Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
A t the sound of the familiar voice, my body locked up, my heart started doing a marathon in my chest, and the blood drained from my face. The cup slipped through my fingers, crashing to the ground in a splattering mess and splashing tea and brown sugar pearls on my legs. The impulse to run spurred within me. I shouldn’t turn around. I should keep walking and pretend I hadn’t heard him call me by my last name. “Shit,” I whispered under my breath, echoing Frankie, while dread coated my insides.
“Not quite the hello I hoped for,” he said to my back, his tone closer. So much closer.
Thoughts scrambled together in my head, causing mayhem and destroying any hope of having a calm, cool reaction. Frozen, I took a few pounding seconds to discern which goddamn twin stood behind me. They had similar tones, but Cole had a lightheartedness about him Crew couldn’t pull off. And the use of my last name was something I realized only Cole did. If he had called me Killer, my reaction would have been different.
I turned, facing Cole with the best neutral face I could pull off. As much as I hoped I’d be wrong and another guy would be standing in front of me, I wasn’t .
His dark hair was tousled and messy like he hadn’t cut it all summer. A shadow formed over his lower jaw, and his striking eyes flecked with sparkling gold raked over me. Cole looked just as I remembered, fucking better if possible, and I wanted to hate him for it—for everything—with as much bitterness and venom as I desired. But I couldn’t. Not fully.
I also couldn’t look at him and not see his brother. My gaze darted to the corner of his mouth, and I refused to admit I felt something akin to disappointment at seeing no lip ring there.
Why? Why would the universe put Cole Riley directly in my path again? “What are you doing here?” I snapped, finally finding my voice.
A lopsided smirk appeared on his full lips as he shoved his hands into his back pockets, studying me with amusement. “I was going to ask you the same.”
I glared at him. “I transferred.”
He lowered his brows. “Then it looks like you’ll be seeing a whole lot more of me, Quinn. I’m guessing that puts a wrench in your plan of avoidance. You’ve done a decent job until now.”
“You attend Whitley?” I choked.
His mouth curved higher. “This will be my third year.”
Had I never asked him or Crew where they went to school? A massive oversight on my part. “It’s a big campus. I’m sure we can manage to avoid each other.”
His gaze dropped to my empty cup on the ground. “Let me buy you another drink.”
Frankie’s arm brushed mine, a show of support, silently letting me know she was still here. “It’s not necessary,” I said. Suddenly nothing sounded appetizing.
Cole stared at me as if he wanted to say more but held back, and the awkwardness ensued, so much so I couldn’t wait to escape, but I found myself asking, “Is he here?” I winced as the question left my lips, but I had to know—I needed to steel my heart and protect it.
He lifted a brow, and some of the roguishness faded from his expression. “Crew?”
“Shit,” I cursed again, brushing aside the chunk of hair the wind blew in my face, but hearing Crew’s name caused a burst of trepidation. My heart did a crazy series of skips .
“Does it make a difference if he is?” Cole asked.
My face tightened. “I’d rather be prepared when we run into each other.”
His eyes lingered on me, scanning my face. “He’s on campus, but I don’t know how many of his classes he’ll actually attend.”
Something in my gut twisted. “If that is an attempt to make me feel sorry for him or sympathetic, it won’t work.”
He forked a hand through his hair. “Okay, you’re still mad.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Yeah, I guess I am.”
Cole nodded, his gaze flicking to Frankie’s for a fraction before returning to me. “Fair enough, but for what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re here, Quinn.”
The fa?ade fell, and I took a step in retreat, shaking my head. “I can’t do this. I need to go.” I gave in to the compulsion to run. Well, it was more of a fast walk because I didn’t want to seem like a psychopath.
“Quinn,” he called after me.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll let her go,” I heard Frankie warn, her voice growing fainter with each step carrying me away.
Footsteps clapped behind me, and I prayed it was Frankie and not Cole following me.
“Hey, are you okay?” my best friend asked breathily after catching up, matching my fast pace.
I exhaled. “Yeah, I think so. I just need a minute to process.” We walked aimlessly in silence, and after those sixty seconds, the reality of the next year hit me. “Fuck me!” I shrieked at a tree, barely refraining from kicking it, which would have only succeeded in causing me pain.
Frankie still held her drink, and she offered it to me. “Exactly. Took you long enough.”
