Chapter Three

Eloise's POV

I sat down on the steps outside the park, still clutching the scarf.

My knee hadn't stopped bleeding, but I ignored it and pulled out my phone.

At the very bottom of my contacts was a number I'd never saved a name for. I stared at it for a long time before I finally hit call.

It was Sebastian Thorne's number.

The Thornes were one of the biggest old-money families on the East Coast. Sebastian was their only son, and he'd been at the top of our class for as long as anyone could remember. He didn't talk much and came off pretty cold.

And yet, he and Chase had been inseparable since kindergarten.

Right before homecoming sophomore year, he'd hovered by my locker forever, ears bright red, until he finally asked if I'd go to the dance with him.

Back then, all I could see was Chase. I figured someone had put him up to it as a joke, and I turned him down without a second thought.

After that, he never tried to talk to me one-on-one again.

He picked up on the first ring.

"Eloise?"

I could hear tennis balls bouncing faintly in the background. Then he said to someone nearby, "Let's call it a day."

"Sebastian." I cleared my throat and tried to sound fine. "I'm outside the water park on the edge of town. Can you come get me?"

He didn't ask a single question. "Stay put. I'll be there in fifteen."

He hung up. I set my phone face down on my lap, and little by little, my heart stopped racing.

Not long after, Chase and Skylar came out too.

Skylar was holding a cup of ice cream against her cheek and sniffling the whole way. Chase was murmuring to her, trying to calm her down, but his eyes kept drifting over to me.

He probably figured if he let me stew for a while, I'd swallow my pride like I always did.

Sure enough, he was the one who walked over first.

He stopped right in front of me. "How long are you gonna keep this up? Her face is swollen, and she's not even holding it against you. What are you sitting here for? Waiting for me to beg? Just get in the car. You're embarrassing yourself."

I didn't even look up. I just checked the time on my phone.

"Eloise! I'm talking to you!"

Getting ignored in front of everyone must have hurt his pride, because he reached out to grab my arm.

Just then, a black sedan pulled into the parking lot and stopped in front of me. Two SUVs followed and parked on either side of it.

Everyone around us turned to look. Chase's hand froze in midair.

The back door opened, and Sebastian got out.

He was wearing a white button-down with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, like he'd come straight from the court.

He spotted the blood on my knee right away, and his face went cold.

"Who did this?"

I shook my head. I didn't have it in me to talk. "Not right now. Just get me out of here."

"Okay."

He bent down, slid one arm behind my back and the other under my knees, and picked me up.

"Sebastian, what the hell are you doing?!" Chase finally snapped out of it and charged forward. "She's my girlfriend!"

Sebastian didn't stop walking. He just glanced back at him.

"Funny. You didn't seem to remember that when you left her on her own and watched her bleed."

A few bodyguards in black suits stepped out of the SUVs and moved in, blocking Chase off.

Sebastian set me down in the back seat, keeping one hand on the top of the door frame the whole time so I wouldn't hit my head.

"Eloise! If you leave with him today, we're really over! You're gonna regret this!" Chase yelled from behind the wall of bodyguards until his voice cracked.

I rolled down the window.

Chase's face was bright red. Skylar stood behind him, staring at the car like she couldn't look away.

"Chase, we were over the second you watched her wreck my grandma's bracelet and still took her side." I looked at him calmly. "I wasn't kidding about the breakup."

The window rolled back up and cut off his voice.

The car pulled out of the parking lot, and soon the two of them disappeared from the rearview mirror.

Sebastian took an ice pack from the mini fridge next to the seat, wrapped it in a towel, and had me hold it against my eyes, which were swollen from crying.

Then he opened a first aid kit, knelt down on one knee in front of me, and carefully cleaned the sand out of my scrape with a cotton swab.

The antiseptic hit the cut, and I flinched.

"Hang in there. Almost done." His hands got even gentler.

I slowly unfolded the scarf and showed him the twisted bracelet.

He looked at it for a long time without saying anything. Then he wrapped it back up for me and gently placed it in my palm.

"Leave it to me."

I looked at him, and the tears just came. I couldn't stop them.

It had been so long since anyone had my back like this, no questions asked.

"Thank you, Sebastian."

He grabbed a tissue and wiped my tears away. "As long as I'm around, nobody's ever treating you like that again."

A few days later came the day we were supposed to leave for Nantucket.

Early that morning, Chase's car was parked outside my house, with Skylar sitting in the passenger seat.