5. Kirin #4
“Is she letting them beat you with sticks or something? Based on how you were moving on Wednesday, you could have a broken rib,” Kirin objected. Even though she looked like she was doing better—she wasn’t as stiff—she still had practice this evening. “That would impact your ability to play.”
“Nothing’s currently broken,” she assured him, her eyes shuttering when she finished. “And I’ve played through worse than a bruised rib or two.”
What does that mean?
Has my sister done worse than possibly breaking her rib?
Or did that horrifying honor come at the hands of her former team?
Is that why she transferred?
He frowned, but held his tongue. She was baiting him, and the way her eyes narrowed and her lips twitched confirmed it.
Kirin let out a long breath. Trust had to be earned, but he hadn’t earned it yet.
But he was very good at proving himself.
He’d earn her trust and then maybe he’d be able to solve the puzzle and stop obsessing.
“It must be driving you crazy not having the answers to whatever questions you have pinging around your brain right now,” she murmured with a smirk. She flipped open her notebooks, but his attention was on her copy of The Iliad, with lines and notes crammed in the margins in blue ink.
No chance was he admitting it was driving him insane, not even for the smirk he could easily see himself falling in love with. “What’re the notes for?”
“Themes—they’re color-coded for the ones I’ll need based on the essays in the syllabus.
” Rose pointed to the bubble-like circles, then to the notes in the margins.
“Comparisons between characters with page numbers for reference.” She dragged her finger across the page to the underlined portions at the bottom. “Symbolism, also color-coded.”
“Do all your books look like this?” Kirin asked as he pulled the book closer and flipped through a few pages.
There were marks all over the place, highlights on other pages, asterisks around some notes.
Other parts were in black ink, hearts, and exclamation points and a lot of running commentary; those were clearly not notes for a class.
It looked more like she was having a conversation.
“Yes.” She raised her brows like she was daring him to tell him it was sacrilegious to mark up a book like this. He’d heard that argument between his mom and sister a lot.
“Does it help you process?” He looked down at the blue ink again. “Do you have issues with your memory?” Her eyes widened for half a second before she buried the reaction, but he saw enough. “Don’t they say blue ink helps when you need to remember something?”
“I haven’t seen much of a difference, but I keep trying.”
“Do you work on assignments for certain classes in the same space to help with being able to remember certain details?” he asked, and her eyes narrowed.
It appeared he was onto something, so he gave her a piece of himself in exchange, a piece he hadn’t told anyone about.
“I associate certain study areas with certain classes. It helps me recall details, especially during tests, since I struggle with test anxiety.”
“You’re a business major.” She said it like it was ridiculous, but he smirked.
“Unlike some of the other colleges I looked at, Montgomery’s business degree has quite a few tests to check knowledge and understanding. Most of the grading is based on projects that prove knowledge through practical application instead of final exams.”
“Ah, you did your research on your program then.”
“I had an inside track, talked to a few of the advisors about how it worked.” He grinned, and she blew out a breath. When she said nothing, he risked pressing her. “Are your memory issues from anything specific?”
She looked at him for a long time, and he felt like she was staring into his soul more than looking at his face. When he didn’t flinch, waiting for her assessment, her gaze worked its way across his face until she got back to his eyes only to drop when she realized he was watching her, too.
“I should get back to work.” She pulled her book back. “Thanks for the food and coffee, and for making sure it wouldn’t give me food poisoning—” She swallowed and finished, “Or something.”
“Anytime.” He smiled when she blushed, shoving the trash into his lunchbox. He pushed his chair back and stepped around her, leaning over her to brush his lips against her temple and whisper, “See you tomorrow night.”
Her breathing hitched, and he caught her hand tighten around her pen before he stepped back and left her to her studying.
It caught quite a bit of attention. More than a few heads snapped back to their own work when he looked around.
The attention wasn’t in his plan, even though it should have been.
The project wasn’t why he came to find her, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt their objective.
And he’d learned a little more about her—overall, it was a successful afternoon.
Kirin slid his hands into his pockets as he wandered out of the library.
He’d have to run to get to the film session across campus.