I sipped aggressively and handed it back to her, glancing at my friend like a lost kitten. I imagined I looked like one too. “What am I going to do?”
She looped her arm through mine and guided me back onto the brick pathway. “Nothing. I refuse to let the Riley duo ruin our college experience. Just think of me as your human shield. I will make sure he doesn’t hurt you again. ”
My spine straightened. “Definitely not. You did that once already and ended up in the hospital.”
She had the straw to her lips, about to take a sip, but what she had to say took precedence, and she lowered the cup. “How many times do I have to tell you that it wasn’t your fault.”
“Of all the fucking schools, it had to be this one?” The very thought knotted my insides. How could my heart heal if he was right in front of me daily?
“This might be an inappropriate time to bring up the idea that perhaps this is fate,” she said smoothly as she continued to drag me down the pathway.
I scrunched my nose. “Screw fate. Fate can suck my ass. Fate can choke on my middle finger.”
She let out a low laugh. “That’s what I thought. You got that look, by the way.”
I cut her a sidelong glance as we passed the laundry facilities, a whiff of detergent and clean clothes tinging the air. “Would you care to share what that look is?”
Something twinkled in her eyes. Something like mischief. “The one where you run away.”
I tensed. “Can you blame me? I came here to forget Crew. How can I do that knowing he is within a mile radius?”
“Do you think you can forget him?” she asked, challenging me to look deeper inside.
More and more people were meandering outside, the campus filling up as my peers hurried to class, met up with friends, or sought out the cafeteria for food. “I want to try,” I murmured.
Frankie gave me a squeeze, our arms still locked together. “How long until he shows up at our apartment, you think?”
I tripped on the tip of my shoe. “Don’t even joke. He fucking better not,” I threatened after recovering.
Frankie lifted her chin, a glint of steely determination and a speck of wickedness in her eyes. “I’ll answer the door with a shotgun.”
I snorted. “Difficult since neither of us brought one.”
She waved her drink aimlessly in the air. “Pepper spray. Shotgun. What’s the difference? ”
I rolled my eyes. The anxiety threatening to consume me minutes ago slowly receded because of my friend. “Thanks, Frankie. For everything.” I couldn’t do this without her, and I didn’t mean just school. Facing Crew would be a difficult challenge, but perhaps not for the reasons I assumed.
Satisfied I wouldn’t unravel, Frankie halted, stopping me with her. “Okay, so do we risk the bookstore?” she asked, glancing to our right. “Or head straight for the bar?” She looked to our left.
I t took two weeks for me to settle into campus life and to think it might be possible to attend WU without seeing Crew. Cole was another story. Our paths seemed to continually cross, and after the fourth time, I wondered if our accidental run-ins were on purpose.
Every corner I turned, he happened to be there. At the coffee shop. Outside my behavioral neuroscience class. On my way to the library. In the cafeteria. No place other than my apartment was safe from Cole Riley. It was eerie until I caught on that they weren’t happenstances.
At first, the weirdness made me want to split, but somehow, my mind began to separate Cole from Crew, and I saw him as a different person. It made seeing him a whole lot easier. Perhaps that was the goal, to get me to separate him from his brother since the two were so tangled in my memories but as one person. Entirely their fault, and I hadn’t forgiven either of them for the deception.
“What do you want from me?” I asked Cole after running into him outside the gym. I just finished an exhausting thirty minutes on one of the cardio machines and my legs were Jell-O. Not to mention, I was dying for a shower to rinse off the light sheen of sweat I managed to work up.
The white tee he wore clung to his chest as if he’d hastily tossed it on after showering without toweling off first. A light smile hooked the corner of his lips. “To be your friend. Is that hard to believe?”
My eyes narrowed. “Why? And if you say because you feel bad, then you can keep walking. I don’t need more friends.” Cole and I had little in common other than two incidents in my life I’d rather forget. Seeing him only reminded and flooded me with unresolved guilt .
“Maybe I just want you to hate me a little less than you do.” His voice dropped an octave much like the temperature. We were in for a storm. A wicked one by the look of the overcast sky.
“Then leave me alone.” I started walking to my apartment hoping he wouldn’t follow. Except he did.
