Chapter Sixty-One Aurora / Joshua
Chapter Sixty-One
Aurora / Joshua
Aurora
Monday morning and we’re back on campus… I was kind of nervous, to be honest, especially with everything that had happened. Not that bad things happened, but… I just felt extra happy. Which was weird, right? I don’t know.
I adjusted the strap of my bag and spotted familiar faces in the courtyard. Layla and Miles. Layla was holding a small bag, one of those neat, pastel-coloured ones with tissue paper poking out of the top.
She looked nervous, her eyes darting between Miles and the bag as if it might explode if she held it any longer.
I walked over just as Miles gave her a teasing grin.
“Early morning gift-giving?” I asked, raising an eyebrow, trying to sound casual.
Layla’s cheeks instantly turned pink. “Oh—uh, it’s not, I—”
Miles smirked wider, his hands sliding into his pockets. “Relax. It’s for Matthew,” he said, nodding at the bag. “April 6th, birthday boy. These are from Layla and Aly.”
I blinked. “Matthew?”
Layla’s blush deepened, and she looked away, fussing with her sleeve. Matthew? I’d seen her talk to Miles plenty of times, but never to Matthew. Aly did; she talked to basically everyone, so her giving him a gift was fair, but Layla? Not once. Still, she didn’t say anything, so I didn’t press.
“Oh,” I murmured, smiling softly. “That’s sweet.”
Miles shrugged. “He’s in class already; I’ll drop it off. Big twenty today.” He winked, walking away. Typical Miles.
I turned back to Layla. She was staring at the pavement as if it held all the world’s secrets.
“You okay?” I asked gently.
Layla exhaled, looking up. “Yeah. Just… nervous, I guess.”
Before I could say anything else, she forced a smile and linked her arm with mine, steering us toward the main building. “Come on. Let’s wait for Jennie and Aly before class.”
I nodded, letting her pull me along, but a thought lingered as we walked. Layla never gave gifts just because. I wondered if there was more to the way she looked at Matthew than any of us had ever noticed.
Aly and Jennie finally showed up, both holding two cups each. Jennie balancing hers like a pro, Aly nearly spilling hers while laughing about something.
“Morning!” Jennie chirped, handing Layla and me our drinks. “Hot latte for you, Lay, and iced tea for my caffeine-free baby.”
I smiled, taking the cup from her. “Thank you,” I said, the cool condensation already slipping between my fingers.
We stood there in our little circle, warmth and chatter filling the space… until it didn’t, because suddenly, they stopped talking.
Like… completely.
Jennie froze mid-sip, Aly’s mouth was slightly open, and Layla blinked as if she’d seen a ghost.
“Wh—” I started, beginning to turn around, and there he was.
Joshua.
Right there, in front of me. Tall, broad, hair still messy like he’d just run his hand through it before getting here. My brain short-circuited for a second.
Before I could even say anything, he leaned in, his voice low and warm enough to melt every ounce of morning chill.
“Good morning, Princess.”
And then he kissed me. Just a small kiss. A quick brush of his lips against mine. My breath hitched. My heart? Gone. Absolutely gone.
He pulled back slightly, eyes flickering down at me, soft and warm, that same look that always made my chest feel too small. Then his gaze lifted to the girls behind me. And that’s when I felt it: the heavy silence, the three sets of wide eyes burning into the back of my head.
Jennie’s jaw dropped first. Aly blinked as if she were glitching. Layla? Layla’s cup actually tilted, nearly spilling coffee down her wrist. All still processing the fact that the campus’s coldest man just called me princess and kissed me like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Oh no.
There’s no hiding it now.
—
Joshua
It was a little past four when I checked my watch again. The parking lot was starting to empty out, students laughing, calling out to each other, the usual chaos of the end of the day. I leaned against the car, arms crossed, tapping my thumb against the keys in my hand. She was taking her time.
Then I saw her.
Aurora, parting ways with her friends by the gate. The girls blew exaggerated kisses at her, and she waved back, cheeks pink, smile shy and small. She was still red when she turned her head and spotted me waiting by the car.
I straightened immediately.
As she got closer, I raised an eyebrow. “Why do you look like you just ran a marathon? The girls interrogate you or something? Because Jennie was blowing up my phone the whole day.”
She shook her head, trying to hide her face behind her hair. “No.”
That was definitely a lie.
I frowned but walked around to open the passenger door anyway. “Then what was it?”
Her blush deepened as she clutched her bag. “Okay, maybe a little.”
