Chapter 3

• Celeste
• "Has Declan said anything to you about me?" The words spilled from Ella's mouth before she could pull the chair out across from Celeste at the oversized wooden table in the dining hall.
• Celeste Monroe was eating alone, per usual now that Blaine was gone.
• But it hadn't escaped her attention that Kane had Nathaniel spying on her. It was like his crew took shifts, watching her every move, and they were too self-involved to realize how noticeable they were. They were all over six-foot, and had the worst reputations on campus, silently demanding attention when they entered a room. When Celeste thought they couldn't get any douchier, people started calling themselves the "Wolves of Westbrook." Yet, there was Nathaniel, the sleeves of the hoodie he wasn't supposed to be wearing during school hours pushed up to his elbows, shoveling cereal into his mouth in a way that was reminiscent of a toddler.
• As he grinned at her, indicating that he found the fact that Ella had her cornered hilarious, milk dribbled down his chin. The fact that he was one of the few guys on campus that the female population would claw each other's eyes out to date made Celeste want to hurl herself down a flight of stairs and put herself out of the misery of existing in this world.
• Ella waved her red folder in front of Celeste's face, and if she cared enough, she'd comment on a senior in college carrying folders around in the dining hall. Instead, Celeste pulled her glare away from Nathaniel long enough to snatch the folder out of Ella's hands and lay it flat on the table where it wouldn't slice her cornea if she made any wild movements. She cut her eyes at Nathaniel when she heard him snort at her precautionary display, and then she flicked her middle finger up at him to show him she wasn't afraid of him looming around. Kane, on the other hand, scared the heck out of her when it was just the two of them, but that was mostly because he seemed to want to seduce her and kill her all at the same time. Sometimes, she felt like she wanted to hang around to find out which side of him would win out.
• "Are you even listening to me, Celeste? I slept with them." Celeste gave her her attention.
• "Who? One of Kane's little psychotic friends?" Celeste spooned mac and cheese into her mouth and squinted her eyes at Ella in confusion. She wasn't sure why Ella was talking to her anyway.
• They weren't friends for a lot of reasons, with the main one being that she spent her days drooling over her stepbrother, and Celeste spent her days trying to avoid being confined in whatever small space he tried to back her into. He had an affinity for chasing her, and she wasn't stupid enough to think that he couldn't catch her if he really wanted to. He liked her fear, and if she was honest, sometimes the thrill of his torment was the only thing that made her feel like she was still alive. Kane and she had never gotten along.
• He didn't want her mother to marry his father, and she assumed it was because his father cheated on his mother. Since day one, he had made it a point to torment her in one way or another, but since Blaine died, he had gotten worse. If he thought he was going to bully her into spilling Blaine's secrets, his head was further up his own rear than she originally thought.
• He'd have to kill her first.
• Ella scooted her chair, and the scraping noise on the stone flooring brought Celeste out of her thoughts. She realized then that Ella was teary-eyed, and she felt like she needed to pretend like she cared which one of Kane's friends had flashed her some abs to get her into bed and then tossed her out like the garbage they thought she was. She didn't have to tell her what happened for her to understand. The five of them had been wreaking havoc on the female population of Faircliff since high school.
• Celeste shoved the rest of her food toward the middle of the table and ran her hand through her ponytail, checking to see if the ribbon was still sitting correctly. Westbrook University was strict about, well, everything, but especially the dress code. It wasn't like they had to wear uniforms, but they might as well. Her ribbons were the only fun thing she got, so she wore a different one every day. She sighed when Ella tucked her short red hair behind her ears and sniffled.
• "Which one of them?" Celeste asked, leaning in to speak softly. She wasn't Ella's biggest fan, but she also didn't want to embarrass her in such a public place, and clearly, she didn't want to talk to her snotty girl clique, or she wouldn't be crying all over her mac and cheese.
• "I said I slept with them. Plural." Ella's condescending tone almost made Celeste want to tell her to buzz off, but her curiosity outweighed her annoyance. Celeste quirked an eyebrow, silently coaxing her to spill the details. "Declan and Wilder. At the same time," she whispered the last few words and lowered her eyes in what Celeste assumed was shame, which was weird to witness from someone like Ella.
• "Hey, that's nothing to be ashamed about. We've all been there."
• Celeste meant to be comforting, but in truth, she hadn't experienced anything like that. It was hard to have a twosome, let alone a threesome, when the Blackwell brothers had threatened a slow, but certain death on anyone brave enough to ask her on a date. Blaine meant well and even apologized for treating her like property. He cared about her like a sister and didn't want her to end up crying in someone's dinner because of a poorly executed sexcapade.
