Chapter 2 #2
We both laugh faintly as she stumbles across the room and wedges herself into the hug with zero grace. Her arms wrap around both of us at once, squeezing too tight in that dramatic Cheyenne way that somehow makes the moment lighter.
For a few seconds we just stand there, tangled together in the middle of my bedroom floor. No one says anything. The quiet isn’t uncomfortable. It’s the kind that settles after something heavy has finally been said out loud.
Eventually I pull back, brushing a hand over my face as I take a breath.
“Alright,” I say with a small laugh, the mood shifting as naturally as it always does between us. “Now that we’ve had our emotional bonding moment, can I ask a few questions?”
Cheyenne narrows her eyes immediately, suspicion already forming.
“Who the hell fucked you silly last night?” I ask, grinning.
Her reaction is instant.
Her eyes go wide, her jaw dropping like I just exposed a state secret. Maria bursts out laughing beside me, leaning against the bed as she tries to catch her breath.
“Oh my god,” Maria says between giggles. “Yes, actually. I would also like to know.”
Cheyenne points accusingly between us, clearly betrayed. “You two are unbelievable.”
But the faint blush creeping across her cheeks gives her away.
I fold my arms, watching her with amusement. Moments like this always remind me how different our lives are. While they’re out collecting stories and mistakes and late-night adventures, I’m usually home early, living most of those experiences secondhand through them.
Still, I wouldn’t trade the view.
“Come on,” I say, nudging her with my foot. “Start talking.”
“You know Kadin Anderson…” Cheyenne sighs, dragging the words out like she’s preparing to deliver a scandal.
Maria perks up instantly. “The same Kadin Anderson who invited us all to his ‘study session’ tonight?” she asks, throwing exaggerated quotation marks into the air.
I groan softly under my breath.
Maria has been trying all week to convince me to go to that stupid thing. Apparently half the university is going to be there, which is exactly why I’ve been avoiding it. The last thing I want is to spend my evening squeezed into some overcrowded house pretending to enjoy myself.
Still… Kadin Anderson is hard to ignore.
Even I can admit that.
He’s the kind of guy people notice the moment he walks into a room.
Tall, broad shoulders, the kind of build that comes from spending more time on the ice than in the gym.
His jaw looks like it was sculpted out of stone, his blonde hair always slightly messy in that effortless way people somehow manage to make look intentional.
His green eyes are impossible not to notice either, especially when they’re focused on you across a lecture hall.
Add in the fact that he’s one of Spokehaven University’s top hockey players, and suddenly he becomes exactly the type of person people gravitate toward.
“You got with Kadin?” I ask, standing up a little straighter.
Cheyenne bursts out laughing immediately. “God, no,” she says, waving the idea away. “I wasn’t blessed by the gods themselves.”
She pauses just long enough to let our curiosity build before she tilts her head slightly and taps the side of her neck where a faint purple mark peeks out from beneath her collar.
“However… his older brother,” she says with a smug smile, “knows how to please a woman.”
Maria’s mouth drops open.
“Cheyenne, you bad bitch,” she laughs, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at her. Cheyenne catches it against her chest, grinning proudly.
“Well now we have to go tonight,” Maria continues, turning toward me with excitement in her eyes.
Both of them are staring at me now, waiting.
“It would give you time to let Hannibal Lecter settle in,” Maria adds teasingly. “You wouldn’t have to spend the whole night worrying about having a room across the hall from him.”
I instinctively tug at the collar of my sweater, suddenly aware of how warm my face feels.
My eyes drift toward the doorway of my room. Across the hall, the door to Silas’s new room sits partially open. That room used to be my father’s office. Now it’s been stripped down to the basics. Plain bedding. Bare walls. A space that looks more like a temporary shelter than a home.
A blank slate for him.
“I told you,” I say quietly. “I don’t like parties.”
“Because you never go,” Cheyenne shoots back immediately, rolling her eyes.
She leans forward, clearly enjoying this moment. “Also, fun fact… Kadin asked about you this morning when I ran into him.”
My head snaps back toward her.
“Kadin?” I repeat, confused. “Asked about me? Why?”
“You two have a class together, right?” Cheyenne says with a grin.
“Yes, but that’s it,” I insist.
Maria just shrugs. “From where I sit in that lecture hall, he spends more time looking at you than the professor.”
Heat rushes into my cheeks so fast it’s embarrassing.
“That’s ridiculous,” I mumble, shaking my head quickly. “You’re both being dramatic.”
Before either of them can argue further, the sound of the front door downstairs slams through the house. It hits the wall hard enough that the echo travels all the way up the stairs.
My smile disappears instantly.
All three of us turn toward my bedroom door.
My parents’ voices drift up from the foyer, low and indistinct. Beneath them, I hear something else.
Another set of footsteps.
Heavier.
Slower.
My stomach drops.
Silas.
A thought settles in my chest like a stone as the murmured conversation downstairs continues.
I stare at the doorway, suddenly aware that the quiet balance of this house is about to forever shift.