Thanks so much for all your support on the previous chapter! Just to make it easier to understand, this entire story is being rewritten but with the same characters. I know it's super confusing to come back and find the book completely changed. So I apologise for the confusion and would love it if you guys treated this as a whole new book :)

Chapter Two

"I'm going to let you live till your eighteenth birthday and then I'm going to kill you." I hissed at Ree as the Greek God that had greeted us outside led us into the house. With the way people were occasionally stopping him to say hi and telling him just how good of a party it was, I could guess that this was his house. I had no choice but to follow him as Ree all but dragged me inside with a firm grip on my arm but I would be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued.

Our host had found us loitering in the car outside and instead of kicking us out he'd very graciously agreed to guide us and had recognised Carter's name when Ree mentioned him. It wasn't the niceness that got under my skin, it was just how nice looking he was. Tall with inky black hair and eyes that were the most spectacular shade of dark blue, sapphire like almost in how they gleamed meant that I put up little resistance when he offered to walk us in. I had a type and Ree knew it because she'd been grinning deviously since the second we ran into Prince Eric here. I liked guys with dark, striking features and always tended to be attracted to raven haired men with deep blue eyes. This guy, yeah he ticked all the boxes. It helped that he was dressed to impress jeans that did incredible things for his butt and a short sleeved grey t-shirt that showed off his impressive forearms. I had a thing for forearms as well, huh who knew.

"Mason, what's up man?" We got stopped for the umpteenth time as someone slapped mystery guy on the back and they exchanged that weird man greeting that's not a hug but almost quite is. Then again, I finally managed to catch his name. Mason, wow even his name was hot.

"I'm good. Having a nice time?" He stopped to chat which gave Ree and I the opportunity to drink in what seemed to be the living room but it wasn't quite a room. With its high ceilings,you could fit in both mine and my mom's bedroom in here and there would still be some space left over. We were on the first floor of the massive house and this room housed what appeared to be a 110-inch television which was currently blaring music that pulsed through the entire room. The opulent leather furniture had been pushed to the side to accommodate the sheer number of people that were currently having the time of their lives. Ree had been correct though, the guests seemed to be our age and were possibly students who went to the private school in town.

"This is so cool." Ree was jumping with excitement. Parties thrown by kids in our school were never this eventful and usually ended up with the two of us leaving after an hour and watching a movie in our pyjamas instead. This place? This place was pumping, the music loud, bodies that never stopped dancing, girls who wore designer dresses and guys who clearly knew what to do with their hair. It was a spectacle of beautiful people and I was hooked. Like a bad horror film that sucks you in until the end, I couldn't help but stare. This was another life, another reality where expensive alcohol flowed freely and everyone looked like they belonged in a movie.

"Sorry for the wait ladies, let me take you to Carter." Mason smiled at us and God, even his teeth were perfect, nearly blinding me with how white they were. Ree squealed, I attempted to suppress my reaction and quietly followed him despite my insides doing all kinds of weird things. This was completely out of my comfort zone but I told myself that it was one night in Wonderland and that I could pull off being Alice for a while.

"How do you think Carter knows these people?" I ask Ree as I narrowly avoided running into a girl that look suspiciously like someone I'd seen in a fashion magazine the other day.

She shrugged, "Don't ask me, I'm just as confused as you are."

Ree's crush was a quiet, studious guy who unlike the rest of the boys in my class didn't spend his time staring at T and A. The fact that of all the people, Ree had chosen to crush on him was surprising. She usually went for the jocks, not the quietly handsome nerd who spent his summers teaching people how to golf. Then again, Carter was responsible for our current situation so must not be the nerd I always assumed for him to be.

"I can't believe we're following some random guy we just met and you're completely okay with it." I hissed at my best friend who rolled her eyes.

"Oh please, like you weren't completely drooling over him a second ago. He's just your type." She winked at me and continued to drag me after Mason and I reluctantly followed, taking the time to observe rich kids in their natural environment. So this was how the other half lived, huh. You'd think MTV would have prepared me for the front row seat to the lives of the rich and the fabulous but the third time I came across someone rolling up hundred dollar bills to do a line from was when I realised that I truly had no idea of how the world was beyond my poor little public school walls.

