Selling My Soul to His Royal Nerdiness.

Selling My Soul to His Royal Nerdiness. (27)

Annabel Taylor

After our impromptu lunch in the bleachers, Noah and I went back to our classes. I was feeling a lot better, more relaxed, and i could tell that West was aware of it because he looked at me with this weird little half smile on his face. It was almost triumphant.

I ignored it and got down to work, shoving my afternoon meeting with Silas out of mind and instead focusing on what type of baseball bat I'd use for Noah's stupid fangirls. Wooden was effective and gave splinters, but the thought of titanium just made my mouth water...

So I got through classes feeling lighter than I had in a long time. After asking to be excused from our afternoon sessions with Noah, I left him and Principal Malda to their lessons and headed to the boys' dorms.

The hallways were quiet, almost silent as I made my way to my destination. The dorms were on the fifth floor of the school, but there was a few elevators that you could take. I headed to the hall that held those and pressed one of the buttons. It opened immediatly. I stepped through.

"Hey, wait up!"

I threw out a hand to keep the sleek elevator doors from closing. The backtracked immediately, and a girl that sounded vaguely familiar slid through them, looking flustered and holding a huge box. She carefully lowered it to the ground.

"Thanks," she said, her voice heavy with relief and she looked up. "I--"

She abruptly cut off as she saw just who she was thanking.

I couldn't blame her. I didn't know her, despite the massive amounts of time that Noah spent with her, but I got the distinct impression that she didn't like me very much. The feeling was kind of mutual.

Mikayla straightened, suddenly poised and acting like the girl she was raised to be--the daughter of a billionaire who didn't thank people breathlessly and, apparently, had a thing for secret princes.

"Hey," I said, hating fate and whoever was in charge of my messed up life.

"Hi," she said, giving me a once-over. My uniform was probably a bit mussed from nervousness, while hers was decked out with special items and in pristine condition.

There was an awkward silence. And then she cleared her throat. "So...you're visiting Silas?"

She'd met Silas, once, when I was leaving for a date with him and she was coming to pick up Noah. If she didn't like me very much, she didn't like him at all.

"Yes," I said, reaching up to bruah a hand through my hair. 

"You look like you're going to be sick." She said. She turned and looked at the glowing buttons, as if she hadn't just shattered the calm facade that I was trying to put up, and asked, "Fifth floor, then?"

"Yeah," I croaked.

She pressed the button. With barely a lurch, the elevator began to smoothly climb. The elevators were inspected once a month--it wouldn't do for a student under Malda's care to suddenly die in a freak elevator accident.

As we passed the fourth floor, with me looking anywhere but at Kay and her pinning me with a sharp gaze, she suddenly reached out and pressed the stop button.

"Alright," she sighed. "Come on. You look like a bottle of soda that's been shaken up and just waiting for someone to pop off the top so you can spill everywhere. And you know how upset people get after they have soda all over them. So spill."

And then she sat down, pretzel style on the spacious elevator, and patted the floor in front of her expectantly.

Before I could realize what I was doing, I was dropping to the floor, crossing my legs to lean forward and take a few, deep, calming breaths. Kay waited patiently.

"I'm in love with an undercover bodyguard."

It felt like a pressure coming off of my chest, something that made me feel that I could breathe a little easier.

"I know."

My head shot up. "What?"

"I'm the daughter of a highly prestigious lawyer," she said, leaning back to rest on the walls. Her slightly slanted eyes closed. "I don't have many true friends. You know what it's like, don't you? People only wanting you for your money, your status, the benefits of being with you. That's why we're sent here--to try and establish some sort of normalcy, and for protection.

"But even here, I'm still the richest girl in the school. After another so-called friend casually asked about my dad's business connections and used them against me, I decided that my sister was the only one who would get past my inner guards. I would have friends, but they wouldn't be able to get close to the real me."

"And then Noah came along," she smiled, no, beamed at me. "And he went through those walls without even trying. That day in the mall is the happiest I was in a really long time. I love him."

At the look on my face, she giggled a little. "No, not like that. Noah's hot, but he's like an older brother to me. You can stop glaring at me." 

I cleared my throat, trying to regain some of my dignity. "That still doesn't explain how you knew about...about Silas before I did."

"Like I said," she said simply, "I love Noah. And I portect those who I love. A vigourous back ground check was all that i needed, along with the right people."

I raised an eyebrow. "And does Noah know that you know about him being a...?"

"Prince? He told me a few weeks after we met, but I'd already figured it out. You only have to look at pictures of his father when he was younger and make the connection."

I'd seen pictures of Noah's dad when he was a teenager, and i couldn't help but agree.

"So why are you telling me all of this?" I asked.

"You don't exactly spill your guts to someone you can't trust. Plus, I wanted to let you know that I'm on your side with the protection thing."

"...Thanks."

"No problem. So--" She leaned forward. "What are you going to do about Silas?"

I curled my fingers into my pants. Looked down. "I think I'm going to have to break up with him?"

*****