Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Austin
You left your laptop speedy Gonzales
Shoot.
Can I bring it to you?
I cover my face. Future Sophie is flying toward me at warp speed, but I do need my computer back.
Sure
Thanks
And then I climb onto my bed to finish the message to Mia, but I don’t get to it.
Austin is already leaning on my doorframe with high, teasing brows and my laptop at his side.
Wow, that was fast. Did he run too?
“What was that, Sparky?” Then his eyes widen, like the nickname jumped out without permission. Like a secret he didn’t mean to share.
I will my face not to beam. “Nothing. You just seemed busy. Didn’t want to interrupt.”
He settles against the doorframe and waits for the real answer.
“We don’t usually hang out on Thursday nights, so …” I squirm.
Dude looks unreal smirking at me in his gray T-shirt. What brand is that shirt? Someone should let them know that his modeling is gold. Slap a picture of this man on an ad and they’ll never keep up with the demand.
No, Future Sophie! I’m not ready!
Where is Lily? I never finished my text. I need my phone. Where did I put it?
“You’re usually with Leo.”
I jerk. We don’t talk about Bruno. I mean Leo.
“Yeah,” I say, as casually as my high-pitched, frantic voice can manage. “You do a study group on Thursdays?”
Leaving his perch at the doorframe, he crosses the room to drop my laptop on the desk. “Not tonight.”
“Oh. Seems like Lily—”
“I’d pick hanging out with you over Lily any day.” His eyebrows gather to say duh. And then he gives a theatrical sigh. “You tried to cheat again. This is becoming a problem.”
“Oh.” I half laugh. “I ran out mid-game, huh?”
Walking farther into the room, he stops right in front of me. I’ve always been aware of his proximity, but now my skin remembers his vividly. It screams “touch him again!”
I shrug off the impulse. Gotta pull myself together. That was a once-and-done thing.
“Okay, shoot,” I say. “I picked truth.”
We’re eye to eye as my legs dangle from the bed. His blue-gray gaze drills into mine, like he’s trying to read my mind. I glance away.
We always hang out on Flooders during Open Dorms. He’s only ever been in here waiting for me while I finish getting ready. I don’t have a couch in my room like he does, and my desk chair is covered in stuff.
I smooth the blanket and pat the bed next to me, trying to be as un-weird as physically possible. It’s just a sofa equivalent.
He eyes it like it’s off limits. Or gross.
Of course. Right. Back to business as usual.
Great. Good. I have no idea what to do with flirty, dancing Austin anyway. I like the status quo. He’s my closest friend. I like this. I do.
So I hop down and push him out the doorway, too aware of his strong chest under my hands. He walks backward down the hallway, pretending I’m strong enough to make him—until he sidesteps. I stumble forward with a gasp, and he catches me with embarrassing ease. His laugh is infuriating.
Half enamored, half panicked, I smack his arm.
He bumps me gently with his shoulder as those full lips curve into a little smile again. An Austin smile.
When we plunk to the concrete love seat and chair in my suite lounge, his mouth falls in disgust. “Every time, I forget how bad it is.”
I let out a breath. “Right? Like torture devices. But Zoe says we’re not allowed to move them out of the suite lounge.
” So relieved to be freed from the horribly magical last hour, I continue on needlessly.
“A thrift store love seat could wedge in here with this one on its side, but we have four girls who need seating. Well, three, since Ayumi—”
“Soph?”
At his gravelly voice, I snap to him.
“You and Leo broke up.” Just a casually outdated newsflash.
I twirl a piece of hair and drop it. “Sorry. Should I have told you?” I dart around to look at each poster. Cat. Sunset. Hawaii. “We talk about everything else. But we don’t really talk about that. I didn’t know if—”
“Nah, it doesn’t matter. I heard on the floor. Sophie.”
I blink. He never calls me that anymore.
“Are you sad?”
My brain swirls. Don’t make me answer that. Don’t make me think about this. I can do the status-quo thing with you. I can’t do two-stepping and tickle wars and discuss it! What if I bolted out of here? But I can’t—he’d just show up in the doorway again.
“It’s your truth question. Are you sad about the breakup? Do you need some time to feel yourself again?”
My head tilts, despite myself. “Oh. I’m not sad about that at all.” It’s official—I’m awful. After months with Leo, I feel nothing but relief … and that healthy dollop of guilt. “That’s messed up, huh?”
He shakes his head.
What happens now? I’m too scared to ask.
“B-Dubs?” he asks. “Wanna get a group together?”
I perk up like a cartoon character catching a whiff of pie. An escape from this disaster waiting to happen, offered on a silver platter.
“Yes!” I almost yell. “I do like my chicken ‘late,’ after all.”
His eyes ignite, and my skin catches fire like a trail of gas connects us. He couldn’t know that’s exactly what I lacked with Leo.
But instead of standing, he slaps one hand against the back of the other—his nervous tell. He does that before a big game, walking into a hard test. Never with me.
His gaze traces every feature on my face. Like he might paint me soon. He edges closer. Is he going to confess something—
But he jerks up. And strides out the doorway.
Guess I imagined it. I scramble up. Shake out my limbs. Suck in a fluttery breath. Must recover my composure. Must be a person. I get a Thursday night with Austin. He’s choosing wings with me over studying with Lily. I’ll take it.
And I stuff Future Sophie into the closet, along with all the hope trying to sabotage me. You two can stay in there.