I watched her for a moment, that shy, nervous energy she had when she didn’t want to tell me something, before shutting the door for her and circling around to the driver’s side.
I got in, started the car, and reached over to rest my hand on her thigh as if it belonged there.
Which it did.
She didn’t move away; she never did anymore. Just stayed there, small and red and fidgeting with her sleeve.
“Alright, Princess,” I said, voice low as I drove out the gate. “Tell me. What kind of questions did they ask?”
She looked out the window. “It’s nothing bad, I promise.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Just how? When and why?”
I glanced at her, “Why? What’s that supposed to mean—"
Oh.
Actually never mind, I get that.
Why are you with him? Blah blah, yeah I deserve that.
I let out a short laugh under my breath. “and what did you say?”
Her cheeks went impossibly red, and she pressed her hands against them, “I just said that—" she sank deeper into her seat, hiding her face completely now. “That I really like you.”
I blinked, words caught in my throat. “You told them that?”
My heart did that stupid thing again, the heavy, uneven thud in my chest that made it hard to breathe.
I mean yeah, we’re together and all but it’s just weird to think she’d tell other people that she liked me. Me. The Joshua asshole Lockhart.
She nodded. “Yeah,” she paused, flustered. “I didn’t know what else to say.”
I couldn’t help it. I chuckle a bit.
She looked offended. “What? Did I say something wrong?”
“No,” I said quickly, shaking my head, still smiling. “No, Princess.”
She pouted a little, still unsure. “Then why are you laughing?”
“Because you’re the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen.”
Her lips curved into that shy smile that always killed me, and she murmured again, quieter this time, “And they said as long as I’m happy then they won’t hold a grudge against you”
“Wow, how kind of them.”
She giggled softly, whispering to herself, “Yeah, everyone is happy now.”
I shook my head, still grinning like an idiot as I drove on.
When we arrived at the garage, we barely made it five steps from the car before she stopped dead in her tracks. I turned, confused, and then suddenly she buried her whole face in my chest.
“What—Aurora?” I frowned, glancing down at the top of her head pressed against me. Her small hands fisted in my shirt as if she’d just seen something terrifying.
Then I heard it. The tiniest sound, a strangled squeak.
Not from fear.
Oh no.
I looked around the garage to see what made her like this and, of course. A tiny black kitten. Sitting right there in the garage’s corner, blinking up at us.
I swear, for a second, I actually prayed for patience.
For fuck’s sake.
She whispered, muffled against my chest, “Hide me.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I’m weak,” she hissed. “If I look again, I’m gonna cry or steal it.”
I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. She wasn’t joking either; her whole body was trembling from trying not to squeal.
Alright.
I bent down, wrapped an arm around her waist, and hauled her up over my shoulder as if she weighed nothing.
She let out the tiniest gasp. “Joshua!”
“Nope,” I said, already walking toward the lobby door. “Honey’s waiting upstairs. We’re not adopting another one.”
She just went limp in defeat, dangling over my shoulder as I pressed the button for the elevator.
Then, quietly, she whispered against my back, her voice soft and sincere, “What if that’s… Honey’s best friend, and we took her friend away?”
I bit back a laugh, stepping into the elevator.
She was ridiculous.
The whole elevator ride up was just her little sighs and hums, soft, guilty sounds like she was mourning a cat she’d known for ten seconds.
When we reached the penthouse, I carried her straight to the couch and set her down. She sprawled out dramatically, face buried in a cushion.
Honey immediately trotted over, tail up, jumped onto the couch, and nuzzled into her neck like a child greeting their mom after daycare.
Aurora mumbled something into Honey’s fur about the ‘poor black cat left alone,’ and my chest actually hurt from holding back a laugh.
I leaned against the counter, arms crossed, just watching.
Her hair was messy, Honey was practically purring into her collarbone, and she was still pouting, muttering little half-sentences to a kitten who couldn’t even understand her.
God.
I just stood there, quiet, arms folded, watching her talk to Honey as if it were a serious conversation. And when she looked up and caught me staring, her face flushed instantly.
I couldn’t help it. I smiled.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she muttered. “You’re gonna laugh.”
I shrugged. “Can’t help it.”
Because, yeah, she was cute.
Disastrously cute.
Aurora turned away from me to Honey with that ridiculous little pout, the one that looked like it could break laws and hearts at the same time and kept talking about that black kitten.
I groaned, dragging a hand down my face.
“Alright, that’s it.”
She blinked up at me, confused, as I turned and walked out. Not mad. Just defeated. Completely, utterly folded.