"Does Carter know you're here?"

"Yeah, he just told me to meet him by the pool."

The pool, of course. The closer we got, the more I realised that Carter wasn't just a cute nerd but had connections to the upper crust Arlington population.

"There he is." Mason turned and flashed us a blinding smile, gesturing to Carter who sat by the massive kidney sized pool and switched between looking down at his phone and searching around him, as if looking for someone...and then he saw Ree. The shaggy haired guy who rarely looked up from his book in class transformed into someone else as his eyes lit up at the sight of my best friend and he started waving us over to him.

Mason lightly squeezed my shoulder, "I think he's got it from here." He whispered in my ear and I got goosebumps but before I could turn towards him and try to flirt back, he swiftly walked away.

"Oh my God, Oh my God he's coming here. Quick, do I look okay?" Ree fluffed up her hair and tugged at her dress so that her cleavage became more prominent than I was comfortable being near to.

"He won't know what to do with you Ree, go get 'em tiger." I encouraged like the veteran wing woman I'd come to be. I had to give it to Ree though, we were currently surrounded by what seemed like twenty other girls in bathing suits that ranged from stringy non-existent bikinis to one pieces that highlighted their tanned and toned bodies. I thought about the one bikini I owned and how it covered more than my actual bras and underwear. Clearly, I had to reassess my swimwear choices. But Carter, who passed through the crowed of girls with clearly defined abs and guys, who were all in swim trunks seemed oblivious to their presence and walked towards Ree with a beaming smile on his face.

"Hey," He sounded quite breathless when he reached us and I found it adorable. "So glad to see you guys made it."

Ree was in full flirtation mode as she giggled and slid slightly closer to him. "I have to say I'm surprised, I didn't know that this was your type of scene or didn't get the impression in school."

He grinned sheepishly. "It isn't. My cousin, he's back in town for a few days and decided he wanted to have a little reunion with his old classmates. He said it'd be small, guess that didn't work out."

Huh, so it must be the cousin who was loaded.

"Hi Ella, thanks for coming." He gave a slight nod of his head before turning his full attention back to Ree. They were flirting like crazy already and I knew that I had to make myself scarce before things got awkward. Luckily, I was a pro at blending in with the walls and years of practice with Ree meant that I wasn't too concerned.

"So, I'm going to go grab a drink. Ree, why don't you just text me when you want to go."

"I'll come with you." She gave me a look, knowing that I wanted to give her some time alone with Carter but being too good of a friend to abandon me like that.

"Wait, don't touch any of the stuff downstairs." The crush in question produced a pair of reading glasses from his pocket and put them on. "I think they might be making their own additions to it. I'll take you upstairs, that's where Kyler keeps the good stuff."

"Your cousin?" I asked him and he nodded as he led the two of us back inside the house, pushing past the crowd that seemed to be growing towards the spacious foyer that had two sets of grand stairs leading up to the second floor.

"Yeah this is his house, his parents' anyway. They moved to California last year but kept it and Kyler comes back now and again to catch up." Walking up the stairs gave me a chance to get a birds eye view of the happenings of downstairs and I crossed my fingers, hoping I'd get to escape Wonderland sooner than expected. All I wanted was to go home, put on my sweatpants and kill my braincells by watching some Kardashian drama.

I digressed.

Carter turned to the left once we reached the smaller foyer upstairs and Ree giggled at something he said. Ignoring them and knowing that my best friend had an entire ritual on how to make a guy crazy about her, which involved increasing amounts of laughter in a pitch only animals could hear, I let my eyes roam and noticed that the hallways were lined with expensive pieces of art. Hardwood floors beneath my feet and high ceilings that had light fixtures which probably cost a small fortune, the general vibe of this place was cold, clinical luxury and I found myself shivering a little. Compared to the sizeable crowed downstairs, there were less stragglers here and a family only rule seemed to be in place.

