Colton's new bootycall was all he could fucking talk about.

The fucker couldn't stop talking about her hair or her ass or her 'perfect tits'. It was honestly getting annoying.

I didn't particularly enjoy the 'locker room talk' like the rest of the guys, especially since I'd only ever been with one person before in my life, and never did I want to share what she looked like or how good she was with anyone, least of all a room full of thirty guys who'd salivate at her the moment she walked by.

He hadn't told us her name, though, so that was the plus side to it.

Still, I wondered who it was that had gotten under his skin so quickly, if only to warn her, protect her from how I knew Colton was.

The guy couldn't keep it in his pants for five seconds, let alone long enough to remain faithful to anyone, so this would only hurt the girl in the long run.

Unless it was Leah Maren. She was the equivalent to Colton in every way except for the fact that she didn't have a dick between her legs.

How did I know this?

Because she'd been the one to take my virginity sophomore year after homecoming.

She was the first and only girl to ever break my heart, and what she'd done was enough to turn me off of sex, forever.

Okay, maybe not forever, but at least until I was in my twenties.

"So she was going down on me, right, and she had her tongue doing these fucking perfect circle things around the tip of my di-"

"Colton! Shut the fuck up. No one wants to hear about how you got your dick wet last night."

My friend's eyes widened in surprise at my angry outburst but I didn't care, not as the entire senior class could hear every single thing the dumbass was saying on the school bus that was transporting us to our class trip to the National Museum of the Arts.

Some were craning their necks to see who was telling the lascivious story, others were trying their damndest to ignore every word coming out of the dirty asshole's mouth.

I was firmly in the category of those trying to ignore him, but with the sheer volume of his voice, that was becoming near impossible.

"I wanted to hear what happened next," Leah piped up next to Colton.

I hid my shiver of disgust as she trailed her hands all over him as if he hadn't just had sex with someone else the night before.

There was nothing wrong with having multiple sex partners, but at least wait until the sweat cools before jumping in with the next person, damn.

It didn't help that Leah was attempting to make me jealous, which was the funniest (worst?) part of it all, considering that I had been the one to break up with her after she cheated on me following our first (and only) time.

Her fire red hair peeking out of the blankets in my brother's bed still gave me nightmares.

"Yeah stop being so negative, Parker. What, you're not sex positive anymore?"

"Shut up, Colton."

I turned away from all of them and put my attention to my phone instead.

I was getting more and more tired of Colton's friendship, especially since he knew what Leah had done to me and with my brother, who was currently skipping the class trip to either get high with his friends, or something even worse that I didn't even want to think about in that moment.

My mind wandered and wandered until the bus came to a screeching halt in the parking lot for the art museum we were visiting.

Our town nestled up in northern coastal California, we'd had to drive to Sacramento to get to a big city that held a museum like this one, but even as the large buildings and concrete surrounded us, I realized I missed the isolation and greenery that Redding provided.

The two and a half hour drive from our well kept secret from the rest of the country town except for the most devoted kayakers felt longer than it actually was, considering the fact that I'd had to keep my eyes on my phone the entire time to avoid Leah trying to catch my eye and ignore Colton's disgusting sexual play-by-plays that only seemed to make Leah even more attracted to him (because, sure, why not).

Nate, Colton, Carter and Leah all got off before me, shoving their ways past everyone who was seated in front of us. Typical. They wanted to sit in the very back but wanted to get off before everyone else.

I was taking my time allowing everyone else ahead of me to get off when the two scholarship students, I think their names were Mori and Camille, gave my friends a harsh glare and began packing their things up.

I couldn't blame them, not after Carter and Colton joked constantly about them since they were there on scholarship.

I had wanted to put my fist through Carter's face this morning when after yelling something equally disturbing at them in the hallways, he'd leaned over to Colton and I'd caught a snippet of something racist coming out of him.

I'd immediately demanded to know what he said, but he pretended he didn't know what I was talking about.

I could've just brushed it off, but I knew if I heard him say anything like that ever again, there'd be hell to pay. I was barely hanging on with this group, and if it weren't for Alec, they'd all be excommunicated, but I couldn't do that to my best friend. He needed me, and ditching his friend group would mean ditching him.

