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Was it possible to be attracted to someone and still utterly loathe them?
Wendy narrowed her eyes on Logan Moss. I love to hate you ran through her mind. He was sinfully sexy, but with a shallow selfish soul.
He hadn’t heard the news yet, she was sure of it. He hadn’t looked her way at all. Not that that was unusual. Logan hadn’t looked her way in years, if ever, and she never paid any notice to him either. But if he knew about their parents then he was bound to acknowledge her. Which she kind of wanted him to, just so she could make it clear that she despised him.
She despised that he was always unfazed by everything, that he always had that sardonic smile as if the world was amusing, that he took nothing seriously, that everything came so easily to him, that he was smart but didn’t use it, that he liked dumb bimbos, that girls found him fascinating when he wasn’t, that he was careless with other people’s feelings. That he didn’t care about the planet. Everything. She despised absolutely everything about him.
Except maybe his hair. She gave him credit for having great hair. It would be black except that it had so many other colours hidden in the depths. And his body, that was good. And his face, of course. But nothing that mattered.
Maybe some signs of emotion would finally show through when he heard that his precious mother was shacking up with Wendy’s father.
She just hoped he wasn’t pleased, because then she might actually have to kill him. She knew that a lot of guys would be thrilled to have her dad in their lives. A bit of nepotism went a long way in Hollywood circles, and if Logan had any ideas of making it in movies like his own parents then he might want to capitalise on the relationship. But she was counting on his being just as outraged as she was, because she needed the support against them, even if it did have to come from someone as vapid and egotistical as Logan.
***
LOGAN SIGHED AS ALIANNA continued to rant at him for his lateness. Yeah, he was going to have to let her go; she had been a fun date for a while there, but the moment that a girl stopped thinking he was perfect and started expecting more, it was time to part ways. Why did girls love drama so much? Why couldn’t they just be happy? He was perfectly fine with just cruising along – there didn’t have to be more than that, did there? Why did they always expect more? Why did they think every relationship had to turn into true love?
Logan tuned out Alianna’s voice and mentally scrolled through a list of girls who might serve as a replacement for the last few days of term. No one particularly appealed right now. Maybe a girl from the year below them? That shouldn’t be too hard. Or even better, if he could score with someone from the year above. A girl of seventeen was a lot more appealing than girls who were fifteen.
Was it so bad to just want to be adored? Girls started out bowled over by his dark looks, but in the end, they always started to nag. It was like they expected him to have become a better person during the course of the relationship. Yes, he knew he had insecurities that made him just want that first happy bit and not much else, but Logan didn’t think he could be fixed, certainly not by the attentions of a few girls. But, hey, there was no harm in trying.
For Logan Moss, school was a haven from the craziness of home. He had been at Compass Court Boarding School for more than four years now, and the old building gave him a security that he never felt in either of his parents’ houses. And the school provided plenty of entertainment of the female variety. He just wished he hadn’t already exhausted most of the top-quality supply. If he wasn’t careful he was going to have to start relying on the favours of ugly girls. Or fat girls or painfully shy girls, or his pet hate – the really clever superior girls. He’d always found the best distraction was generally to be had in the arms of a sweet and simple girl. But it never lasted; sooner or later his lack of emotional commitment began to annoy them. It wasn’t that he liked being so shallow, he’d just quite simply never felt anything much beyond physical attraction for Alianna and those that came before her. It was a shame really, Alianna had been generous with both her affection and her adulation for the last few weeks, but he didn’t take criticism well.
He watched her flick her hair to make her point about how irritated she was. She had such gorgeous hair, long and dark and super soft. He liked the way she tickled his neck with it when they kissed. Maybe he could dump her tomorrow, or in a few days. He could put up with one or two bouts of bad temper if it meant a secret meet after curfew tonight. Though actually he’d already been caught out of bed twice already this term. Once more and he might be looking at a suspension, and his mother most certainly wouldn’t appreciate that. She’d make a scene. She was an actress, and making scenes was what she did best. Logan hated scenes. He liked life to be light-hearted and easy. No tortured tears, no theatrical tantrums, no fake drama.
Which was exactly why he was going to break up with Alianna any moment if she didn’t stop chastising him in public, just for being twenty minutes late to meet her in the North Tower Common Room.
“Chill, Ali, I’ve said I’m sorry.” He put his hand on her arm, and let his smile drop for just a second to show her he was getting annoyed. He switched his expression back to charming and said, “I’ll make it up to you later.”
“How?” She pouted, but she was looking more friendly. He was pretty sure she’d seen his slight warning.
“Back massage?” he suggested. Heck, he could risk being caught again, the Headmistress wasn’t likely to suspend him this close to the holidays.
Alianna put her hands on her hips and began to get that ramped-up look again.
“Oh, really? And how exactly is that going to happen? Certainly not in your room or mine with our roommates looking on. Or do you suggest I bare my back right in the middle of the Common room? Or perhaps outside in the snow?”
Logan sighed to himself. Oh well, there would be other fish to fry.
“Actually,” he said with his sweetest and nastiest smile, “the offer was only for you to massage me. But it’s your loss.” He left her spluttering with indignation as he walked away towards his friends.
***
WENDY SHOOK HER HEAD with disgust at his attitude towards his girlfriends. How on earth did he manage to be so popular? The boy was a lizard – kind of cute and you wanted to pet it, until it bit you and you realized it was just cold-blooded.
She dragged her attention off Logan and back to the committee she was supposed to be chairing on how to make North Tower the best schoolhouse for recycling.
The four schoolhouses all had different strengths, but North Tower was head and shoulders over the others when it came to environmental awareness and a variety of other issues. They even had a huge communal fruit bowl that the school kitchens kept topped up, after she had personally written to every North Tower parent suggesting that only £2 a month added to their child’s school fees would cover this. Almost eighty percent of the parents had coughed up the increase, and Wendy had been awarded extra credits by the school for services to her house.
“Wendy? Hello? Are you even listening?” Vince poked her in the leg with his pencil.
Wendy jumped and then blushed deeply as she realised her eyes had unintentionally drifted back to Logan.
But not because she liked him or anything; hell no, definitely not that. Only because she had no idea how she was going to get through an entire Christmas of having him at her home without punching his lights out. If he so much as made even one annoying comment...