Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Danika
“Come on, brat.”
Arden’s voice whispers in my ear and immediately I feel it all the way down my body. I’m either in the best dream of my life or Arden’s waking me up with one of my fantasies. I moan, ready to let him follow through on his plan.
Peeking my eyes open, I’m immediately met with a pillow to the face. “Get up, you’re going to be late for class.”
My eyes bolt open. “Huh? What time is it?” I clock my surroundings. “Why am I on the couch?”
From the kitchen, Arden tells me it’s almost eight am, and I jump off the couch as if it were suddenly on fire. I run into my room and grab whatever shirt is on top of my dresser then pull on the nearest clean pair of pants.
“Why didn’t you wake me sooner?” I yell at him as I run past to pee and brush my teeth. After a quick face wash and even quicker swipe of tinted moisturizer, I’m back in the living room, panting and grabbing my books to put in my bag.
Arden is just standing in the kitchen watching me run around like a tornado. “Your alarm went off a few times,” he shrugs. “I figured you were sleeping in a little.”
“Waiting until 8:04 to wake up for an 8:15 class is not ‘sleeping in a little’,” I huff. Throwing my backpack over my shoulder, I stomp over toward him in the kitchen. “Just for that, you’re giving me a ride to campus.”
Arden smiles, holding up his car keys and a travel mug full of hot coffee. “Already planned on it.” He hands me the mug before stepping around me to leave the apartment.
As we walk to the car, I recap the events of the morning.
Not only did he make sure I was awake before he left for work, he made a coffee so that I wouldn’t have to stop and be even more late.
Would he have done that if we weren’t hooking up now?
A question to ponder if I get bored in my lectures.
After a quick and relatively quiet ride to campus, I’m ready to bolt out the door and make a break for my class. Hopefully I’ll get there in time to grab a seat not in the front row. Way too exposed up there.
Pulling my backpack out of the back seat, I whip around to close the front door and I am immediately startled by a biker passing by way too closely. The coffee Arden made me goes pouring straight down my white shirt, thankfully not scalding my skin.
“Ah, shit!” I yell, pulling the shirt away from my body so it doesn’t burn me too much.
“What?” Arden asks from the driver’s seat. Leaning down into the open door, I show him the state of my shirt. “Ah, shit.”
Without a second thought, he pulls the red flannel shirt jacket shirt he’s wearing over off his shoulders and hands it to me. “Take this.”
I don’t have time to protest. Or even time for modesty, not that that’s stopped me before. Pulling my shirt over my head, I quickly slop up the rest of the liquid on my chest and stomach and then throw the shirt into Arden’s car.
Buttoning Arden’s shirt quickly, I shoot him a thank you before looking both ways–twice–and then running to class.
“And now I have to get through this lecture without any caffeine,” I mutter to myself as I run.
With a minute to spare, I slide in the door and get a spot in the back of the room, sending a quick text to Gemma, who’s sitting in the middle looking around for me.
Once she spots me, she gives me a questioning look but I give the universal ‘I’ll explain later’ look.
She nods before turning toward the professor. Class has begun.
After an hour of reflex arcs and sensory pathways with no coffee to keep my eyes open, I’m about ready to take a “bathroom break” and head to the cafe. Arden’s text comes through just as I start to close my laptop and make a run for caffeine.
ARDEN: Come outside. Just for a sec.
Isn’t he supposed to be working?
I’m not quite sure what he wants, but I figure I should probably go see. Glancing toward the professor, I wait until she turns her back to write on the board to run out the door.
In the hallway, Arden is standing with a coffee in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other.
“Sorry, I couldn’t get away sooner than now,” he says, handing me the coffee.
“I also got you a cinnamon bun. Everyone buys them so I figure they’re good and you must be hungry from skipping breakfast.” My mouth waters at the sight of it all.
The coffee. The pastry. The boy. I could kiss him right now.
But that’s not what friends with benefits would do.
But that’s what fake girlfriends would do.
But there’s no one around to put a show on for.
But–Fuck it.
Reaching up, I give him a quick but firm kiss on the lips before grabbing the bag and turning around. “Thanks! I owe you one!” I cheer before heading back inside. Maybe I’ll actually survive another two hours now that I’ve got someone looking out for my needs.
It actually feels pretty nice to have someone think about me…besides myself. It seems like all my life, no one has really thought about me but me. But Arden thinks about me.
