Chapter 3 Blue Eyes in the Dark
LIORA
I had barely walked two steps away from the restroom when I heard her.
“You really are desperate for attention, huh?”
My stomach dropped instantly.
I stopped walking slowly before turning around.
Sloane Kensington stood a few feet away with her usual group gathered behind her like loyal little shadows.
The hallway suddenly felt smaller.
I tightened my grip on my bag instinctively.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said quietly.
One of the girls behind her laughed.
“Oh my God, she’s pretending to be innocent now.”
Sloane tilted her head slightly, her pretty brown eyes dragging slowly over me.
From my bruised face and to my swollen nose.
“You sat with Ryder Russo,” she said softly.
I frowned slightly, confused more than anything.
“There was nowhere else to sit.”
Sloane smiled.
It wasn’t a nice smile.
“You think you can just walk over there?” she asked softly.
“I just needed somewhere to sit.”
“And now everyone’s talking about you,” Sloane said. “Congratulations.”
My cheeks burned instantly.
"That’s not what happened.”
Another girl snorted. “Please. Everyone saw you practically throwing yourself at him.”
I stared at them in disbelief.
Throwing myself at him?
I had barely managed to breathe around Ryder Russo.
Sloane stepped closer.
“You should learn something about Stoneleigh, Liora,” she murmured. “There are lines at Stoneleigh and Certain people you stay away from.”
Confusion twisted tighter in my stomach.
Why did she sound almost… possessive?
Wasn’t she dating Damian?
Then again, rich people at this school seemed insane enough to make up rules nobody else understood.
“I wasn’t bothering him,” I said carefully, trying not to sound defensive. “I just needed somewhere to eat.”
For a second, Sloane simply stared at me.
Then her eyes flicked briefly toward the end of the hallway behind me.
The smugness on her face faltered.
Only for a second.
When she looked back at me, her smile returned instantly.
“Trust me,” she said quietly. “You don’t want Ryder Russo noticing you.”
A cold chill slid down my spine.
Before I could respond, she stepped aside smoothly, her shoulder brushing against mine hard enough to sting.
“Come on,” she said to her friends dismissively. “We’re leaving.”
The group walked past me laughing softly amongst themselves.
I stayed frozen in place for a second.
Confused.
Uneasy.
And somehow even more aware of Ryder Russo than before.
Goosebumps suddenly rose across my arms.
Like someone was watching me.
I turned around quickly.
The hallway behind me was empty.
My chest tightened uneasily.
Okay.
Definitely creepy.
I adjusted my bag on my shoulder and hurried away before my imagination could make things worse.
By the time classes finally ended for the day, my nose still ached, my head was pounding, and all I wanted to do was lock myself inside my dorm room and disappear.
Unfortunately, Stoneleigh Academy students apparently had other plans.
The second I pushed open the door to my dorm room, two heads snapped toward me.
My roommate, Becca Holloway, sat cross-legged on her bed beside another girl I vaguely recognized from our literature class.
Both of them stared at me like I’d just walked in carrying a dead body.
Then suddenly…
“Oh my God,” Becca blurted.
“You actually sat with him?” the other girl squeaked.
I froze near the door.
Blinking.
Confused.
This was already more words than Becca had spoken to me in the entire two weeks we’d shared a room.
“Uh…”
Becca practically scrambled off the bed. “Was it terrifying?”
“What?” I asked slowly.
“Ryder Russo,” the other girl hissed dramatically. “How are you alive right now?”
I stared at them.
“I just ate lunch.”
The girls exchanged another glance.
“You don’t understand,” Becca said, lowering her voice slightly. “People don’t just sit with Ryder Russo.”
“Why?”
Neither of them answered immediately.
Which honestly made it worse.
The other girl sat up straighter. “Okay first of all, he’s like… twenty-one.”
My eyebrows shot up. “What?”
“I swear,” she said quickly. “He’s way older than everyone here.”
“That’s impossible.”
“It’s Stoneleigh,” Becca muttered darkly. “Normal rules don’t apply to rich people.”
Honestly… fair.
“He disappeared for almost two semesters,” the other girl continued excitedly. “Nobody knew where he went.”
“People say he got expelled,” Becca added.
“Or arrested.”
“Or both.”
A cold feeling crept into my stomach.
“What did he do?”
The girls exchanged another glance.
Then Becca spoke quietly.
“He beat another student so badly the guy ended up in a coma.”
Silence filled the room.
I laughed nervously.
They didn’t laugh back.
Oh.
“Oh.”
“His family’s insane rich,” the other girl continued. “Like old-money billionaire rich. Rumor is his father practically owns Stoneleigh.”
That… actually explained a lot.
The fear.
The silence.
The way even Damian backed off immediately.
“He’s scary,” Becca said finally. “Like genuinely scary.”
I thought about those bright blue eyes.
That calm voice.
Move.
A weird shiver slid through me.
“But he let you sit with him,” the other girl said suddenly, staring at me suspiciously. “That’s weird.”
“I didn’t ask permission,” I muttered.
“Still weird.”
Becca nodded immediately.
Very helpful.
I sighed tiredly and dropped my bag onto my bed. “Can I please not talk about Ryder Russo anymore?”
Thankfully, they eventually lost interest after another few questions and went back to gossiping amongst themselves.
I escaped into the shower ten minutes later.
The hot water helped slightly.
Not enough.
By the time I changed into soft sleep shorts and an oversized singlet, exhaustion dragged heavily at my body.
I climbed onto my bed with my textbook, determined to focus.
Scholarship.
Grades.
Future.
Not Ryder Russo.
I flipped a page.
Read the same sentence three times.
And somehow still saw him.
Broad shoulders.
Sharp jawline.
Long legs stretched lazily beneath the cafeteria table.
Those impossible bright blue eyes.
I groaned softly and smacked my own forehead with the book.
“Liora,” I muttered to myself. “Snap out of it.”
Becca looked over briefly from her bed.
“You okay?”
“No,” I said honestly.
Because somehow Ryder Russo had only been back at Stoneleigh Academy for a single day…
And my life already felt worse.
“No… no, no…”
My head moved weakly against the pillow, eyes squeezed shut.
Everything felt ice-cold.
Whispers slithered through the darkness, dozens of overlapping voices clawing into my skull. Hands brushed my arms, my throat, my legs. Too many. Too cold.
I tried to scream but my body wouldn’t obey.
Then the screams started. Real ones. Agonized. Begging.
A hand clamped around my wrist like ice.
“He sees us now…”
“Don’t let him near us…”
My eyes flew open with a strangled gasp.
I bolted upright, sweat soaking my oversized sleep shirt, chest heaving. Moonlight spilled across the dorm room. Becca was snoring softly in her bed, completely unaware.
Just another nightmare. Stress. That was all.
I pressed a trembling hand to my racing heart and glanced at the window.
My blood turned to ice.
A tall shadow stood motionless just outside the glass, watching me.
Bright blue eyes gleamed in the darkness.
