Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
I bite the inside of my cheek for a moment. “Can we forget about Thorne? I hate paying him, but Dad did leave us enough money. I’d rather pay him than have him threaten Onyx House.”
Sev nods. “But you don’t have to pay him at all, if I take care of it. Trust me, Wes.”
My chest tightens a little.
I know Sev has a long history with violence. I know he’s comfortable using his fists to get his way. But I’ve never been comfortable with that.
“I’m just so afraid it will blow up in the face of the rest of Onyx. I don’t want anyone else hurt for something that’s my fault.”
“It isn’t your fault, it’s your father’s,” he corrects me. “But I understand. I’m never going to let that happen.”
I reach over and grab a fry from Rayne’s tray across the table, popping it in my mouth.
“Since when do you eat those?” Rayne asks.
I shrug. “I’m learning to live a little. That doesn’t mean I’m about to change up my diet, but one fry isn’t going to hurt me.”
Rayne reaches over and fist-bumps me.
“You’re fucking cute,” Sev tells me.
“Good luck working on your project. I’ll be in the auditorium cheering for you in the front row tomorrow night. That engineering ceremony is going to be like a hockey game with all of us there rooting for you.”
Soon I see a very rare blush landing on Sevan’s cheeks.
There’s nothing in the world he acts bashful about other than this competition he’s in, but I love seeing every aspect of him, including the parts he thinks are boring but are actually impressive.
“If you insist,” he tells me.
“Not missing it for the world.”
24
Sevan
There hasn’t been a single moment all semester that I’ve been nervous about my miniature car project until the night I walk out onto the auditorium stage.
I know the car works.
I’ve been testing it in many conditions all day, and I’m convinced it will be one of the more advanced projects presented today.
But knowing that Weston is out in the audience, waiting to watch me, actually gives me a surge of nerves as I step out into the stage lights.
The whole auditorium breaks out in applause as I walk onto the stage with five of the other finalists in the competition. There are a lot more people here than I ever would have expected in an engineering ceremony, a lot of them parents or professors.
Mom is somewhere in the back, and I think Niko and Ollie went to go sit with her.
I squint into the lights and see Wes front and center in the first row like he said he’d be, surrounded by other Onyx guys on either side of him.
“Thank you all for coming out tonight,” the head of the engineering department says into his microphone, waving to the crowd. “We’ll be seeing the final five projects on display this evening, which our brightest students have been working on all semester. I think you’ll be impressed.”
I hear a loud whoop whoop from the front and I smile, knowing it’s Wes.
There’s a panel of judges at the back of the stage who are introduced.
Most of them are engineering professors, and a few are from mechanical engineering companies. They’ll be judging each of our projects.
I take a deep breath and watch as the other students come to the center of the stage, one by one, showing off their projects. One of them is an impressive motorized robotic arm, and the girl who made it is someone I’ve seen in many of my classes over the past couple of years. The robotic arm can pick up many things, and in the final demonstration it even manages to pick up a raw egg, bring it over a frying pan, and crack it into the pan without any egg shells getting in.
The next few projects are equally good. Someone made self-cooling shoes that look ridiculous, but are a great idea for a prototype, and another person made a little electronic bird that can flap its wings and light up in different patterns.
When it’s my turn to present, the whole front row erupts in cheers and applause even though the audience has been relatively tame until now.
I explain the process of building my mechanical air-powered car, and that it runs on pneumatic cylinders. And then I fire it up, sending it down the long, looping track that I made for it.
When it gets to the end all on its own, the front row cheers again.
“Very good work, Sevan,” the engineering head says.
The panel of judges breaks to deliberate, and the rest of us are finally allowed to mingle. I hop down the stairs at the edge of the stage and right away, Wes is running toward me.
He tackles me in a kiss, wrapping his arms around me.