Chapter 10 Serafina
SERAFINA
Amara arrives a few minutes after I text her. She slides her sunglasses up her forehead as she wraps an arm around my neck, her hug clogging my mouth with her unruly dark curls, which are nearly as chaotic as her personality.
“Hey! How was the drive in?”
“Uneventful. Yours?”
“My parents insisted on a million and one photos. They’re gone now, and your message saved me from unpacking.” She gestures towards the buildings across the property. “I have a roommate who seems alright. Nice, I guess. Kind of quiet. What about you?”
Mine’s…interesting. I subtly glance towards where Lev is doing a less-than-stellar-job fitting in.
First off, the cargo pants and plain black tee are vastly different from most guys’ preference for jeans. When he moves, his shirt pulls slightly across his chest, highlighting that he’s a whole lot more fit than the average student. It makes him seem older, more dangerous. Certainly more intense.
It’s a similar outfit to the first time I met him; what he showed up fighting in, what he wore that morning in the kitchen.
I wonder if the clothes are intentional, to hide weapons.
If Lev is anything like Zeno, he’s never unarmed.
People pass him with no idea that the stranger glaring at them could drop them with a single motion if he wanted to.
His eyes flash to mine before his lips pull up on one side, his smile crooked and almost shy.
I break the contact before Amara catches me staring.
She’d ask questions I’m not certain how to answer.
She’s aware I have a brother named Zeno, but not who he is and what he does.
Mentioning my protection detail will create questions I definitely won’t answer.
“Sera?”
Right. She asked about my living situation—which means admitting, “My brother paid for one of those expensive rooms. The mini-apartment ones we saw online.”
“Damn.” She whistles. “Lucky you. We’ll have to hang out at your place.”
Yeah, that can’t happen.
It’d be impossible to hide Lev if she visited—and more impossible to invent a plausible reason for my roommate being a guy, one who isn’t my boyfriend, brother, or anyone she knows.
Damn Zeno and his determination to force a guard on me. We’re not even through day one, and Lev’s presence is already changing things.
Luckily, she ends the subject by steering me to the ever-opening door, practically revolving at this point. “Better get in there before we’re stuck here all evening.”
The bookstore is packed wall-to-wall. A line wraps the store, employees trying their best to create some sense of order for everyone checking out. We push through the throng to the other side, where the books are shelved.
“Can’t wait to get back in that line,” she jokes, patting flyaway hairs that got disrupted in our fight to this side of the store. “Whose idea was this again?”
“Yours. We need our books. Tomorrow might be worse. Besides, call it part of the experience.”
“You and your experiences. You’re like a walking ad for post-secondary education.” She steers me towards the mathematics section first.
Amara roots through her purse for the list of required textbooks for her finance degree.
She claims she’s doing it to take over her family’s business.
Which…thinking about it, I’d never asked her what her family does.
Having spent so much of my time steering conversation away from my own, I lumped anything family-related for us both into a ‘do not touch’ category.
While she shops, I sweep my gaze over the store, passing over the many people, searching for—ah, there he is. By the far wall, close to the entrance but out of the way of the checkout line, Lev leans against the window, his hands shoved into his front pockets as he stares.
Stares at me. With an intensity I feel throughout my entire body.
Good to know I’ll always be able to pick him out of a crowd. It’d be impossible not to.
With a hard swallow, I break eye contact, checking to see if anyone else notices him. He isn’t fitting in, looking like he’s about to murder everyone and laugh while doing it.
Amara gathers her books—six of them—and manhandles them a few aisles over, where I pick out my required biology and chemistry textbooks, dreading their sheer size.
Once finished, we stand at the end of the massive line. Given how slow it’s moving, we’ll be here easily twenty minutes.
I subtly glance over at my shadow, wondering if he’s still watching. His attention’s on his phone, but as I’ve learned from Zeno and Nero, it doesn’t mean he’s unaware of what’s going on.
As though he senses me watching, his eyes flick up, immediately finding me. It’s a brief, expressionless glance before returning to his cell. His index finger taps the bottom of the device in the same pattern he once did around his coffee mug the morning after my kidnapping. I wonder what it means.
And why I recall that pattern.
Amara drops her books between our feet with a dramatic huff. “These things are heavy as fuck; seems we’ll be standing for a while, so no point in holding them. Where’s Alessio?” She scans the store, as though expecting him to pop up. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting him.”
