Chapter 35

When Sarah saw the boy with the beautiful name again, he was hunched over at a table in the library. His soft brown hair fell in little ringlets around his forehead. His shoulders looked much larger when he leaned over a table, concentrating on reading something from his book. He would pause to jot notes down in a notepad he kept beside him every so often. His light scribbles whispered to her from across the room. Sarah kept herself hidden near a corner study desk. It was the kind of desk that had three sides so that you felt like you could disappear from everyone else around you. The Red Connecticut High School Library was exquisite. There was a main entrance where all of the computers were. Then the rest of the library branched off into three different directions, on four different floors. There were probably close to a million books in that library. Actually, that probably wasn’t true. But it sure seemed that way. Every spare shelf and every spare table held a book. Sarah was used to the library. It was one of her favorite places in the entire world. It was a safe place to escape and get lost in a book. Or to study, which she definitely needed to do. Alas, Dr. Frost had assigned a chapter test on Wednesday. And since it was now Tuesday, Sarah knew she’d have to cram all that math somehow into her brain by the end of the night. She didn’t mind math. Actually, she liked it a lot. But she’d found it harder to concentrate in class now that the boy with the beautiful…well, you know…since he had shown up. Most of the time, Sarah silently watched him flirt with Elly while Dr. Frost wrote problems on the board. He’d grab Elly’s hand and kiss it. Elly would quietly giggle and pretend to want to pull her hand away. Occasionally, he would even flick her ponytail and attempt to untie the ribbons she wore in her hair. Sarah always thought Elly’s hair looked a bit ridiculous the way she piled it up so high on her head. But she couldn’t deny that Elly was very pretty. Too pretty, actually. And while Sarah’s parents were considered ‘rich,’ Elly’s family was very wealthy. But nowhere near Bent Prince kind of wealthy. He was what Sarah and her friends considered Elite. An Untouchable. Celebrity or Billionaire status. Or for him, both. His kind of wealthy was nothing like this town had ever seen before. Sarah leaned back in her chair to see around the cubicle of her desk. Envy…it does things to a girl’s brain. Seriously.