Typhon

Chapter 1

Stone~

I was doing my best not to punch this motherfucker in the face. In fact, it was actually a testament to the control that I had over my emotions that August Remington wasn't already laid out at my feet. After all, he knew the rules just as well as I did.

Just as well as we all did.

So, why he felt as though he could just chat it up with me-in public-was beyond me. Especially, considering how what I did was none of his business in the first place. Contrary to what he and the others might think, I wasn't a sheep. I wasn't in this because it was what was expected of me, nor was I in this to follow in the footsteps before me. I also wasn't in this just to be a piece of a bigger puzzle.

I was in this to rule the fucking world and every key player in it.

"C'mon, Stone," he said, pretending to speak in a whisper but not doing a very good job of it. "Everybody picks a girl, dude. No one's ever not picked a girl before."

We were seated next to each other in Applied Statistics, and it was too late to trade seats without causing a few heads to turn if he got butthurt. It also bothered me that he thought that this commonality made us friends.

We weren't friends.

While I had a fuckton of acquaintances and a shitload of casual friends, I had only one real friend. Even if he weren't a part of all this, even if I couldn't tell him about all this shit, even if he wasn't privy to the biggest part of my life, Lennox Wilde was still my only real friend.

"I'm not talking to you about this, August," I bit out. "Especially, not here."

"Oh, right," he mumbled. "Yeah, yeah."

Now I really wanted to punch him in the face. The bastard knew what he was doing and why. Unfortunately for him, so did I. No matter what my signature had agreed to, I wasn't stupid.

Nor was I weak.

Though my signature had promised a lot, that didn't mean that I wasn't going to play my cards close to the vest. It didn't mean that I was going to lay all my plans out in a nice, neat, little diagram for them all to see and follow. It didn't change the fact that I didn't know these people well enough, considering.

See, August had already picked his girl.

They'd all had.

Ross had chosen his girl our sophomore year at Hales University, Fox had chosen his girl last year during winter break, and Saxton had chosen his girl when we'd been fucking freshman, for fuck's sakes. August had chosen his girl just a few months ago, right before summer had begun.

However, we were all seniors now, and the ceremony was only two weeks away; always the last weekend in September. Though never in the same place, it was always during that same last weekend of the month. Not sure why, and I never asked because I honestly didn't give a fuck.

Still, what August failed to realize was that, even if I'd already chosen a girl, I wouldn't have told him who she was. I wouldn't have told any of them. They didn't need to know who I'd chosen, if anyone.

While Ross Carmichael, Fox Harrington, and Saxton Voss were reputed to be ruthless but solid, I still didn't know them beyond who they were and a few superficial conversations over the years. They were every bit as commanding as you'd expect from their last names and their family lines, but I still didn't know them like that.

Nonetheless, I didn't get sketchy vibes from them the way that I did August Remington. August Remington was a bad apple, and it was unfortunate that he was in my graduating class. It was also unfortunate that he'd been one of the selected few.