“Open up, biatch,” Emilia calls through the door, following it up with another round of knocking, which persists until Hadley opens the door, and the little black-haired girl flings herself into Hadley’s arms.
“I came first!” she squeals in a high-pitched tone that only dogs should be able to hear. “In the whole year! The. Whole. Year! Can you believe that? I never thought...I just wanted to do well enough to get into Halston.”
I hide my snort of laughter behind a cough. She must be the only one out of all of us who didn’t think she was going to be Valedictorian. She and West have vied for the top place for all four years at Pac. If she had been up against Hawk or Mason, she would have come to blows with us years ago, but West never gave a shit about his ranking. He just enjoyed studying—although I can’t fathom why. Dude clearly needed to get laid. Although, he’s been getting plenty of sex this year, and still beat everyone else’s ass.
Anyway, with the number of hours Emilia has been logging in the library, and dragging our girl along as well, there was no doubt in anyone's mind she would be top of the year.
I obviously missed part of the conversation, as the next thing I hear is Hadley saying, “Give me a sec, I just need to grab my dress,” before she rushes off down to her bedroom. She and Emilia had agreed to get ready in Emilia’s room before the dance tonight, and we’ll pick her up on our way there. The two of them have been trying to spend as much time together as possible the last few days, before school ends. I’ve no idea where Emilia is from, or where she will be spending her summer, but I can tell Hadley’s going to miss her terribly when she leaves. I guess I’ll just have to treat my girl to a few weekends in Halston, so she can have herself some girl time...and I can definitely get some mind-blowing thank you sex afterward.
Hadley enters the room with her dress slung over her shoulder, and waves a quick goodbye, saying she’ll see us later, before she rushes out the door with Emilia, a grin plastered on her face. It’s been kind of jarring, seeing her so happy, but I fucking love it.
“Guess it’s just us guys for the rest of the afternoon,” I say with a shrug, grabbing beers for all of us.
“Here’s to the end of school,” Mason says, raising his bottle.
“And to finding lost siblings,” West adds, smiling fondly at Beck, who returns it with one of his own.
“Cheers!” We all clink our beers together and drink from them before moving over to comfier seats in the living room.
“Bet you can’t wait ‘til school’s over and you don’t have to hide your relationship with Hadley anymore,” I say to Beck as I plunk my ass in one of the couch cushions.
“Fuck, I can’t wait. It’s been driving me mad, especially since you guys announced to the school you were dating her.”
I grimace, not having given any thought to how that might affect him. “Sorry,” I mutter, but it’s a pointless apology. He waves it away.
“Don’t be. It had to be done. I’ll just be glad when I no longer have to hide what she means to me.”
We all sip on our beers for a bit before Mason speaks up, “So Ridgeway college? That’s not too far from here. We should go check out the campus.”
I shrug my shoulders. “It’s just a card. Doesn’t mean anything.”
“Don’t sell yourself short like that, you were on fire today. They’d be lucky to have you on their team.” Beck sounds sincere, and when I look his way, he’s wearing his serious ‘school counselor’ expression.
His confidence bolsters me, and I straight my shoulders. “Yeah,” I say, turning back to Mason. “It would be cool to go look around.”
There’s a knock at the door, and we all share a knowing look. I roll my eyes as I get up to answer the door, knowing before I even open it who will be on the other side. Since Emilia has just left, there’s only one other person who would dare knock on our door.
Wilder comes bouncing into the dorm like a two-year-old on a sugar high. “I just bumped into the girls, they said something about a guys’ afternoon.”
I don’t think I’m the only one who stifles their groan, but when Wilder lifts his hand and says he brought beers for everyone, I decide I can put up with an afternoon of his craziness.
I know Hadley likes him, and I have to admit, despite his unhinged personality, he’s really stepped up. He was dumped in this school, not knowing anyone, and expected to marry a girl he’d never met. Most guys would have cowered when they discovered their fiancé came with four pissed off boyfriends and an overprotective brother, but not Wilder. I have to respect the balls on the guy—so long as he never sticks them anywhere near Hadley!
I think letting something happen to Hadley on his watch messed with him slightly—not that he’d ever let on—but he accepted responsibility, and insisted on coming with us to rescue her, even though he didn’t have to. And I know he kept a close eye on Emilia when Hadley wasn’t around. The rest of us were too concerned with bringing Hadley home to even think about Emilia, but Wilder, without having to be asked, immediately thought about what Hadley would want, and was there for Emilia at a time that I’m sure was confusing for her. If nothing else, I know that meant a hell of a lot to Hadley, however her weird friendship with him is more than just that. They seem to get each other in a way we can’t understand. Whenever I tried asking Hadley about it before, she just shrugged it off, claiming something about his darkness being similar to hers—whatever the fuck that means.
Regardless of what it is, I guess he’s kinda wormed his way into our friendship group, and thankfully has stopped flirting with Hadley—although he still insists on calling her fucking Sunshine—ever since we told the school we were dating her.
When I tried to broach the subject with Hadley, about whether or not she was interested in dating him, or adding him to the harem or whatever, she nearly pissed herself laughing, and looked at me as if I was the crazy one. It had seemed like a genuine question at the time, before shit hit the fan and my fucking scumbag of a father got his grimy hands on her again, but I can see her friendship with Wilder for what it is now. He’s a genuine, albeit slightly psychotic, friend, and Hadley needs some more of those in her life. Michael—even thinking his name has me wanting to beat the shit out of him again—battered her already very limited trust in people, so it’s good to see her letting Wilder in. He’s actually worthy of her friendship.
“Did you hear the good news?” Wilder asks, flopping down on the couch beside Hawk and dropping his arm over his shoulder, which Hawk quickly shoves off. “We’ve upgraded from bros-in-law to pussy brothers.”
“Dude, what the fuck?” Hawk snarls, glaring at him with such fury. Any normal person would be backpedaling at this point, climbing over the back of the sofa to get away from him, but not Wilder. He just grins like a fucking loon.