American Royals by Katharine McGee

Author:Katharine McGee
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2019-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

NINA

“I’m thinking of dropping Film Studies,” Rachel announced, reaching across the table to swipe one of Nina’s French fries.

They were in the freshman dining hall at King’s College. It was one of the older buildings on campus; the arched wooden ceiling rose high above them, and massive pendant lights hung over each table.

“Same,” agreed Logan, the guy who Rachel was on-again, off-again seeing. They must be on-again right now, from the way they’d been deliberately bumping elbows throughout the meal.

“Wait, why?” Nina asked. When Rachel tried to steal another fry, she slid the plate across the table in amusement.

The three of them had agreed to take Film Studies together: Rachel and Logan needed a fine arts credit, and as for Nina, she’d just thought it sounded interesting. Plus, it counted toward her departmental GPA. Perks of being an English major.

Logan shrugged. “Too much work. Who wants to attend film screenings every Thursday night?”

“You can still go out Fridays and Saturdays,” Nina reminded him.

“And Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Sundays,” Rachel added, only somewhat kidding. Nina had known her to go to parties on pretty much every day of the week. Honestly, she appreciated it; anytime she felt like doing something, she could count on Rachel to know what was going on.

Nina leaned back in her chair, stifling a yawn. She’d gone over to the palace last night to curl up in one of the media rooms and watch a movie with Jeff. After they’d gotten away with it in Telluride, it felt silly telling him that she couldn’t come over—though Nina still felt weird about sneaking around, trying to avoid Sam.

When the movie ended, Jeff had insisted on driving back in the car with her: “A normal boyfriend would take you home.”

“A normal boyfriend would walk me to my door,” Nina had countered.

Perhaps because it was so late, the campus quiet and deserted, Jeff had taken her words to heart. Ignoring his protection officer’s angry grunt of disapproval, he’d followed Nina out of the car and walked her to her dorm’s entrance, watching as she scanned her campus ID over the key-card reader.

“Let it never be said that I can’t act like a normal boyfriend. At least a fraction of the time,” he’d teased, and dropped a quick kiss on her mouth.

Nina smiled at the memory of his thoughtfulness, then started to push back her dining hall chair. “Either of you want froyo? I saw that the machine has salted caramel today.”

“Could you bring me some?” Rachel had her phone out and was scrolling idly through her newsfeed. “You still owe me, since you missed my New Year’s Eve party.”

“I was sick.” It was a flimsy lie, but Nina hadn’t come up with anything better.

She was getting tired of all the secrets that kept crowding into her life, multiplying and building on each other.

“Fine, fine, I’ll come with you,” Rachel started to stay—and froze. She was staring at something on her phone, her mouth open in shock.

“Everything okay?”

Logan leaned toward Rachel to read over her shoulder.

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