Again, there's some erotica but mostly story. All characters are older than 18.
*
Senior year had its perks. Starting about a month into school, we were free of a whole day of classes every Tuesday to be able to intern at companies that gave us insight into the future careers we were pursuing, in addition to bulking up our experiences and earning us recommendation letters right before college applications.
The first day of our internships, our school held a senior assembly in the morning to go over logistics.
"Most importantly, remember to always be polite. You represent our school, and we don't want to hear anything from the community about you boys living up to the rumors of 'spoiled, rich kids.' Don't prove them right. You can never be too respectful..." The head of school droned on.
"Do we have to get the same speech every time we leave campus? Uughhh." Someone nearby complained.
They were right. Most of us had been attending this school since the first grade. By this time, we knew the drill. We may be relaxed and have our bitch fits at school and between us, but out in the community, we were supposed to be the picture perfect poster children for the most elite college preparatory school in the region.
Even my ever patient boyfriend Noah next to me was reaching his limit, his leg bouncing up and down.
Fiiiinally, it ended. We were instructed to break out into groupings based on our internship locations.
I had, of course, chosen a top 500 company.
I turned to go to where my group was indicated to meet, when Noah pulled me back. "Honey, why don't you switch to my group?"
"Aww, but you know how hard I worked to be able to get the internship to this company."
"I'm going to miss you so much, though."
"You could always switch to my group?"
"Right," he laughed. "Okay, well, see you after."
I stood in place confused. Why was me switching to his group so normal, but him switching to mine was laughable? We were the same grade. We both had career aspirations. Did he not take my ambitions seriously? Or, did he not take me seriously? For some reason, that question popped up in my thoughts more often than not lately.
I tried to shake off my now slightly gloomy mood. He probably didn't mean it that way... I mean, not to compare, but if we did, I was a way better student than Noah. I had higher grades, way more extracurriculars, and would likely get into a more highly ranked school. I mean, he'll still probably go ivy, but I would have my choice of acceptances. Wait, did he expect me to choose whatever college he's able to get into? That wasn't a conversation I wanted to have. Long distance wouldn't be ideal, but I think we'd manage.
Being one of the more competitive internships, my group was smaller, consisting of Jack and... Alexander.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Did you find out where I'm interning and purposefully choose this one?"
He gave me a hot - I mean, just a regular - half smile. "Someone thinks highly of themselves. Would you like it if I had, love bug?"
I huffed, "Whatever. And don't call me that." His pet names became more ridiculous with every passing day! To ignore Alexander, I started a conversation with Jack. "I like your tie," I complimented him.
"Thanks! Thought I'd dress up for the first day and all."
"Umm, well, the tie is part of the dress code."
He looked at me blankly.
"If you read the application thoroughly, business formal is required on all days."
"Oh, cool, my mom filled out my app, so, hah."
I looked at Alexander and raised my eyebrows. Did he not read through it, either?
"I didn't fill out an app," he casually said.
Ugh!! How did he... "How did you-" I was cut off by one of the teachers beginning another session.
Thus, I spent every Tuesday with Jack and Alexander at our internship.
Jack wasn't rude, but he didn't do his work. He played games on his phone the whole time. He probably didn't need a rec letter and was just fulfilling his hour requirement. Typical.
Alexander paid one of the other interns to do his work! He offered for his scut intern to do my work as well, but I obviously refused and did it myself. *Sigh.*
Alexander's attitude was very laissez faire throughout the whole ordeal. Though, his attitude completely changed when the company's president of the board of directors, or 'the boss man' as Alexander called him, came down to our modest interns' corner specifically to say hello to stupid Alexander, who was suddenly so formal and polite!
"Alexander the hero!" He gave a firm handshake and patted my classmate on the back. "Thanks again for saving my grandson at the polo match last summer. He would have ended up with much more than a broken arm if it weren't for you!"
"Happy to help, sir. Just being a good citizen. I'm glad to hear he healed in time for football."
Alexander? A good citizen?
They bantered and caught up for a bit. Surprisingly, Alexander introduced me, too, and as the 'best student in our class.' That totally played to my ego, and I appreciated the connection.
"Thank you," I said genuinely when we were alone again.