Yeah, he thinks about hurting people for you.
This little devil on my shoulder needs to shut her trap. Because she’s right and I don’t want to hear it. Arden is as volatile as he is thoughtful. He could snap at the drop of a hat. I’ve spent my childhood hiding from that. I refuse to do it as an adult.
“Here,” Gemma hands me a basket of what looks to be different colored soaps. Wow, she wasn’t kidding about the soap thing. “Sorry, it took me a minute to make some new ones.”
“So this is your hobby, huh?” I ask, pulling out of the green bars and taking a big whiff, the scent of spring hitting my nose.
“If I don’t keep my hands busy at all times, my mind wanders so…soap.”
I nod in understanding. “Soap.”
We open the door to the lab and start walking to our stations.
“Make sure to give that to your fak—” My eyes widen as Nico walks by us to get to our station. He doesn’t look our way but he’s definitely within earshot. “Fa-faculty advisor. You know the one. See ya later.” She turns on her heels and wanders off, red faced at her misstep.
I’m almost positive that Nico didn’t hear her or would even know what she was about to say but still…better safe than sorry when it comes to him.
Nico doesn’t say anything when I get to the station—thank god—and I can’t help but notice he’s been more quiet than typical recently. Ever since Arden and I kissed in front of him, Nico has actually been laying off. Maybe this crazy plan is actually working!
It’s a productive anatomy lab with Paige and Carter yapping the entire time about a trip they went on over the weekend. Next to me, Nico is silent besides answering questions about the neurovascular bundle we’re assessing.
“Alright, folks. As per the syllabus, our test is next week so I hope you’ve been preparing,” Charlie says. “Have a good evening.”
We all pack up, Nico leaving without a word, which is fine with me.
Paige and Carter make an excuse instead of studying with me but honestly, it’s fine. I work much better on my own. I could wait for Arden to finish classes so he can drive us home but I don’t know his schedule and I don’t want to text and distract him if he’s in the middle of his statistics exam.
Walking, it is.
It’s a beautiful fall afternoon and I’ve been sitting in a wooden chair or hunched over a dead body for the past six hours. A walk is welcome.
Talking my phone out of my pocket, I start to call Margot and tell her about me and Arden but my finger hovers over the button. She’s probably busy at work. I shouldn’t disturb her.
You’re making excuses. Devil brain, shut up. Just tell her.
There’s something about admitting this situation to Margot that makes it feel way too…
real. If I tell her that Arden and I are hooking up, then she’ll use that logical brain of hers to predict what our future might hold.
But, personally, I need to keep logistics out of this.
It’s the only way that I can protect myself.
If I tell Margot, she’ll ask me questions I don’t want to admit the answers to.
I need to keep my feelings from going off the rails.
Clicking out of her contact, I decide to call someone else.
“Danimal!” Sydney cheers from the other side of the phone. Already, this is the most spirited I’ve heard her in months and I could cry from happiness at the sound.
“Hey Sweet Sydney! How are you? How’s things? Sorry, it’s been forever since we’ve caught up.”
“Oh, no worries!” A beeping sound rings behind her. “I know you’ve been so busy with med school. How’s that all going?”
I open my mouth to tell her about the ongoing torture that is Molecular Cell Biology one but that beeping happens again. Then again. Consistently. I know that sound. It sounds like a…
“Are you at the hospital?” The heart-rate monitor beeps again in the background of Sydney’s call. She breathes out an awkward laugh.
“Oh, yeah. Just here with my sister. All routine stuff.”
I know Sydney. I’ve known her for years. We’ve lived together. We’ve partied together. We’ve cried together. Sydney is not a liar. But something in me is telling me that she’s not telling us the whole truth about this situation. And I’ve been a really awful friend for not noticing it sooner.
“Sydney. Are you sure there’s not something else going on here? I’m sorry I haven’t reached out sooner. I can come during the weekend and vis—”
Immediately she cuts me off. “No, no. Don’t worry, Dani.” The sound of a door opening. “I gotta go, the doctor just got here. I’ll call you soon, okay? I miss you. Bye.”
She doesn’t even give me a chance to respond before disconnecting the call. There’s definitely something seriously wrong. I need to call Margot. But you’re avoiding her so you don’t have to tell her you're hooking up with her brother.
Fuck. I really am a bad friend. Doublefold.