Chapter 12
I felt terrible because I didn’t sleep at all.
Scraping sounds outside my door made me get up three times to check, only to find no one there.
There was a party in the park, and firecrackers went off and growling sounds of motorbikes, like they’re having races or doing wheelies or stoppies or whatever they call them, while I curled up under my blankets, clutching my knife, ready to attack if someone entered my room.
Eventually, the party wound down, and silence settled in. Just as I was about to fall asleep, I heard footsteps down the hall outside my room, followed by a door opening and closing. I was sure it was the metalhead, whose name I still don’t know.
I pictured him alone in his room, or at least I hoped he was.
I only heard one set of footsteps. Jealousy flared in my chest as I thought about him with a girl, and I scolded myself for being stupid.
This was college, of course—these guys pick up girls and sleep with them.
Since most students haven't arrived yet, there probably wasn't much to choose from, but.
.. he did seem anti-social, so... Addie, stop thinking about it.
Knowing he was there, two doors down, relaxed me more, but I still had trouble falling asleep, and I stared at the blinds, waiting for the morning light to seep through the cracks.
I rolled out of bed and took a shower as depression took hold of me, leading me down a path of dark thoughts that could influence my entire day if I let them. Once classes start, life might get better because the students will be too busy... but will I last the whole year, though?
I’ll feel better after breakfast because I was hungry, but I wanted strong coffee more than food. Just as I started to brighten my outlook, I thought about the missing gun, and I felt miserable again.
Once dressed, I pulled my tangled mass of black, curly hair into a ponytail and put on my black cap.
Then, I wondered how I could better secure this room when I was away.
When I was inside, I put the chain on the door, but when I wasn’t there, the only protection I had was a single lock.
It was obvious to me that the masked men who broke in had a key because there was no sign of forced entry.
Setting a trap to catch them was the plan, but I’d need to buy supplies like fishing nylon and hooks.
Since there probably wouldn’t be any hardware stores on campus, I’d have to order them online, and they would be delivered on the next train.
Or... another option was to venture into the Social Sciences School for inspiration.
I opened my door and just as I was about to close it, I slipped a fragment of paper where the door closed to see if anyone had snuck in while I was gone.
“Hey,” a warm voice from down the hall startled me. The metalhead.
“Hi,” my heart was racing, but I managed to shoot him a smile. “Did you have a good night?”
He nodded unenthused, looking tired, and rubbed his eyes with the base of his palm. “You heading to breakfast?” His voice was husky, and he seemed half-asleep.
“Yeah,” I sighed as I noticed his jaw was unshaven and raven, wavy hair disheveled. “Did you go to a party?”
He nodded without giving anything away and let me go down the stairs first. When I looked back, he was looking at my ass, so I guess his eyes weren’t that tired.
“What’s your name?” I asked, trying to sound polite, but it came out bossy-sounding, which would be very off-putting for a guy like him.
He grunted something, but I didn’t catch it. I waited for him to ask me my name, and when he didn’t, I said, “I’m Adina.”
“I know,” he replied, walking beside me.
“You do? How?” I pressed as he hissed at a group of girls who were in our way, and they immediately moved. “Maybe I should try that sometime.”
“Won’t work with you,” he mumbled.
“Why not?” I asked curiously, still eager for him to repeat his name.
“You’re not scary enough,” he stated. “You need to act mad, like worms infested your brain, making them fearful that you might do something impulsive.”
“So, it’s all an act?” I asked to be sure.
“Yeah, of course, well, most of the time. Sometimes it’s real,” again he was mumbling and kept rubbing his eyes.
“You didn’t tell me how you knew my name,” I asked, hoping he’d tell me. As far as I knew, there was no resident list with our names on it.
“No,” he said, yawning, and my mind drifted back to that moment when I masturbated and thought of him and Warwick touching me everywhere. It was only a dream. Except that Ezrah Warwick caught me in the act, and my cheeks burned just thinking about it. Bane of my life.
“Are you going to tell me?” I persisted.
“Tell you what?” he frowned as his hand brushed against mine when we entered the dining hall. Surprised by how much his light touch burned, I pulled my hand away, glad to be distracted by the smell of food.
Mila waved to me from the same table we had sat at earlier, but my heart sank when the two girls who had essentially accused me of giving Mila the incriminating cupcake were sitting there with her and shot me a warning look as I greeted them.
The metalhead disappeared, then I saw him at the buffet piling his plate and shooting a sinister, warning glare at anyone who approached. Peculiar guy. Quite fascinating, though. Before I sat down to talk to Mila, I looked around the hall for the Warwicks and felt relieved when I couldn’t see them.
“Hi Adina, I mean, Addie,” Mila said so sweetly, and immediately I noticed the dried blood cuts on her lips, and guilt scoured my body.
“Hi Mila, gosh, they look sore,” I said, genuinely concerned. “Can you eat with them?”
“Yeah, but they kept cracking and bleeding,” she replied, placing her fingers over the cuts and blushing in embarrassment.
“God, I’m so sorry,” I said again, ignoring the looks from her friends as the room grew even more suffocating. “If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.”
She waved her hand dismissively, not wanting to turn it into a big deal, but I suspected that it was her protective friends who were pulling the strings.
Um, well, when I told my parents… Oh no, she told her parents, the Wolseys.
Guilt stirred, even making me feel sick.
They suggested we should sue the faculty because everyone received cupcakes as their welcome gift for the new term, but there weren’t any other cases of anyone finding metal or whatever in them, and—
The blonde girl interrupted, the one who seemed the most aggrieved about my presence.
She was making a non-verbal statement about me sitting at their table.
It was wise to find out her name and where she lived because she might become a problem.
