Sanctuary Bay (9 page)

The Lobster coach was just as crazy—or crazier—in his own way. There were rumors about him forcing his players to endure extreme physical and psychological pain so that nothing they experienced on the field could distract them. He was supposed to be a genius at discovering their deepest fears and then making the players experience them again and again until they were inoculated against them.

Both coaches mixed up special protein drinks—each with a carefully guarded recipe—for his team. You never saw a Puffin or a Lobster without a sports bottle in the team colors.

“Coffee place at seven?” Ethan asked. He flicked the end of the red scarf Izzy had loaned her. Red and white were Lobster colors, and her roommates were both Lobster fans, which made Sarah's team affiliation a no-brainer. “Obviously you're going to the
big game
.” He made it sound like some archaic ritual that he was way too intelligent to believe in.

“Yeah, okay,” she said again. “Seven.”

“Not so many big words,” he begged. “You've got to remember my parents bought my way in here.”

Sarah just shook her head. He thought he was being funny, but his parents probably had bought his way in. Not that he was stupid, but he was a slacker, who probably wouldn't have made the cut without the family cash. They could afford it. Turned out he was one of
those
Steeres. After that first class she'd typed “Ethan Steere” into Google and up came a thousand pictures of him at political rallies, red carpet premieres—there was an Oscar-winning actor Steere in the mix too—and fancy charity events. Sarah had never gone to anything that could be called an event. But she was here. At Sanctuary Bay. That was enough. “Since your parents spent the bucks, maybe you should, I don't know, try to make it worth their while,” Sarah suggested.

Ethan shrugged. “They'll make whatever donation it takes to get me into Harvard. Got to keep up the family tradition.”

“Just flunk out then, if it doesn't make any difference. You hate it here,” Sarah snapped. He didn't make that any kind of secret. “Stop going to class completely. Fail every test.” He constantly pissed her off, beautiful lips, amazing blue eyes, long, lean body, and all. She could still barely believe that this school had wanted her, but she'd taken Nate's advice and squashed her resentment. The kids here generally seemed to get how good they had it at the academy. Unfortunately Ethan still brought out all her crap, as Nate had called it. He was a rich, entitled idiot and he didn't even know it.

“Flunking out is not part of the Sanctuary Bay educational system,” Ethan said.

“So you tried it?”

“Among other things.”

“You're an overprivileged, inbred asshole, you know that?” Sarah burst out, unable to contain herself. “You have no idea what the real world is like. You're shitting away a chance other people would kill to have.”

“My world is as real as yours is, Sarah,” Ethan shot back.

“Whatever. You don't care, why should I? Find some other place to get your notes.”

“Not a problem.” He held the door to the dining hall open with exaggerated politeness.

Sarah hesitated, frowning, but she couldn't keep just standing there. She brushed past, and the sounds of clattering plates, rushing footsteps, and barked orders enveloped her. Students in long white aprons and hairnets dashed between tables, slamming food down.

“What's going on?” she asked, forgetting for a second that she didn't really want to talk to Ethan ever again in life.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this.” She waved her hands at this chaos. “Why are kids doing the serving?” She noticed the buffet table was missing too.

“Didn't think you'd object to—whatchacallit?—Honest work,” Ethan replied.

“That's not what I—” But Ethan was already gone, striding toward their table. Sarah stood still for a moment, confused. The dining hall had always had waiters before, but real ones, not students. Why had it changed?

Slowly, she made her way over to the usual table. Karina, Izzy, and Tif were there with Matthias, a guy from Sarah's history class. Taylor had started eating at another table about a week ago, and Matthias had started eating with them instead. Nobody said why, and Sarah didn't ask. She'd never really known Taylor that well, so why make it an issue? “Why'd they change things around?” she asked her friends.

“Huh?” Tif used one fingertip to push her hamburger off the bun. “Any of you carnivores want it, it's up for grabs.” A second later, one of the younger student servers shoved hamburgers in front of Sarah and Ethan, then trotted off as someone from the kitchen yelled, “Move your asses!”

