10. Gavin
Of all the damn rooms in the whole school, they put her with me…
Wren, the girl who has been the bane of my existence for years, is now not only here but in the same dorm.
I’d thought I was rid of her; sure, she’d choose another school to attend when she didn’t start last year.
I should have known I couldn’t get that lucky, that she wouldn’t just leave me alone and let me have this.
I’ve worked too hard to let her take it all from me again.
“You're going to wear a hole through the floor,” Nolan says, walking into the kitchen, hair wet and a towel around his neck.
I’d spent all morning in the library only to come back and find most of them gone. I’d originally come back to eat something, but seeing her things and smelling her throughout the dorm had pissed me off all over again.
“Fuck off,” I tell him as he moves past me to the fridge, grabbing out his sushi from yesterday. It’s on the tip of my tongue to give him a hard time, but I think better of it.
“Can’t you talk to your dad?” I ask, cringing as I say it aloud.
He freezes for a moment, his back tense at just the mention of his father, and I feel like an asshole.
But this is important.
“It’s bad enough she’s here. I don’t need her here.” I wave a hand around the dorm, our sanctuary. “We don’t,” I emphasize because he knows as well as I do that having her here is going to make our lives harder.
Nolan thaws but doesn’t turn to face me, instead keeping his back to me as he sets his box on the counter and fills a glass with water from the tap.
“I thought you said he wouldn’t fill that room. Wasn’t he the one who suggested the gym?” I say ‘gym’ loosely; it’s really only something Nolan can use, but that’s what we call it because anything else will raise suspicion.
“It was.” I hear the strain in his words, forced out through clenched teeth.
Nolan and his father don’t get along, and I can’t say I blame him; he’s an asshole, but he’s also the dean.
I’ve never asked him for anything, but I had to at least try.
Wren has been here less than a day, and already she’s messing everything up. I can’t even study without worrying about her and what she’s planning. She’s a distraction.
Some of my annoyance melts away knowing Nolan isn’t happy either, though I can’t be sure if it’s because of Wren or me bringing up his father. Hopefully both.
I drop onto the couch opposite the one she slept on last night, unwilling to sit where she’s been.
“She’s not like us, co-ed or not. Putting her here seems like some kind of sick, cosmic joke.
This school is huge and has accommodated mortals for years.
Can there really be no more open rooms?” I ask aloud, though I don’t mean for him to actually have an answer; I’m sure he doesn’t know, but I’m hoping that maybe we can come up with something.
“There really are no openings.” I whip around to find Titus coming in through the door, his face set in his usual scowl.
“Also, if you're going to talk shit, maybe pay attention. Having her here is already problem enough. We don’t need you to hurt her feelings and deal with crying and arguing," Titus says, moving past the couches and heading upstairs without another word or giving us a chance to answer.
Titus hates everyone, well, almost everyone, but the one thing he can’t stand is girls crying. He’s been like that for as long as I can remember, though I don’t know why.
“I don’t take Wren for the type that cries,” Nolan says, finally turning to face me, rolling his eyes as he shoves what is supposed to be three or four bites of sushi into his mouth at once.
He’s always hungry, but his workouts make him nearly ravenous.
Nolan’s right; I’ve known Wren a while, thanks to our competitions, and I can’t for the life of me picture her crying.
Titus wouldn’t know that. He might be my friend and has been to a lot of my events when we were younger, but he was never one for crowds, much less for being around Wren.
He was more likely to hide away in the room, or on the off chance he did attend, he was busy dealing with his father and all his shit.
He’s not much of a people person. I mean, he seems to like us well enough, but I’d bet the only reason he dared to venture out today had to do with Julian, and given the way he’s taken to Wren, I doubt that will last long.
Julian seems to be the only one excited about Wren being here, and honestly, I’m not even the least bit surprised. He’s always been one to think with his dick, and as much as I can’t stand her, she isn’t ugly.
Which only makes her more annoying.
Maybe when he fucks her and gets sick of her, we can work together to find a way to get rid of her, though who knows how long that will take.
“I’m going to talk to Dimitri.” I push ?off the couch and head out the door before Nolan can try to stop me, not that he looks like he will.
I know my brother can’t do anything, but talking to him always makes me feel better. He’s never let me down before.