Hidden secrets, conflicting desires, and the pursuit of power unveil the drama unfolding beneath the high ceilings of Westminster School - a battleground for London's elite teenagers. Amidst the grandeur of aristocratic facade lies the true cost of...
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Raine? Noah thought to himself, as if he couldn't believe his own eyes and considered the figure in front of him to be just a product of his stoned head. She looked like a statue carved from marble, burning him with a laser-like gaze. Then another face emerged before him, quite beautiful, although the only thing he could perceive was the radiant fire in her hair. She pressed her lips to his, and he returned her kiss. That was the last thing he remembered that night.
"Good morning, everyone!" Alex shouted with a coffee mug in his hand. He was wearing a dark red robe, comfortable slippers, and if it weren't for the pearl necklace, he would have resembled a younger version of Hugh Hefner.
Several sleeping people on leather couches stirred. Disoriented, they looked around, and the quiet of the room was interrupted by subdued murmurs.
Noah rubbed his eyes wearily. A red-haired girl lay on his arm, whose name he forgot as soon as she uttered it. She was pretty and reminded him of Victoria. Both of them, for inexplicable reasons, were missing their upper clothing, as if they had fallen asleep in the middle of a drinking game. He remembered sharing a joint with her... Or was it two? And surely the bottle of Bushmills whiskey lying helplessly on the floor played its role. Just one look at its unfinished contents made Noah's stomach turn. He felt awful. His head was pounding, and his mouth felt like sand was pouring out of it. At that moment, he would have given anything for a glass of cold water.
With the caution of a neurosurgeon, he untangled himself from the redhead and began searching for his shirt. He found it crumpled a few meters away under the massive speakers.
"Did you sleep well, bunny?" Alex asked with a mocking grin. Despite the night's carousing, he seemed unusually fresh.
"Sod off," Noah retorted as he got dressed. He couldn't understand why Alex wasn't still dying in bed like everyone else. Yesterday he mixed so much that he would have put Charlie Sheen to shame. He fished his phone out of his jeans' back pocket and stared in horror at the relentless time. He had exactly half an hour to get to school, or he'd endure another lecture from his father about responsibility. And he definitely didn't need that.
"Did Raine tell you too?"
"What?" he didn't understand and headed for the bar. Fortunately, the small fridge contained a few bottles of Evian. He drank with relief. If he called a taxi right now, maybe he could make it before the bell.
"She seemed quite upset when she saw you in Clair's arms. You both got a bit carried away, didn't you?" Alex comfortably leaned against the marble counter, took a hearty sip of coffee, and savoured the effect of his words.
Noah paled and tried to process this information. After a wild night, it was quite a task. He considered Raine's sighting just a minor hallucination. It never occurred to him that it could be real. How in the world could she know where he was, what he was doing, and with whom? The idea seemed too sci-fi.