Looks like the daily specials have disappeared too, Sarah thought as she took a bite of the hamburger. Maybe the school always switched things around.

“You think you can sit down next to me like nothing happened, without even attempting a lame apology?” Karina demanded, glaring at Ethan. “I'm not expecting you to fill my mailbox with orange Tic Tacs or ask if your Boy Scout troop can marry us. I do realize you are, in fact, you, but come on.”

Obviously Sarah wasn't the only one who received Ethan's special asshole treatment lately.

“I won't apologize for not agreeing with you, especially when I know, I
know
, that you don't give a rat's ass either way,” Ethan retorted. He took a bite of his hamburger.

“I do care. And that you don't know I care is an even bigger problem,” Karina cried out, and Matthias began slowly banging his head against the table. Sarah didn't blame him. Karina and Ethan had two modes at meals—basically molesting each other between bites, or fighting.

“Do a couple for me, would you?” Izzy asked. “I don't want to mess up my hair.” Matthias agreeably gave a few more head bangs.

“If you would ever listen to me for even two seconds—” Karina began.

Ethan grabbed the half burger left on his plate. “I'm done.” He stalked away, leaving Karina fuming.

“I don't understand you, and I'm unusually clever,” Izzy told Karina. “Explain to me what you're doing with that guy. He's such a poser. Not to mention you fight every four seconds. And he makes you miserable most of the time. Please, just explain to me.”

“I can't explain it to you, because you've never been in love,” Karina replied. “Probably because you're so
clever.
You're all brain and no heart.”

“And you're like one of those battered women who stay with their abusers,” Izzy retorted. “Because they looooove them. All heart and no brain.”

Karina gasped. Sarah felt herself stiffen. “Fuck you, Izzy,” Karina whispered, all her usual animation drained away.

“Wow, you changed my mind with that well-reasoned argument.” Izzy's lips curled into a sneer.

Sarah's gut clenched. She was used to fighting, but usually she didn't care about the people involved. Izzy and Karina had both been really nice to her, and the two of them were usually so close.

Matthias shoved the last of his burger in his mouth. “Gotta get a little studying time in before calc,” he mumbled and bolted.

Sarah wished she could go with him. Instead she sat there, trying to come up with something to say that would smooth things over. Nothing came to her. Tif didn't seem to be having any luck either. She just kept chewing on a bite of hamburger bun even though it had to have disintegrated by then.

“Hey, girlies.” Nate dropped into the chair vacated by Ethan, putting him between Sarah and Karina. “What's the what?” He gave them The Grin. Sarah smiled back, relieved to have somebody new at the table who might help diffuse the badness. She hadn't talked to Nate too much since that first day, but he'd made sure to check on her a couple of times.

“Just a little discussion on the meaning of love,” Tif answered, pushing her black-framed glasses higher up on her nose.

“Can we talk about lacrosse instead?” Nate slowly began to unwind the scarf from around Sarah's throat. “I get that you want to bond with your new roommates.” He slid the scarf free. “But the choice of a lacrosse team can't be made lightly.” He took off his own scarf, black and white, Puffin colors, wrapped it around her neck, and studied her intensely for a long moment. She flushed as her heart began to beat rapidly and warmth spread throughout her body. “Suits you. That's all I'm saying.”

“As our class president, shouldn't you support the Puffins and the Lobsters equally?” Izzy asked. Sarah could still hear a slight strain in her voice.

“I'll provide beers equally to both sides at the Puffin victory party to be held in my suite after the game,” he promised, then stood and headed to another table, Sarah's scarf still in his hand.

“He likes you,” Karina said when Nate was out of earshot.

“Yeah. That thing with the scarf?
Sexy
.” Tif stared after Nate.

They had to be wrong. Although she agreed about the scarf thing—
damn
. But Nate was one of the most popular guys in school. That kind of guy and Sarah? No. “He only talked to me for five seconds,” she protested. “Which brings the total to thirty seconds, other than when he and Maya met my ferry. You know Maya? His girlfriend?”

They all stared at her.

