Priceless (Forbidden Men #8)(57)

The hour dragged on, and I spaced out for most of it.

Fortunately, I had a free space after that and thought a drink, something full of sugar and caffeine, might provide the kick-start I needed. Reese had gotten me hooked on her white chocolate mocha addiction, so I headed toward the nearest Starbucks on campus when I heard someone call my name.

Since I had such a common first name, I ignored it until a second later, the same voice hollered, “Yo, Arnosta. Wait up!”

That caused me to pause on the sidewalk and glance around the busy quad until I noticed the tall, lean guy waving me down as he jogged over.

I blinked, sure I had to be seeing things. But that familiar grin that looked too much like his brother’s was impossible not to recognize. “What the heck are you doing here?”

Colton laughed as he reached me. “College day. I got out of a full day of school to visit campus, meet my advisor, take a tour, shit like that.”

“Oh. My. God,” I uttered, shaking my head. “I still can’t believe you’re old enough to graduate high school. I swear it was just yesterday you were only eight and asking me why I shook so much.”

He closed his eyes and winced. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

Grinning, I shook my head. “Not when it’s so fun to tease you.”

He huffed out a sound before his face split back into an ornery grin. “Hey, I was going to contact you last week, see if you could hack into my school records and lower a grade for me, but big brother growled around about it and seemed to think you wouldn’t go for that.”

The mention of big brother made my smile falter, but then I wrinkled my nose. Had he just said lower his grade? “I wouldn’t have,” I told him, tilting my head to the side and wincing against the blaring sunlight as I tried to look up at him. “Besides, if you wanted a worse grade, why didn’t you just purposely get some answers wrong on your tests?”

He shrugged and sent me a moody glance. “I dunno. It’s a pride thing, I guess. But now I’m f*cking stuck with these awesome scores, and I’m going to end up salutatorian. You know, they make you give a shitty speech at graduation if you’re salutatorian.”

I laughed. “I wouldn’t have thought talking in front of a bunch of people would be a problem for you.”

He rolled his eyes. “As if anyone would want to listen to me...not when the sacred almighty valedictorian would talk right after that.”

The way he sneered the word valedictorian made everything suddenly clear. “Oh, so you just don’t like being in second place.”

He really had tried to do the best he could on his tests. He just hadn’t done better than one other person, and that bothered him.

“Who likes being in second place?” he grumbled. “It’s the first loser’s spot. Everyone is going to watch me get up in front of them and accept being the first loser.”

I frowned at that thinking. “Well, I don’t think it’ll be quite that—”

“And the valedictorian is a f*cking douche, too,” he ranted on. “I can’t believe I’m losing out to a total douche. I might as well not have f*cking tried at all.”

“You know, you’re right.” I nodded sagely. “I’ve never won first, second or even third place at anything in my entire life. Why, I might as well just kill myself now.”

Colton blinked, startled by my vehemence. Then he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “So you’re telling me to stop being a whiny little bitch and suck it up, huh?”

I grinned. Colton was such a fun kid. “Pretty much. Now sit down already.” I motioned to a nearby bench. “Before staring up at you and into the direct sunlight blinds me.”

“Oh! Shit, sorry.” He immediately plopped onto the bench beside me.

I laughed, though the entire thing made me think of Brandt. I never had to ask him to lower himself to my eye level. He just automatically did it. Ever since our first meeting, he’d been so considerate, thinking of things from my perspective and altering himself to fit it. He always put me first.

God, I didn’t deserve him for a friend. Why had I asked him to pimp himself out to me?

“So what’s going on between you and Brandt?” Colton asked, making me whip my gaze to him.

“What do you mean?”

He grinned. “He was acting like a jackass at breakfast. So I told him he needed to go visit you, because, well, you always put him in a better mood. But I swear he would’ve torn my head off if Noel hadn’t jumped in and saved my adorable butt.”

I sighed. Yep, I’d really screwed the pooch with my stupid question last night, hadn’t I? Poor Brandt.

“We’re fighting,” I lamented.

“I figured as much.” Colton sounded amused as he pulled a pack of gum from his pocket and unrolled a piece before popping it into his mouth. “But what are you fighting about?”

My face went so hot I could only imagine what shade of red it turned. Glancing away, I mumbled, “Nothing.”

No way in hell did I want to admit how humiliating being turned down by Brandt had been...or go on about how much it’d hurt to learn he had some kind of secret he wasn’t telling me. I already felt crappy enough for pushing at something I shouldn’t have pushed.