“That doesn’t align with my plan, Quinn,” he said, our hands casually, or maybe not so casually, brushing. Cole might be all flirty smiles and roguery, but he didn’t fool me. Cole could be as calculated as Crew just in a more subtle way. He wasn’t one to disregard as a mindless playboy.
I let out a loud breath, trying to maintain composure and patience. “Let me guess, you’re banking on the theory of mere exposure. It won’t work.”
He smirked a bit. “I don’t know what that is, but I’m hoping you’ll get used to having me around and get to know me .”
“As opposed to your brother?”
“You should talk to him. Clear the air. It would be good for both of you,” he said bravely broaching a sensitive topic for me.
“I’ve said all I want to say to your brother. I’d die happy never speaking to him again,” I snapped, my temper discharging as tension crept into my shoulders.
“Liar. You don’t mean that.”
I tossed him a sidelong glare. “I don’t even know if I want to talk to you .”
A breeze blew through the campus, ruffling Cole’s hair. He smiled. “Now I know you’re lying. Everyone loves me.”
I lifted my face, welcoming the slightly cool wind against my warm cheeks. “Perhaps that’s the problem. I never liked the norm,” I grumbled.
“Ouch.” He put a fist to his chest. “That hurt. You think I’m normal?”
I didn’t want to be amused by him, but he was just damn charming without trying. I banished the smile threatening to appear on my lips. “What does it matter what I think? Now will you go away?”
He threw me a crooked grin. “You like me, Quinn. Even when you want to hate me, you like me.”
Walking backward, I said, “Don’t flatter yourse lf.”
His smile widened, and damn if I didn’t catch myself returning his grin.
Fucker.
“ W as that a Riley I saw you walking with?” Frankie asked as our paths crossed. She’d been waiting for me on the bench outside the social science building, a routine we started during the first week of school.
I shrugged. “He’s relentless.” It had been nearly three weeks of Cole popping up at the most random times, disarming me slowly with his annoyingly charming smile.
Frankie stopped to tie her shoe, crouching down as she said, “And you wouldn’t stand for it if you didn’t like him a little.”
I paused, sending her my have-you-lost-your-mind glower. “Honestly, I don’t know what to do about him.” Despite knowing Cole’s intentions, it was hard to trust his motives. At first, I tried to ignore him; however, the attention he brought wherever he was got under my skin, and I couldn’t help but make snarky remarks, which led to him asking the most mundane questions. Before I knew it, we were having conversations about random things like whether we were cat or dog people and did we have any hidden skills, dream vacations, and such. He would throw in these wild questions, and it felt a bit like dating starters, things you asked to get to know someone. We also heatedly argued about the same things, yet one topic always lingered between us—a forbidden dark spot—Crew.
Frankie’s brows rose, and she gave me a slightly worried yet sly glance. “Are you falling for the other twin, Arie Quinn?” A burst of lightning zipped through the gloomy skies. A storm had been on the horizon all day and looked as if it was finally going to break.
I coughed. The fresh, crisp air was obviously too much for my homebody lungs. “God, no. We’re barely friends,” I insisted.
“But you could be?” she speculated, our feet moving in sync.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” I mused as a light mist expelled from the clouds .
Frankie swiped her key over the unlock pad, and the door clicked open a moment later. “Just be careful,” she warned.
I flung open the door and held it for her to walk through. “Trust me, I refuse to be hurt by either of them again.”
We climbed the stairs just as the rain began to pour, pelting the side of the building. “You know I’d support you regardless of who you date.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Now that we cleared that up, you want to binge Twilight and order shitty takeout?” she tossed over her shoulder, auburn hair flying with her movements.
“Is that even a question? What else do we do when it’s crappy outside?” I did have homework I could tackle and should, but a night in with my best friend was too tempting for me to pass up.
Since we lived together, you’d think we’d have plenty of them, but sometimes it felt as if I saw less of her now than I did when we weren’t in the same house. Our class schedules pretty much conflicted which gave us only the weekends, except Frankie’s social life hadn’t slowed down. She loved the frat boys, and they loved her.
We were deep into the second movie, my least favorite, when someone banged on the door. Frankie looked at me, and I stared back, neither of us moving. “Did you order more food?”
“Not that I remember,” she said, rolling off the couch to check.
I took advantage of the interruption for a bathroom break and padded into the bedroom. Just as I closed the door to the washroom behind me, Frankie’s voice carried through the apartment.
“Crew?”