When I met Alessio during my tour, she was beside me but wandered away while he and I talked, so they never met. After months of me yapping about him, it’s only natural she’d want to meet my boyfriend.
“Not here,” I grumble, readjusting my books as they begin pressing into muscles that aren’t often used. Maybe she had a good idea, resting them on the ground. “He decided to skip this semester.”
“Wouldn’t he want to attend now that you’re here?”
“You’d think,” I sigh with an attempt to shrug.
Attempt, because the heavy ass books weigh my shoulders down.
After our next shuffle up the line, I too set them on the ground and stretch my arms. “He didn’t fully explain; only that something else is going on.
He said he’ll still come by to see me, but who knows. Guys, right?”
She’s watching me with a knowing look, but the line shuffles a few more feet, so her attention is directed to nudging the stack of books forward. She doesn’t say what’s on her mind, that she’s aware of what I’m feeling.
Disappointment.
I can’t linger on Alessio’s choices, because he isn’t the reason I’m here. I refuse to be the girl whose life ends because her boyfriend isn’t around.
“There’s a party this weekend,” she announces abruptly. “Some guy who lives down the road usually throws a back-to-school thing everyone’s invited to, I guess. I vote we go. Seems fun. Good way to kick off the year.”
My face twitches into a grimace. A party is the exact thing I said I’d stop attending to keep up the same image I had in the past.
“You can invite Alessio,” she adds, starting to shift my perspective.
Alessio’s never talked about partying, but he’s never not talked about it either. He does mention hanging out with his friends, so I assume he’s fairly social. It’s something to do together, to bring him back to campus, even for a short while.
“Great idea. I’ll ask him.”
I wonder how much Lev will enjoy following me to a house party.
It feels like forever before we’re finally free of that place.
Stepping outside brings a dramatic intake of air, the store having gotten stuffy after so long inside.
Amara leads me to a nearby picnic table, dropping her textbooks with a loud thud and a curse.
I rest mine down too, lowering to one side of the bench.
Somewhere nearby, I assume Lev is stalking us—not that I care.
That is, until Amara whistles. “Damn, look behind you. Don’t make it obvious, but you have an admirer. He’s glanced this way twice since we’ve sat.”
Way to go fitting in.
My finger rubs over the splintered wood table, debating whether to admit it or not. If she’s noticed him, at some point, she’ll realize he’s consistently around.
“Yeah, so that’s… He’s with me.” I automatically wince at the onslaught of questions undoubtedly about to come.
“That’s Alessio?” Her mouth drops open, finger lifting to point, but I smack it down with a firm denial.
“No, that’s one of my brother’s friends. He’s going to be hanging around for a bit. Attending classes with me and whatnot.”
Amara does a triple-take. “Um, why?”
“Because.”
“Because why…?”
“Because he is,” I offer, hoping she lets the topic slide.
“Nuh uh.” She drops her head lower, even though he’s too far to overhear. “I need more than that. He protecting you or something?”
“Or something.”
Her eyes widen a fraction, brows lifting; she presumably didn’t think her half-assed guess would be correct. “Is your family rich? Politicians?”
“Something like that.” Her guesses are close enough. Zeno wouldn’t appreciate me admitting there’s a mob running things.
“You’re being vague.”
“Vague is better for both of us. He won’t bother us. He’s here to watch me, just in case. Truthfully, it’s all bullshit. My brother’s overly protective.”
She grunts, still staring at Lev. After a moment, her lips curl. “Well, that explains your room arrangement. Your brother needed a place to put him. What’s his name?”
I hesitate to answer, because the less Amara knows, the better, but she won’t let this slide. Not now. And it’s only a name. “Lev.”
“Hot. Actually, gotta admit, he’s…” She trails off, whistling. “The outfit. The hair. God, how the hell are you gonna live with him?”
“By ignoring him. Also, don’t forget, I’m dating someone.”
“Someone who isn’t even here.” She waves her hand in the air, as though that’ll produce Alessio. Her next remark is interrupted by the vibration of an incoming phone call. “Mio padre,” she groans. “Better get this. See you for cena later? We’ll check out the dining hall.”
“Definitely.” Cena—supper or dinner—with Lev will be…interesting.
She gathers her books, somehow balancing her cell on top of the stack. Once she’s a short distance away, I collect mine and start back to my dorm, knowing my personal stalker will follow.