The Heirs Scholarship Girl

Chapter Two

I didn't sleep that night.

Every time I closed my eyes I saw Ethan's hand tightening around mine instead of letting go, his voice cutting flat through Madison's performance.

"Stop it, Madison. I know you can swim."

Nobody breathed for a second. Then the lifeguard pulled her out while she screamed that I'd tried to drown her and Ethan didn't know what he was doing. It only made her look worse, because everyone had already caught on.

What kept me up wasn't that part. It was after, when he wrapped his jacket around my shoulders and walked me through a hallway of phone cameras like they weren't there, then walked me twenty-three blocks home in wet clothes without complaining once.

"I am sorry about your necklace," He apologised as we stood by my door. "I know Madison can be a lot sometimes but I promise, she wouldn't bother you again."

"You can't promise that," I'd told him.

"Try me."

And then he was gone, before I could even come up with a response. I stood there dripping, wondering what had just happened to my life.

"Are you okay?" my mom asked from the doorway, still in her uniform, worry creasing her forehead.

"I'm fine," I lied. "Just tired."

She didn't believe me, but she'd learned a long time ago not to push. She kissed my forehead and left me alone with the ceiling and my phone.

…………

By morning my phone had exploded. Someone had cut the pool footage into a video set to dramatic music, titled "Prince Charming Chooses the Poor Girl Over the Queen Bee." Fifty thousand views and climbing.

The comments were an absolute war zone.

He'll dump her in a week.

Gold digger alert.

Actually so romantic I'm crying.

Madison is PRESSED lmaooo.

I slammed my screen shut without reading further and dragged myself out of bed. School started in an hour and I needed a plan for invisibility, not a scroll through strangers predicting how my life would go.

All morning, I pushed against the uncertainty in my chest, dressed up and walked out the door ready to face whatever was waiting for me out there.

I knew something was wrong the second I turned onto Lincoln Prep's driveway. Too many people clustered near the entrance, whispering, pointing at something on the wall of lockers.

Mine.

GOLD DIGGER was spray-painted in red letters, and underneath, smaller: He's not your Prince Charming, charity case.

My chest tightened and I felt the hallway tilt.

God, can it get any worse?

"Oh my God," someone yelped on cue. "She's here."

The crowd instantly parted, phones already up. More cameras meant more evidence of my humiliation, saved forever. I couldn't breath and I suddenly felt the need to run, to disappear, to…

"Cassie."

The word cut through the noise behind me and I stopped dead in my tracks.

That voice… The one I'd fallen asleep thinking about, now also the reason for the wall behind me.

Ethan pushed through the crowd like it wasn't there. No designer anything today, just jeans and a plain white shirt, which somehow made him more unfairly attractive. He stopped in front of me, blocking the locker from view, jaw so tight I could see it twitch.

"Go to class," he yelled, not to me. Nobody moved. "Now!"

The crowd instantly scattered. When everyone finally dispersed and we were all alone, he turned back. "Are you okay?"

I laughed, a little hysterical. "Do I look okay?"

"No. You look like you're about to pass out. Water?"

"I don't… that's not… why are you here?"

"I go to school here."

"You know what I mean." I gestured at the locker, at him and then the space between us. "Yesterday was a mistake. This is what happens when people like you notice people like me."

Something flickered across his face. "People like me?"

"Rich? Popular? Perfect? You know what I mean." The words came faster than I could stop them. "Yesterday you were being a good person. It doesn't have to mean anything more than that."

"And if I want it to?"

My heart stopped. "What?"

He stepped closer, close enough I had to tilt my head back. "Have lunch with me."

"Are you insane?"

"Probably. Have lunch with me anyway."

"Ethan, look at my locker. If we're seen together again it'll get worse."

"Let it get worse."

"Easy for you to say. They're not calling you a gold digger."

His expression hardened. "No, they're calling me an i***t for not choosing Madison. My father called at six this morning to lecture me about appropriate associations. I've spent my whole life managing other people's expectations, Cassie. I'm tired of it."

"Your dad called you? Because of the video?"

"Everyone's heard about the video." He ran a hand through his hair. "He thinks I saved you to make a point."

"Did you?"

"No." He held my eyes, and something raw slipped through. "I saved you because the thought of you drowning made me sick and I walked you home because I wanted to know you got there safely."

"Lunch?"

"Oh, that?" He looked around as if to make sure nobody had miraculously crawled up on us. "Maybe I have actually been noticing you for a while and yesterday finally gave me an excuse."

My pulse kicked hard against my throat. "What?"

"Corner table, philosophy section… Chamomile with a lot of honey. You mouth the words when you read and last month you cried at the end of Crime and Punishment."

"What? What are you, a creep?"

"You're not exactly hard to notice, Cassie. Not when you're getting bullied every day."

"So you've been watching me because I'm a victim?"

"I took interest. I was intrigued. And yesterday, when you jumped into that pool knowing you might drown, just to save something that mattered to you… That was brave."

My eyes burned. "I'm not brave. I'm scared all the time."

"Being brave doesn't mean you're not scared. It means you're scared and you do it anyway." A small smile. "So have lunch with me. Be scared and do it anyway."

"This is a terrible idea."

"I know."

"Madison will make my life hell."

"She's already doing that, lunch or no lunch."

"And your father?"

"I'll manage it."

"You don't know that."

"No," he admitted. "But I know I haven't stopped thinking about you since I pulled you out of that pool. And when Madison jumped in expecting me to save her instead, all I could think was I wasn't done making sure you were okay. So maybe this blows up in both our faces. I'd rather try and fail than never try."

Slowly, he held out his hand. I stared at it, then at him, then at the locker behind us which was proof of exactly how bad this could get.

But then I thought about the compass in my pocket, and the way he'd stayed when he could've left.

Taking a deep breath, I took his hand.

"One lunch," I said. "To say thank you for saving me."

But deep down I knew this meant more than a thank you to me.

"One lunch," he agreed, smiling. "And if you change your mind, let me know right after."