I just needed one more reason, and then I'd be out. Hopefully Alec would forgive me once he realized that I didn't want to sacrifice my morals for him, but I doubted it would go that way. He probably wouldn't forgive me, but I wouldn't give up on him.

Maybe we could start our own friend group, where he didn't have to rely on these other assholes to feel happy at school.

"Um...are you gonna go?"

I pulled myself out of my head long enough to realize that I'd been standing directly into the path of one of the scholarship girls.

Her dark brown hair was curled naturally around the olive skin of her face, dark brown eyes jutting out from underneath long lashes that made my chest kick in response.

Her uniform was fitted tightly to her body, like it was a size too small but she didn't have an extra to wear. Our uniforms were astronomically priced and weren't included in the scholarship package, so it was more likely she couldn't afford one.

I made a mental note to talk to my dad and ask that the uniform costs be implemented into the scholarship packages from there on out. Not everyone could afford an extra hundred bucks every other season when they grew out of their old uniform.

"Sorry, go ahead."

I placed a calm smile on my face and she eyed me skeptically, like she thought my politeness was a trap.

My stomach swirled in guilt that her time at the school my dad ran was so full of assholes like Colton and Carter that she distrusted so easily. I felt the need to say something, to clear things up.

"You're Camille, right?"

Those dark eyes flicked back up to meet mine and I could hardly breathe when she pulled the bottom half of a pink pouty lip into her mouth.

"Yeah. Why?"

There was a flicker of fear on her face, like she was terrified of someone knowing who she was. No, that wasn't right. Why would she be scared of me asking her name?

"And you're Mori?"

The girl behind Camille nodded wordlessly, dark brown eyes wide and doe-like, she took me in fully, eyes darting back and forth between me and Camille as if trying to solve a complex math equation.

"Nice to meet you both. I know we've gone to school together the whole semester, but I never really introduced myself. I'm Parker Hartingrove."

Camille let out a snort-like sound, her full lips twitching into a quirk to the side, like she was amused by me introducing myself.

"Oh, we know who you are. Nice to meet you, too."

Her voice wasn't necessarily rude, but she wasn't polite, either. I guessed I deserved that, considering the company I kept. She probably assumed I was just like them.

"Yeah, nice to meet you," Mori squeaked from behind Camille. It was easy to tell which was the more assertive of the two as Camille didn't break my stare, a challenge being issued in her almost too large for her face eyes.

The sun came cresting through the bus in an arcing spear, slanting over her brown eyes that turned them a stunning shade of amber. The breath in my chest stumbled a little. She was close to me, so close I could've reached out and thumbed a curly strand of dark as night hair framing her flaming red cheeks.

The light shone on her cute little button nose, the arching points of her cheekbones, and the flawless expanse of smooth skin cast in a bronze glow of the early afternoon sun.

Mori cleared her throat behind us and I only then realized that I'd been staring far too long at Camille. How long had it been?

My 'friends' were standing outside the bus waiting on me if the sight of them loitering and messing around from the window could be believed.

"Sorry, I'll just move out of your way," I said, moving to the side, but not going in front of them.

Camille had to brush my shoulder as I had made a small space for her to get out of her seat on the bus, and suddenly she was stuck between me and the smelly old leather seats crinkled from years of use.

Her small body came up to my lower chest, and when she passed by me, her head leaned back and she craned her neck to peer up into my eyes.

"I don't know what you're trying to do, but stay away from us. We don't want trouble from you, any of you."

And then she tugged her friend's hand and disappeared down the rows, Mori's head whipping back to me like she was about to say something but Camille was a woman on a mission and then they were gone, and I was left standing alone on the bus looking like an actual idiot.

Of course she'd want nothing to do with me.

Even if I were interested in her, my association with her bullies was enough to deter her from me for good, not to mention that I didn't do relationships, girls, or anything romantic at all.

But one thought of her sweet rounded face and innocent eyes popping back into my head had me questioning that philosophy for the first time in almost two years.