AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, am I? What if I had plans? What if I had a project to work on right now? Or what if I promised my roommates I’d eat with them?”
“Did you?” he asked.
“Well…no,” I admitted. “But you could at least ask me instead of telling me what I’m going to do.”
He raised an eyebrow and said in a mock formal tone, “Camilla, would you care to join us for lunch?”
I snorted. “Well, seeing as how we’re already halfway to the dining hall, I suppose I’ll say yes. Thanks for asking.” I narrowed a suspicious gaze at him as we wove our way down the path. “Besides, that’s not what I meant when I asked what was going on.”
“Oh?” he said.
“I meant, what is going on with the three of you? I’ve been managing to get myself to class just fine so far; I’m not sure why I suddenly need chaperones everywhere I go.”
A hint of a teasing smile tugged at his lips, softening his standard glower. “Is this not what friends do? Eat together? Hang out between classes?”
“I—” I fell silent.
Despite the fact that there was obviously something fishy going on, he had a point. I thought back to a lifetime ago at my school in California. I’d always been with friends whenever I wasn’t in class. I’d eaten lunch with Jessica, and between her and my other closest friends, Melody and Sam, someone was always with me at my locker during passing periods. For a second, I let myself remember them. Their smiles, the sounds of their laughter. Our inside jokes. How easy everything had seemed. High school friendships had seemed unbreakable then. Less than a year later and it was like they’d never existed at all.
No. More like I’d never existed at all. I was sure it was life as usual at my old L.A. high school. Meanwhile, I was the one out here adrift, trying to put the pieces of my life back together and realizing I no longer knew what the puzzle was supposed to look like.
It was only a moment later that I realized we’d stopped walking. I glanced up and found Garrett watching me. He wore his usual unreadable severe expression, but his eyes were surprisingly soft.
“You don’t have to tell me where you went, just now,” he told me. “But if you ever want to, I’ll listen.”
I blinked. “Wow, that’s a surprisingly human sentiment from you,” I blurted, regretting my rudeness the instant the words were out. But if he was offended, he didn’t let it show.
“Do I strike you as…inhuman?” he asked, and I almost laughed, except it seemed like he really wanted to know.
“Not inhuman. I’m sorry, that was mean. It’s only…you’re very…closed off,” I hedged.
He nodded, and we started walking again, slowly making our way to the dining hall.
“Not that I’m convinced it’s by preference though,” I mused, thinking back to all the inconsistencies, the clues he’d given me. The soft glances I’d caught out of the corner of my eyes. The way he’d reacted when I’d told him about my parents. The panic in his voice and the way he’d rubbed my shoulders when he’d thought I was unconscious. There was obviously a lot going on inside him that never made it to the surface.
“What do you mean?” he asked, his head tipped down so he could peer at me as if I was the mystery to be worked out.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “I can’t read you at all. But I feel like there’s a lot going on inside you, bursting to get out. You’re never still, even when you try to be, and I get the impression it takes an awful lot of effort to control whatever it is you’re controlling in there.”
His fingers, which had been tapping a rhythm on his thigh as we walked, stilled at my words, and a sudden wave of embarrassment washed over me. Why was I saying any of this? Had the cold water of the lake stolen my filter?
His green eyes pierced through me, and I noticed again how angular his face was. Pale skin, sharp cheekbones, square jaw, and heavy brows pulled down over those eyes that saw straight through me.
“You’re very observant,” he said quietly, in a voice I wasn’t sure I was supposed to hear.
I wasn’t sure if I should respond, but then the dining hall loomed ahead of us and he was holding the door open for me, and there were Devan and Micah, sitting by the window at a table with two empty chairs.
24
“You’ve been spending an awful lot of time with those guys,” Nora commented idly a couple of weeks later. Her tone left no question as to which ‘guys’ she was referring to.
We were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, homework spread out in front of us on the coffee table.
“Um…yeah,” I said, hoping my non-answer would dissuade her from further questioning. But I should have known better. Nora was never one to be dissuaded from anything.
“Are you dating one of them?” she asked, and the intensity in her wide-set dark eyes reminded me uncomfortably of Garrett.
What’s more, I had no idea how to answer her question. I didn’t think so. I mean, Micah hadn’t made another move toward me since the kiss after the water rescue, though we also hadn’t talked about it. I had no idea where I stood with him.
