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“Great. Hannah is now officially on our bouldering team. This is Callie and Walter,” Scarlet explains, and the couple smiles at Nathan. “And this is …” She lets the sentence trail off, and I realize she didn’t call him my boy toy for no reason.
“Nathan,” I say.
“Hannah’s boyfriend,” Nathan adds.
And once again, I’m blushing.
“Good to meet you. I’ve been needing backup.” Walter salutes Nathan from his spot across the table.
“Oh, hush. Callie and I let you win almost five percent of the arguments we have. Stop being so dramatic.” Scarlet glares, her arms crossed.
“I’mdramatic?”
Walter and Scarlet proceed to bicker in a good-natured way as Callie laughs and throws out comments every so often. Not to calm them down, but instead to keep them going.
I lean back in my chair, glancing to the corner of the room. There’s a small table by the window that gets decent light. It’s the table I always eat at, sitting alone, reading my book. I don’t hate that table, and I don’t even hate the idea of eating alone. I’m sure I’ll do it plenty in the future.
It’s only that today, finally, I have a choice. I have a group.
I have friends.
Underthistable, a warm hand snakes into my lap. Nathan’s gaze stays focused on the verbal volleys being batted around across from us, but from the way our fingers tangle together, I know at least part of his attention is on me.
He leans over, pressing his lips to my ear again. “I like them. Let’s keep them.”
My cheeks ache as a smile dominates my face.
This whole situation brings on a wave of giddy joy so strong that I want to kick myself.
Why did I give up so easily on making friends?
Okay, so I had a few duds. But it was stupid of me to let myself think there weren’t any great people just waiting to be found.
Who knows how much earlier I would have met Scarlet, Callie, and Walter if I had just put myself out there?
How many more potential friends are on this campus right now?
All I need to do is challenge myself once in a while, and I might find a few.
Maybe staying in Virginia wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe I wouldn’t be all alone if a certain devilish chair thief ever decided to break my heart.
As I glance to my side and meet his laughing eyes, my doubts about us begin to fade away, too.
NATHAN
We didn’t have any plans last night, so it’s not like Hannah technically ditched me to hang out with her new friends, but I get panicky when I think of all the minutes I’ve lost with her. Those minutes are limited because she hasn’t decided to stay.
Today’s mission: change Hannah Small’s mind.
I smirk to myself when I think of her last name. Can’t believe she was able to hide that from me for so long even though I completely understand why she might have thought I’d use it against her. She’s a treasure trove of secrets I want the chance to explore.
When I round the red brick corner of the dorm building, I catch sight of Hannah. She’s perched on the half-wall where I first got to taste her caramel-sweet lips. There’s never going to be a time I’ll walk past this spot and not have that memory. If she leaves me, there’s still going to be phantoms of her all over campus. Whenever I study in the library, grab a cup of coffee, or sit on the couch in my dorm room, she’s going to be there, smiling through a scowl and slipping her pear-scented hair behind the cute curve of her ear. Sleeping in my bed will be torture after having her poised over top of me, biting her lip in ecstasy, the salty taste of her on my fingers.
My planhasto work. I need her to stay with me.
Today, she’s got on her trademark shorts with a tank top tucked into their high waist. As I approach, the words on her shirt become legible, and my worries temporarily get pushed to the side at the goofy message.
“Science: it’s like magic but real,” I read aloud, enjoying the way her head pops up in momentary surprise before a pleased grin creases her round cheeks.
