Page 4 of With You

I learned early in our acquaintance that his arrogance extended to every aspect of his life. It’s a wonder he’s managed to maintain any kind of friendships. At this point, I think the others keep him around out of pity more than anything else. I’d be more than happy to exclude him from our group—a point I’ve mentioned to the girls multiple times—but they always say I’m being too harsh.

“I don’t know why Grayson even bothers,” Zena says, shaking her head.

“They’re both as annoying as each other,” I say, unable to hide my disdain for River any longer.

“They’re just having fun,” Evie defends them.

I roll my eyes at her, making my way over to a nearby couch to finish off my ice cream as we turn our attention back to the new game being set up.

Chapter 2

River

“Checkmate.”

“We just started,” Grayson exclaims, staring at the board between us as if it’ll change the outcome.

“Rookie error. You moved your g and f pawns,” I explain, pointing out his mistake. “So it was easy for me to take the queen. Don’t worry, we’ll keep practicing until⁠—”

I don’t get to finish my sentence before said queen is being thrown at my head, along with some very strong language.

“I’m not playing anymore.”

“Fine,” I tell him, resetting the board and moving the pieces back to their starting positions.

I take his not-so-subtle cue as a sign to call it a night. We’ve been playing for a while now, but winning every game is starting to get boring. I need a real competitor. I look around at the men that have somehow become my friends. Grayson has already proven he's not a good sport, Layth has no interest in, well, anything, and I know Damien well enough to predict his every move.

“Are we expected to attend this dinner next week?” Grayson says, scrolling through his phone until he flashes us the email we all received earlier. “What kind of university has a dress code for a welcome dinner?”

I bite my tongue, well aware that all of this is still fairly new to him. Grayson has made no attempt to hide the fact that his family’s wealth is newly acquired. His mother founded a tech start-up that miraculously didn’t go under in a year, and now he’s enjoying his newfound riches in a way that the rest of us never have.

Damien and I both come from a line of generational wealth, his family dealing with trade investments on a global scale. My family has only recently gotten into that side of business, after my parents wanted ways to diversify their income streams. Though it’s not like we’ve ever been lacking.

My grandparents on both sides were old Hollywood household names, spending most of their lives in the spotlight. It was only natural for my parents to follow the same path, firmly planting themselves in the public eye. Both grew up as models, met as teenagers on one fateful night at Paris Fashion Week, and have been inseparable ever since. As they got older, they pivoted to acting, taking lead roles in blockbuster films, partly from the help of their parents’ name, and partly for their talent.

Over the past few years, my father has taken a step back, pursuing investments alongside Damien’s father. The two probably met in the exact room I’m sitting in right now and have been friends ever since. It’s why my father thought it was important I come to Institut d’Étoiles before joining him in his new business venture. My parents have done their best to keep me out of the spotlight of their lingering fame, and I appreciate being able to live a somewhat lowkey life.

Institut d’Étoiles is a small private university for only the wealthiest in the world. It’s filled with the children of CEOs, royalty, diplomats, celebrities—if you can afford the annual six-figure tuition fees, you’ve got a chance of attending. But it also has a rigorous entry examination process, and it requires references from alumni. Every member of my family has passed through here, so attending once I was of age was never anything but a certainty.

“We have to go,” I tell Grayson.

When Grayson joined a few weeks into the first semester last year, Damien and I befriended him out of necessity rather than choice. He kept slipping up, making mistakes that demonstrated just how new our world was to him. It was slightly embarrassing to watch, so we had no option but to step in.

“They say it’s to welcome the freshman, but it’s more about the image of the school. Where else will they be able to gather the future leaders of the world all in one place?”

I push the chessboard to one side, lifting my feet onto the table in front of me. Damien promptly knocks them off.

“Manners, River,” he prompts before turning his attention to Layth, who silently rejoined us after running his errand. “What did they get this time?”

“Ice cream,” he says, straightforwardly.

“And they couldn’t get it themselves because…” I ask, but Layth just shrugs.

“Because he can’t let his precious Zena lift a finger,” Damien answers for him, a smirk on his face.

“It’s not like that,” Layth replies quickly before he seems to remember himself and sinks back into the couch.

Layth is also a curious case. His family doesn’t come from money as far as I can tell, but he’s been surrounded by it his whole life, so he understands it well enough. That, and the fact that he’s best friends—perhaps more—with real-life royalty.