“They put Wren Indra in my freaking dorm!”
Julez wasn’t lying when he said he knew his way around the school. He walked those hallways like they made perfect sense and not like every single one looked the same, as if to confuse you on purpose.
Today had been a lot, but not in the way I’d thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, Julez is a lot to handle, but the more time I spend with him, the more I think he’s genuine, or maybe it’s just what I’m hoping for.
By the time he’d shown me what he could, we picked up all my books, laptop, and uniform, and I'm exhausted.
“You’ll learn the rest as you go, and if you get lost, I’m always happy to help,” Julez says as we walk back to the dorm. He wiggles his brows at me, and it makes me chuckle at how ridiculous he looks.
I’d almost been excited for tomorrow, that is, until we walk back into the dorm and every eye turns our way, reminding me that I don’t belong here.
I don’t belong anywhere.
The only place I’ve ever belonged was with Jordan.
“I thought you were trying to get out of cooking,” Gavin grumbles, but Julez waves him off.
“As if,” he moves through the living room and into the kitchen without so much as a glance back. “So we can lose points, I don’t think so. Get out.” He shoos Gavin and Nolan out, and I’m kind of shocked when they go.
Nolan doesn’t even look up from his phone as he heads toward the stairs, disappearing a moment later. I listen, but after he clears the stairs, his footsteps all but vanish.
You’d think with a school this old, the floor would creak, but I guess with all the money they make, they can afford to maintain it.
I feel eyes on me and don’t need to look up to know it’s Titus; he seems to enjoy glaring at me as if that might make me disappear.
Gavin, on the other hand, is looking anywhere but at me as he drops onto the couch in front of me so that he gives me his back.
Joy.
I square my shoulders and lift my chin before moving over to the couch I now call home. I drape my garment bag, which holds my uniforms, three for warm days and four for cold, over the back and take a seat before I begin pulling things out of it.
Again, I feel their eyes, but I ignore them.
I don’t want to be here any more than they want me here, but none of us have a choice, so they’re just going to have to put on their big-boy pants and deal with it.
“You should try that on, Pookie. Don’t want to be left scrambling in the morning if it doesn’t fit.”
This time, when I look up, Titus is glaring at Julez, who is positively beaming at me with that adorable lopsided grin that makes him so hard to resist.
Titus seems to be a great help with that, though, as he scoffs and elbows Julez in the ribs hard enough to make him cough.
If Julez is upset about it, he doesn’t show it; instead, cursing Titus under his breath before turning back to whatever he’s chopping up.
But he’s done what he set out to do, and now that seed of doubt sits heavy in my mind. I reach for the garment bag, my hand resting on the plastic for a moment as I contemplate what to do.
“Real ballsy to hit a man with a knife,” Julian huffs, and I don’t need to see Titus’s face to know he’s rolled his eyes. I can feel it.
“I wouldn’t have to hit you if you would think with the right head,” Titus snaps back, but not in English, and I sit for a moment listening to them bicker.
Had Titus always spoken in German?
No, surely not; I would have noticed… right?
I hadn’t heard much of Titus, but I’m positive what I’d heard was in English prior to now, which can only mean one thing.
He really doesn’t like me.
If only they knew I myself can speak seven languages or that Jordan and I often spoke in other languages so that Auntie wouldn’t understand.