“Maya and Nate? They're not together,” Tif said. “Not unless they're keeping it some big secret.”

Izzy chimed in before Sarah could object again. “I'm no expert on love, my heart being made of ice and all.” Izzy shot a hard look at Karina. “But I concur. Nate definitely likes you.”

*   *   *

“How's your crazy roommate?” Ethan asked as he dropped into his chair the next day in chemistry, early for once. They were the first ones in the room.

Sarah gave a noncommittal shrug. They were fighting now, but tomorrow—or in an hour—he and Karina would be back together, based on everything Izzy had said and what Sarah had seen so far. It was always a bad idea to get in the middle of an on-and-off relationship.

“You're not speaking to me? Out of sisterly solidarity with Karina or because you're still pissed that I'm not taking full advantage of everything the luck of my birth has given me?” His blue eyes were bright with amusement.

She
was
still disgusted with his sense of entitlement. But she wasn't going to let him think she cared enough to still be angry.

“I'm not getting into some thing between you and Karina, that's all,” she answered. She was also really, really trying not to get into some thing between Karina and Izzy. They'd gone to the game together, and it was okay, since there wasn't a lot of talking time, but at the party in Nate's suite they'd avoided each other. And Nate? The guy who supposedly liked her? He'd brought her a beer—that's it. He seemed to be everywhere at once, making sure everyone was having fun, except for those long slow dances he'd had with Maya, half of them to fast songs. He was nice to Sarah, but only in the way he was with everyone else. Obviously Karina, Izzy, and Tif were imagining things.

“Fair enough,” Ethan said. “Hey, I was thinking, since you don't want to give me notes, how about if I bought them? I get some nice stuff in care packages, so I can trade for pretty much anything you want.”

“Of course.
Of course
you think that would be the solution. You know, not everything can be…” Her words trailed off as she noticed the smile tugging at Ethan's lips; goddamn those perfect lips of his. “You're messing with me.”

He laughed. “You just make it
so
easy. And you're cute when your eyes get all squinty and mad.”

“They don't get squinty,” she muttered.

He leaned closer and studied her face. “You prefer beady? Or maybe—”

His cell burped, just as Sarah's gave a beep. She hadn't customized the ringtones yet. She pulled it out of her pocket and tapped the screen to open the new text. Ethan got his open a few seconds before she did, and the little moans and gasps from her cell echoed the ones from his.

At first Sarah thought somebody had managed to send a porn clip to everyone, but then she realized the woman she was looking at was a teacher she'd seen in the halls. And the other woman getting down and dirty with her was Maya. Maya from the boat. Maya, Nate's girlfriend.

“Nice technique,” Ethan observed, grinning.

“Seriously? That's what you think when you see this?” Sarah cried.

“Am I about to get yet another lecture on the correlation between wealth and the lack of morals?” he asked. “I don't see you turning it off.”

She
had
been staring as her brain processed. Maya and a teacher on the desk in a classroom. “I'm just—”

“Ho-ly shit,” Bryce said as he walked into the room, cell in hand. Eliza was a few steps behind him, staring at her cell too. “What is it about a freckled ass?” Bryce continued. “It makes me want to play connect-the-dots with my tongue.”

Eliza slapped him on the back of the head, and Sarah looked back at her cell. “Who was filming this?” she asked. “It's like they don't even know they're being watched.” She glanced around the chemistry room. Were there cameras hidden somewhere?

As she returned her gaze to her phone, the screen went black. “Now I know why Ms. Winston never flirted back,” Logan said, waving his cell as he came in. “She's on the other team.”

“Yeah, that's it,” Eliza snarked. “There's no other possible reason for a woman not to flirt with you.”

“Where's the rewind?” Bryce asked.

Nate.
The thought exploded in Sarah's mind. He must be mortified. She tried to imagine how it would feel to find out your girlfriend was cheating on you, everyone titillated by the sex or gossip or both, staring at you, trying to gauge your reaction. Had he had any idea something was going on with Maya? He and Maya had just been all over each other at his party.