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“No?”
“No,” I scoffed.
But, the way Florence and I looked at each other, I knew neither of us fully believed that.
We watched the boys go and I felt like my heart went with them.
The man I loved.
The man I wanted.
The man with arms wide open.
The man who’d said goodbye.
I sighed, plastered on a smile and turned to Florence. She knew me well enough not to push, knew me well enough to not call me out on my mood. She just gave me a sympathetic smile, looped her arm with mine, and started ranting about Shakespeare on the way to class.
† † † †
As I was leaving the boys’ dorm late that night, Valen was arriving from wherever it was he’d been. He barely looked at me. The sheer fury on his face was something I’d never seen before. He looked better than he had when he’d turned up at lunch, but not by much.
He wore dark trousers and a hoodie, the hood up over his hair and his hands shoved in his pockets. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in days. If it was possible for Valen Kincaid to look small, he looked it now. Almost like he was hunching in on himself.
“I didn’t expect to see you back in one piece,” I said to him.
He stopped walking like he knew he had no other choice and sucked his teeth like he was praying for patience. “There’s less of me than there was,” he said, like it was a promise, like he thought that would please me.
I took a breath, torn between concern for him and annoyance at his attitude.
“Well, Apollo’s definitely glad you’re back,” I said. I knew it wasn’t like me to be civil with him, but I just needed to talk to him, to find out that he was really okay.
Valen scoffed humourlessly. “I doubt the fucker even noticed I was gone. His head’s stuck in the fucking clouds. Rainbows in his eyes and stars up his fucking arse. Next he’ll be singing and dancing in the fucking hallways.” He didn’t often have a thick accent, but it came out in full force now.
I frowned at him. “He’s happy, and you’re pissed about it?”
He turned to face me sharply. “I’m notpissedabout it, princess. I’m annoyed by it. He’s annoying me. Fucking giggling and wanting me to have a good time.”
“So now you just don’t want anyone to be happy because it inconveniences you?”
“Of course,” he answered sarcastically. “It’s always all about me.”
“He’s your God, your closest friend, and you can’t even let him be happy?”
He snarled. “This new sunny disposition he’s frolicking about with, love? Let’s not pretend we don’t know why that is, shall we?”
I bristled. “Let’s, Valen,” I suggested. “Because I certainly don’t know what you’re implying.”
He snarled at me again. When he didn’t say anything more, I decided to push. My conversation with Florence was at the forefront of my mind.
“Weird timing,” I commented. “You’ve never been called away during term before, have you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he snapped.
I shrugged. “Just that maybe someone left because they were jealous.”
He growled again. “If I was jealous, would I have just spent the last few hours with my cock in a couple of Magdalens? Would I have spent the last three weeks fucking any idiot who’ll spread her legs for me?”
I wasn’t going to pretend that didn’t hurt just a little because he was obviously suggesting I was one of those idiots. “I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive, no.”
