If You Could Only See

Prologue

There was blood everywhere.

Well, maybe not everywhere...but it sure seemed that way. Of course, I wasn't knowledgeable enough to assess just how much was an appropriate amount of blood in a situation like this.

I'd experienced nothing like this before.

No one had ever placed me in a position of importance before.

Nope.

Never.

I was the girl that no one noticed.

I was the girl whose name no one knew.

Okay, maybe that wasn't entirely true.

I did have one friend.

Viola.

Vivi.

She was my friend.

She'd been the first and only person that had made it a point to say hi and get to know me when I had first arrived at Blaineview College. Now, while I wasn't her only friend, she'd been my only friend for the past three years of my uneventful existence here. However, my existence at this small, private, prestigious college was no longer uneventful.

No Siree Bob.

It was now full of events.

Like Viola standing a few feet away from me, screaming at anyone that was daring to have an opinion and was stupid enough to voice it.

Like complete strangers flashing shots of me with their phone cameras.

Like the douchebag college tools that were scanning my body up and down leerily.

Like the elite female cliques that were shooting daggers my way, as if I'd somehow offended them by merely existing.

Like Aiden freakin' Buchanan draping his jacket over my shoulders in some weird attempt at comfort.

What in the ever-lovin' hell?

The only people that weren't staring me down like an insect on the dissecting table were Viola-in all her furious glory-the two men that weren't charging each other anymore-only because they were each being held back by a team of testosterone-and the two teams of said testosterone.

All these latest current events were happening all around me, and my mind was kind of sluggish with the comprehension of all of it. While, yes, this was a college party, and I might have been buzzed, I wasn't anymore, so the sluggishness wasn't because of any mind-altering liquid goodness. It was because I shouldn't be in the middle of anything remotely newsworthy.

Remember, I was the girl that no one noticed.

I kept my head down and stayed out of everyone's business.

I went to class, and when I wasn't in class, I was working, and when I wasn't in class or working, I was studying or sleeping.

I. Did. Not. Bother. Anyone.

Ever.

I was definitely not the girl that guys fought over, either.

So, how was it that I'd landed smack dab in the middle of...well, I didn't know what this was; my mind was still trying to process what was happening and why. My eyes kept taking in the scene, but my mind kept flipping over in confusion.

I mean, none of this made any sense.

How had Branson Morgan even noticed me among the crowd of people here? Plus, why would he choose me-of all people-to flirt with? Branson also knew my name, for Pete's sakes. Why would he bother paying enough attention to catch and remember my name?

Also, why, in the name of all that was holy, would Mason Buchanan come flying out of nowhere, then start a fight with anyone over me? I mean, Mason Buchanan hated me.

He'd always had.