We were led to a smaller but no less opulent living room and Carter brought out an actual drinks trolley.

"This is fancy." Ree smirked at him and he shrugged. "My aunt and uncle don't really mind underage drinking. We all know where the good alcohol is." He sat down next to her on the love seat and I took an armchair to their right. They cozied up together as they poured their drinks but I was driving us home so stuck to water. When I knew that things were about to escalate between the two and got tired of playing around with my phone, I excused myself to use the bathroom and Carter pointed me in the general direction before going back to Ree.

Young love was honestly nauseating.

***

I ran some cold water on my wrists in hopes of cooling down my flushed skin and touched up my makeup. We'd only been here for about an hour or so but I was already starting to wonder if Ree would kill me if I drove home and called her an Uber? She'd understand, maybe after I treated her to free pancakes the next morning but I really wanted to check up on Mom after the weird exchange this evening. I'd text her but I knew she'd probably forgotten to charge her phone and was back at her desk. Still I worried about whatever it was that she was hiding from me and it was in that absentmindedness that I opened the door to head out and ran into a wall.

A solid wall of muscle that grumbled an 'oof' when I collided into it and then reached out to hold me when I stumbled back from the force of running into it.

But it wasn't an 'it'.

It was a him who had a raspy, gravelly sexy voice that sent shivers up my spine when he said, "Are you okay?" I looked up at the guy I had unintentionally run into and for the second time that day found myself looking into eyes so blue that I for a moment there I was frozen in place, looking into them and still trying to place myself. Unlike Mason, this person's eyes weren't friendly or warm but had an intensity to their gaze that made me shiver. He towered a good couple of inches above me, and his hands still gripped my forearms and I wondered if he could feel the goosebumps on my skin because that's what one look at his face caused. A straight roman nose, sharp, defined cheekbones and smooth lips that begged to be kissed and a five o'clock shadow completed the straight out raw appeal this guy held that could possibly explain my almost immediate attraction to him.

And he didn't even have dark hair, go figure!

But he did have a head full of thick, dark blonde hair that was both short and unkempt at the same time. It looked so soft and I wondered if he would mind if I just ran my hands through it....

Christ Ella, I knew it was about time I tried going on more dates if I'd started wanting to fondle strange men.

"I...I'm fine. I'm sorry I didn't see you there." I half stuttered, half said breathless and was left feeling strangely bereft when he took his hands off my arms.

"That's okay. Carter told me someone was out here, I should've been looking."

Jesus C, his voice was unbelievable, deep and rumbly and one that gave me heart palpitations. But I didn't want him to think I was completely incapable of doing anything right so I backed away into the shut door behind me and squared my shoulders. "Are you Kyler?"

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips and he really wasn't helping my reactions to him because honest to God, I saw a dimple.

"Who's asking?"

Wait, was this flirting? Was he actually flirting with me? This man-god in a tight black t-shirt that emphasised his muscles and hinted at his entire body being in extraordinary shape was flirting with me?

Still, I tipped my chin up and pretended like I could carry out this conversation without hyperventilating. "I'm Ella, a friend of Carter's."

"You're here with that redhead aren't you? The one he hasn't stopped talking about for weeks." He seemed to making sense of things in his head.

"Yes, Ree's my best friend." I said slowly, not knowing what was going on inside his head as a certain recognition dawned in his eyes. He laughed, "So uh, do you have a backup plan because from the looks of it my cousin and your friend are getting kinda busy."

My cheeks flushed at the insinuation and he definitely caught on to it given the devilish look in his eyes.

"I...I was thinking I'd drive her car home and then call her an Uber since I don't really know anyone here." I shrugged casually, hoping he'd buy my nonchalant act.

He moved away then, leaning against the wall opposite to me. I notice the black jeans and boots, the all black outfit making him look like an outright devil in the night.

"Or you could hang out with me." His expression gave nothing away and he looked right at me as he said this, as if challenging me.

"No offence but whatever's going on downstairs isn't really my scene."

