Chapter 14 #2
Because we spend the next two weeks of J-term grabbing lunch together every day after class, and on the final day, he asks if I want to work together on our final papers.
They’re due by Monday, just a quick five-page research paper to close out the class.
We meet up on Saturday afternoon, starting in the library, but eventually the hard chairs get to me and I invite him back to my room to finish up in a more comfortable space.
I take the spot against the headboard and he takes the foot of my bed, near the window.
We float questions back and forth, helping each other.
Just as I’m putting the finishing touches on my closing paragraph, I sense the shift in the air.
A tingle whispers at the back of my neck, not entirely good and not entirely bad, just a tickle hinting at the pressure change.
I glance up over the rim of my laptop to see Evan has closed his and set it aside on my desk.
He’s watching me as if I’m a theory he needs to test.
“Clara.”
The weight he gives my name makes my mouth pop open in surprise.
Shit. The guys were right.
It’s all I have time to think before he leans forward, crossing the invisible dividing line of my bed.
I’m frozen, unsure if I want this or not.
I really just thought we were J-term friends.
But would it be so bad? He’s nice. Cute.
Comfortable. Does he make me want to rip my clothes off? No. But do I need that?
He’s two feet away now. One.
Six inches.
Five.
Three.
Two—
The door to my room bangs open. I jolt back.
My computer nearly slides off my lap and I make a diving catch, accidentally elbowing Evan’s cheek in the process.
He grabs at his face with a grunt, falling back to his side of my bed.
It all happens in a nanosecond, yet I’m out of breath, cheeks burning, as I hastily say, “Sorry, Nova! We were just—”
My eyes snap up from where they were locked on my laptop and I just stop.
You’re not Nova.
Nox fills my doorway, casually relaxing against the frame with his arms crossed in a way that makes his lean muscles bulge.
It’s twenty degrees out and he’s wearing a T-shirt.
His hair is still wet from the pool. A flush colors his slightly freckled cheeks, giving off the vibe that he just ran here through the cold.
His hard gaze flicks to the side and a grin tugs at the edge of his mouth. I turn to find Evan rubbing his jaw.
“What are—” I start to ask before Nox interrupts.
“Is Nova back yet?”
I’m too flustered to get out more than a single word. “No.”
“Hmm.” He glances absently around the room, something smug in his gaze I don’t quite understand. “Any idea when she’ll be back?”
I look at my clock, remembering her latest text. “Like half an hour, I think? Maybe sooner.”
“Great.” He nods. “I’ll wait.”
He’s across the room before I can stop him, flinging himself onto her bed in one athletic leap that ends with his hands comfortably folded behind his head and his ankles casually crossed. A challenging gleam lights his eyes as he raises a brow in our direction.
“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
A frown pulls at my forehead. Did he see something? Is he doing this on purpose?
Yes, I realize in an instant. The expression on his face is too blank to be true. It reeks of ulterior motives. Of course, he is.
“Actually, you are,” I snipe.
“Well, don’t stop on my account.” He shrugs, making no move whatsoever to get up and leave. A smile slowly pulls at his cheeks as he wiggles on the bed, sinking even more comfortably into the pillows. “It’ll be like I’m not even here.”
Fat freaking chance.
He sucks up the energy in the room, a human vacuum. I cast a furtive glance at Evan, but the moment is well and truly ruined. He’s already reaching for his bag.
“You don’t have to leave,” I say weakly.
“That’s okay. I’m done with my paper anyway.
” Evan hops off the bed and slings his backpack over his shoulder.
He starts to leave, then pauses as if thinking better of it.
The tension in the air thickens as he turns back to look at me, then slowly extends his arm until his palm lands on my knee.
Heat blooms across my chest as he slides his hand up a little higher, casing his fingers around my thigh, but I’m not sure if it’s from his touch or from the eyes staring at us from across the room.
“Call me tomorrow?” he asks. “I really want to finish our conversation.”
A scoff filters into my ear.
“Yeah,” I say, my chest tight, unable to find air. “I will.”
He squeezes my leg, then reluctantly drops his hand and leaves. I’m rooted to the spot, staring at my lap, wondering why the side of my neck feels on fire when my knee is the last spot Evan touched.
“You’re going to keep seeing him?”
I turn to Nox, his question taking a second to register. When it does, my features twist into an annoyed scowl that’s all too easy to surface in his presence. “Is your phone broken?”
“No. Why?”
“It just seems like it would have been easier to text Nova than to barge into my room unannounced.”
He has the gall to not even look apologetic. “I have to talk to her about something.”
“It couldn’t have waited?” My eyebrows just about push into my hairline.
Nox glances at the door and swallows, then returns his gaze to me. “So he gives you butterflies, then?”
“What?” I ask, confused by the turn of the conversation.
“Biology guy. He gives you butterflies?”
My angry confession on Halloween suddenly resurfaces. I need to feel something to be with someone. I want butterflies, you know? So laugh all you want. I can take it.
Is that what this is about?
I’m not sure if it’s a jab or a joke. I don’t even want to consider the possibility that it’s anything else. “Well, he doesn’t give me an aneurysm, which is more than I can say for some people.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Well, that’s how I’m answering.”
“I want my sweatshirt back,” he says, pulling another one-eighty on the conversation.
I shake my head. “What?”
“My sweatshirt. The one I gave you on Halloween. I want it back.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “I already gave it back.”
He stares at me with disbelief. “No, you didn’t.”
“I did.”
“Clara, come on.”
“What?” I shrug innocently, fully onboard the Denial Express with no reason to turn back now.
Yes, I know exactly where his sweatshirt is—stuffed in the back of my closet with his gray T-shirt, but he’s not getting it back.
Because it’s warm and cozy and feels like a big hug wrapped around me.
And screw him. It’s been in my closet for three months.
It’s mine now. “It’s not my fault you can’t keep track of your own clothing. ”
“Oh, I can.” He sits up now, a challenge in his gaze. “Or did you forget I can see directly into your window?”
He’s bluffing. I’ve only worn it like four times—five, max. And only at night, in the dark, when he couldn’t see. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I just saw you last—”
“Honey, I’m home!” Nova’s singsong voice cuts him off as she comes dancing into the room, only to stop short at the sight of her brother lounging in her bed. “Nox! What are you doing here?”
He eyes me fiercely for one more nanosecond, a look I feel all the way in my toes, then snaps his attention to his sister. “I came to talk about Dad.”
Her face falls. “I don’t want to talk about Dad.”
“I know. But whether you want to or not, he’s flying to the East Coast for my meet in two weeks and he wants you to be there.”
“For the optics?”
Nox doesn’t answer.
She rolls her eyes. “Tell him to ask me himself if he really wants me there.”
“What if I want you there?”
She smiles but there’s a hint of sadness I’m not used to seeing in her eyes. I suddenly feel as though I shouldn’t be here even though it’s my room. But there’s nowhere for me to go.
“You weren’t there, Nox,” she answers softly.
“You never are. But I am. Every time. The second she has something good happening in her life, the moment it looks like she might finally be moving on from him and all of his shit, he does something like this, and it takes her right back. She still loves him. He knows it and he uses it against her. I mean, come on! Going on a date with the actress who played her daughter in her last movie? They knew they’d be photographed.
That’s the whole reason they did it. Fifteen minutes in the limelight.
Or are you actually still so in awe of him you can’t see that? ”
“I’m not,” Nox answers roughly.
“I get it.” Nova sighs. “You guys have the whole swimming thing. He’s your hero—”