“Why would a cupcake bakery need razor blades?” She shot me an accusing look, looking her nose down at me, “Seems like a setup to me.”
I nodded in agreement, “If it was a setup, then the razorblade was meant for me since it was in my cupcake,” I educated her.
“It was me who suggested we swap,” Mila added to stick up for me, but the blond girl didn’t believe me. “I already told you.”
I exhaled and shot the blond my most sinister scowl before I announced, “I need a coffee,” and walked away from the table, imagining them gossiping about me, but I didn’t want to look back to confirm my hunch.
Once at the buffet table, I looked around the hall again for the metalhead because I’d rather have him for company than Mila’s friends.
I accidentally locked eyes with a handsome guy whose bright blue eyes were fixed on me with curiosity.
Turning my back to him, I grabbed a black coffee, which I don’t usually like, but I needed a good caffeine boost to get through the rest of the day, and a slice of toast with strawberry jelly.
When I glanced back at the blond guy, he was still looking my way, just like the other guys with him.
Naturally, I looked behind me to see if they were staring at someone behind me or just gazing at the buffet table, maybe thinking about filling their plates again.
Yeah, that’s it, they’re drooling over the buffet.
Gosh, he was very handsome, though. Like cleaner and more polished than the Warwick pricks, like his mama brought him up correctly.
Reluctantly, I sat back down at Mila’s table, even though I’d rather be anywhere else. But I needed to ask her about the Warwicks because she had an inside source with her older sister in the ‘popular jocks club.’
They huddled together whispering, and immediately stopped when I arrived, pretending I hadn’t noticed.
“So, Mila,” I started, glancing back at the blond guy’s table, and he was still watching me.
I was tempted to take my cap off so he could see my face clearly, but I didn’t want to look like a jerk if I was wrong about him.
“Do you know where the Warwicks live on campus?”
“Why?” the blond girl snarled.
I turned to her, staring her down because she was pissing me off. “Got a name?” I asked her.
“Sorry,” Mila stated bashfully, “I’m so rude I hadn’t introduced you. This is my old buddies from music class. Erin,” she pointed to the brunette, “and Carrie,” the mean girl blond.
“Carrie?” I repeated, “Like the Stephen King novel?”
She rolled her eyes. “Wow, we’ve got an original one here.”
“No, but, seriously, were you named after the Carrie character?” I asked to clarify, as it was annoying her.
“No. I was named after my grandmother,” she spat.
“Cool story,” I stated, then turned my attention back to Mila. “The Warwicks. Where do they live?”
She pointed skyward. “The Lud. On the hills.”
She was speaking in tongues to me. Okay, I understood what 'on the hills' meant, but which hill? Hills surround us. And what did 'The Lud' mean?
I was about to ask her for more information when the girls at the table's eyes widened as someone approached us. “Adina?” a man’s voice called, and I really wanted it to be the metalhead, but no, it was the blond guy. “Adina Boelyn?”
I swallowed over a lump in my throat. How did he know my name, and gosh, he’s far too handsome to be standing next to me. “Yeah,” I admitted precariously as my cheeks burned. Damn.
“Huh,” he grunted, nodding his head. “I thought so. We were waging a bet.” I looked back at the table he came from, and all the guys were watching curiously. Jeez, was there a Swedish man-making factory around here?
"What... er... and you are?” I exclaimed, feeling as if I was being left out of the little secret. Mila and the other two seemed to know who he was based on their expressions. Was he famous or something? A movie star or TikTok influencer?
“James,” he said, holding out his large hand, and I placed my small hand in his as he shook it. “Good to meet you.”
“Me too,” I replied, still confused.
“Do you wanna get a coffee later?” he asked, and oh my god, my cheeks burned as the table was waiting apprehensively for my reply.
“Um, sure,” I responded, then my hands trembled as I looked for my phone in my bag to exchange numbers. He was asking me on a date?
We exchanged numbers, and as he walked away to return to his table, a fierce glare suddenly struck me on the forehead, causing me to flinch.
The metalhead was standing near the entrance, as if he was watching the exchange between James and me.
A shiver ran down my spine at the intensity of the glare, but it took me a few moments to realize it wasn’t only aimed at me.
That piercing glare followed James back to his table, then he watched for a few moments before glancing back at me and leaving through the door.
“James York is so hot,” Mila giggled, but my mind was elsewhere. “You’re so lucky to go on a coffee date with him.”
“How is that possible?” Erin asked in a confused tone, as if all the girls on campus were asking, why me? That was exactly what I was thinking, though I wouldn’t tell her. The blond Carrie just sat there with her mouth gaping in horror, unable to find the words.
“I have to go,” I apologized to Mila, who was genuinely excited for me and took my slice of toast and coffee with me. “I need to see someone.”
It was the perfect plan to escape the suffocating atmosphere, but once I was outside, I couldn’t find him anywhere.
Why did the metalhead look at us that way while we were talking?
I liked the idea of him being jealous because I was getting attention from another man, but I also sensed that wasn’t the whole story.
As I returned to Morgana, hoping to find the metalhead there, a group of police officers in uniform and plainclothes walked past me toward the dining hall. Good. The police are finally here. The sooner the investigation is completed, the sooner we can return to normal.
Swiping my keycard, the door clicked open, and I had a hunch that the metalhead wasn’t nearby. Again, the entire building seemed empty, with only my footsteps echoing on the wooden floor, filling the silence.
Once up on my floor, I tapped on his door, hoping he might be inside, but I was disappointed that he wasn’t. I had the rest of the day to fill, and I was going to ask him if he wanted to explore campus with me, but I guess I’ll be doing that alone.
Besides, what did Mila say, “The Lud on the hill,” where the Warwicks lived? Maybe visiting them will fill my day a little.