"Who said anything about them? I don't know half of them, they're all Mason's friends."

"Mason is..."

"My brother, this whole thing was his idea. I take it you've already met him?"

"I ran into him yes."

There was an awkward pause then before Kyler pushed off the wall and beckoned me towards him. "Don't go home and don't leave your friend here alone. Maybe I can entertain you while they catch up."

My hackles went up, cute or not this guy was still a perfect stranger and I knew better than to be alone with him.

"Relax," He raised his hands, palms out towards me. "There's a game room right next to the living room. Can I interest you in a game of pool?"

I had no idea how to play but between staying in a darkened corridor and following an extremely good looking, Hollywood worthy guy I didn't have the most difficult choice. As long as we'd be out in public and there were no closed doors involved, I think I'd be fine.

***

The sound of Ree's laughter from the next room over was oddly reassuring and I thanked the Lord for my friend's tendency to be high pitched. A couple more people had joined them since I left and I was certain the name Mason was mentioned but I found myself wanting to spend more time with Kyler, who really wasn't a man of many words.He didn't really look that much older to my seventeen, maybe just a couple of years older but still the way he carried himself, the quiet confidence in his movement made him seem really mature.

"So you go to school with Carter?"

He leaned against the table and I realised that neither of us were really playing, simply taking a shot or two then stopping to play this weird game of twenty questions.

"He's in my history class but really I'm here for Ree. As you can probably tell, they're into each other."

He laughed, the throat sound making my insides tingle. "I can."

"I heard that you moved to California. Did you live here for long before that?"

It was hard to believe that I'd missed his face in a town as small as ours even thought it was obvious we moved in different crowds. Still, prep school or not I should have seen him around.

Then again, I'd holed myself inside and buried myself in work and school for the past two years. Odds were, it was quite possible I'd never seen him.

"I moved back and forth between California and Tennessee for a while but my parents finally decided to permanently move to LA last summer. Before that, I'd spend a few months here and a few months with my grandparents in LA."

That...that was interesting.
"So...no Arlington Prep?" I'd figured all the people here today were his friends.

He shrugged, "I started getting homeschooled after sixth grade." He didn't explain why and I didn't want to intrude. We continued the ruse of playing while stopping to ask each other trivial questions. We'd get interrupted by someone walking in and talking to Kyler but no one stayed for long. It was as though he intimidated people and I knew he intimidated me a little, just by his looks. But I felt his eyes on me and he made no secret of the fact that he was watching me. I felt self-conscious every time I bent down and prayed that my boobs weren't on full display. Still, he never made it feel like it was invasive, instead his gaze was curious and a little hot.

He did that undeniably attractive thing where he leaned the cue against the table and crossed his arms, eyes boring into mine.

"So have I qualified as a non psychopath by now?"

"Huh?" I titled my head.

"I knew that earlier, you didn't want to be alone with me because you were worried that it wasn't safe. But do you mind if we go out to the balcony? Get some fresh air?"

I was unsure, not because I thought he was dangerous but because I didn't understand why he wanted to spend his time with me. Numerous girls had walked up to him, some clad in bikinis rocking bodies that I'd only get if I camped out inside a gym for the rest of my life. He had his pick, he didn't necessarily have to entertain his cousin's lame classmate.

"I think I should check up on Ree, ask her if she wants to leave." I didn't give him time to object and darted to the next room over. From over Carter's shoulder I saw my best friend leaning into him, deeply engrossed in whatever he was saying. She subtly winked when she saw me and I knew she was far from done.

"Doesn't look like she's free."

Warm minty breath ghosted over my neck and I was startled to find Kyler standing so close.

"I promise I'm not usually this clingy." There was laughter in his voice and I noticed that everyone in the sitting area was staring at him. "But the people here? I haven't seen them since I left for good and I'm not in the mood to catch up. You however, I've never seen before in my life."

"And so I'm the perfect candidate to hide behind tonight."

"Exactly." He grinned and I blamed that grin for everything that happened next.

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