• Kane, on the other hand, just wanted to make her miserable, and she was pretty sure if the words 'I'm sorry' ever passed his lips, his tongue would catch on fire. She leaned back and tugged at the Westbrook pin on the collar of her white button-down shirt out of pure nervousness. She wasn't sure how to navigate this situation because everything she said sounded like she was just sugarcoating it. Ella was a grown woman and could do whatever she wanted with her body, but she clearly regretted it.
• "I mean, as far as guys go, Declan and Wilder aren't so bad. I mean, it could be way worse. It could have been him," Celeste jutted her thumb at Nathaniel and shrugged. Ella laughed through her tears as they watched him fiddle with his chestnut-colored hair and narrow his unapologetic stare on them.
• "I really like Declan," Ella finally admitted and then looked up at Celeste pleadingly. "He wouldn't come back to my room unless Wilder came too. During...while we were...it was like they were with me, but they wouldn't even look at me. I practically begged Declan to stay the night, but it was like he couldn't hear anything I said. It was so embarrassing. I just sat there naked on my bed and watched them get dressed."
• Her lips started trembling again, and it was so strange to see someone as cold and heartless as Ella be this emotionally distraught. At the same time, Celeste wasn't sure how she could be this surprised that they were like this. The Wolves were known for treating girls this exact way. I mean not the threesome thing, but still, they had no empathy. That's why they ruled the campus; everyone was afraid of them. "You're sure he didn't say anything to you about me?"
• “Ella, since Blaine…” Celeste averted her eyes because she didn’t want to cry herself. She had been faking her way through the last few days, trying not to show how gutted she actually felt, but Blaine was her only real friend, literally the only person she trusted with all of her secrets. He even knew her complicated feelings for Kane. She still couldn't believe he was gone and for such a stupid reason.
• He swore her to secrecy, and his reasons were valid, but she wasn't sure he told her everything, which made the wound of losing him sting even more. She would keep Blaine's secrets, though, even if it made her a target.
• She swallowed back the emotion she was feeling and continued, “Kane and I don’t get along. So his friends aren’t really staying over in my dorm and telling me about their threesomes or why they’re such assholes.” When Ella pursed her lips in disappointment, Celeste added, “I think you should stay away from them. All they do is party and run through girls like it’s their fucking job.” She also thought Declan would never love anyone the way he loved Wilder, and Wilder hadn't quite caught on to that fact. That was just her gut feeling, and she would never say it out loud, especially to someone like Ella. It wasn't her place to tell her that she was fighting a losing battle.
• “I thought you and Kane were good now,” Ella crinkled her eyebrows and adjusted her navy-blue headband that matched the blazers and cardigans they were required to wear. They weren't allowed to have their hair up completely during school hours along with a long list of other don’ts that were too tedious to mention. They all typically went wild when they snuck off campus, which was sometimes entertaining to witness. They were in college, and she got that their pretentious parents were doing their best to turn them into their brainless clones, but even for a place like Westbrook, the rules were ridiculous.
• “Why would you think that?” Celeste asked, pushing her chair back to leave. She was done with classes for the day, and she really didn't want to go back to her room where all she’d see were things that reminded her of Blaine. She supposed that was better than what she was dealing with now. She glanced over, and Nathaniel was gone, leaving all the trash from his dinner haphazardly on the table. Asshole.
• Her attention snapped back to Ella when she realized she was gathering her plate and cup from the polished wood table. “Oh, you’re coming with me.” Of course she was. Clearly Blaine was haunting her because she knew he was floating around somewhere, wheezing with laughter. Dealing with his brother wanting to strangle her and his asinine friends not-so-covertly stalking her wasn't enough, but now she had wolf groupies following her around.
• Ella waved her hand at her dismissively, and Celeste realized now that she knew exactly how uncomfortable this whole interaction had been for her. “Everyone’s talking about how Kane beat the shit out of Talon because of you.”
• “No they’re not.” Celeste rolled her eyes and started packing up her backpack. “I mean, no he didn’t. He might’ve beaten up Talon, who is also an asshole you should stay away from, by the way.”
• “Literally every person I’ve talked to today, and you know how socially active I am,” she says it so seriously that I have to fight to keep back the laugh that wants to bubble out of my chest. She can’t be this up her own ass, and yet here we are, having a conversation about how many snotty friends she has. “The Wolves are a really big deal, Celeste.” She looks at her expectantly, like she's supposed to gush over how godlike they are.
• Sure, Kane looks good with his shirt off, and his blue eyes have this piercing quality that feels like he might cut her right in half just by looking at her. Even so, that’s no reason to let him and his friends treat everyone like garbage. They’re brutal, psychotic, and everyone would be better off if they’d just stay in the graveyard behind the church on campus where they like to play their fucked up little games. “Everyone says Kane is obsessed with you, and that’s why he acts the way he does.”