"No problem." He went back to leisurely observing the office. Meanwhile, after the visit by the boss man, the employee in charge of us started complimenting Alexander more on his non-existant work. *Double sigh.*
I thought he was people watching for enjoyment, but he was watching the office closely, learning.
Some time later, he asked, "Want to eat lunch at the sushi place across the street?" He was too close. I could see each of his eyelashes and the flecks of gold in his eyes.
"Sure, but you hate sushi." Why I remembered that fact was beyond me.
"Trust me."
Jack lifted his head up. "Did someone say food?"
"Yeah, man. Come on," Alexander led the way. He held open the doors for me and pulled out my chair. I glared at him but was internally pleased. Stop it! I chided myself.
Turned out, he had picked up that some of the executives were having a congratulatory lunch for one of their newly promoted colleagues at the sushi restaurant across the street. When they saw us also happen to be there for lunch, they invited us to join them.
He gave me a triumphant, wolfish grin, and sat down. It was great for more networking.
...
I loved hosting parties, and I loved themed parties!
I hadn't thrown a party since junior year and thought it was well past due. It was our senior year, after all.
Ivy leagues didn't have frats, unfortunately. I think I would have loved to join one.
This one's theme was star night. No, not like the painting. Like, actual stars. It may sound lame on its own, but I made it come to life. The invitations - yes, old fashion paper invitations in addition to virtual ones - were gold star shaped with glitter that fell out of the envelope and spread quickly. The type of glitter that was hard to clean and you find in random places weeks later.
Noah came over early in the day to help me get ready. Very typically, he started with a half hour rant about how I shouldn't go to parties with alcohol, let alone throw one. Whatever. I wasn't going to change. I threw multiple parties a year. Would he ever give up?
Once he got that out of his system, he helped with the final touches. As we lounged around in the afternoon, I found myself pulling out old yearbooks and looking through photos. It was hard to imagine my life after high school. In most of my photos, Noah and I were practically glued at the hip. A lot of the other faces were repeats, too. I'd spent the last 12 years with pretty much the same group of guys. I was excited to make new friends in college, but I knew I'd miss the familiarity of my class. Noah kissed my cheek sweetly and we reminisced about some of our silliest memories. Our warm bubble of comfort made me happy.
We laid entwined together until my phone's alarm went off.
"Time to get ready! Oh, wait, first... here!" I grabbed a small box off the dresser to extend to Noah. "My parents mailed you a gift from Europe!"
They totally compensated by sending me gifts when they traveled without me, which was most of the time. Recently, they included Noah in the bribery. At least they were thinking of me.
Noah carefully unwrapped the elegent boxing to find a Rolex watch. "It's gorgeous! Your parents are the best. Looks like they reveived my gift a few weeks ago."
"You sent them a gift?"
"Yeah, I did when we got back together, to get brownie points from their side."
Hmm, I couldn't decide if it was weird he got my parents a gift instead of me or if it was sweet. He had known them for a while. My parents didn't mess with my love life. They were hands off supportive with everything I did as long as it wasn't horrible or illegal. Noah's actions were probably sweet. I shouldn't overthink it.
He pulled out his phone to send them a thank you voice message.
Anyways, I wore a swimsuit with gold shorts, a netted beige top, and a gold, layered Chanel necklace and matching anklet.
Noah wore a black swim suit and his new watch. I did enjoy all his bare, muscled skin.
Per my parents' suggestions for most of my parties, I had hired security for the evening and a firefighter who was also a paramedic. Everyone signed NDAs, of course.
I locked the main house. Not that I didn't trust a bunch of drunk and high teenagers. I chuckled to myself. The guest house had bathrooms and a living area with a kitchen, a couple of beds for people to crash on if they needed, and the main wall of the living room pulled back to connect directly to the pool patio. Most importantly, it didn't house any expensive paintings or rare antiques that my family collected. Even if it was all trashed, it wouldn't cost more than a few hundred grand to remodel.
I had a full service of waiters with different constallations on their uniforms and an open bar. All drinks contained edible glitter and sparkled. My favorite feature, as usual, was the chocolate fountain with fruit cut in the shape of stars. We were by the pool, so there was no glass, of course, but all the plastic cups and utensils and plates were gold or silver.
