I love you, my pretty girl.”
