I closed my eyes, frustrated with myself. When I opened them, Jared was finishing his discussion, script in hand. He glanced in my direction and I quickly looked away, busying myself with straightening up packets of sweetener. After all, I had work to do. I wasn’t there to gawk at the stars. When I dared another glance, he was halfway to my station, and that sensation of being on a roller coaster cresting the highest point hit again, so hard I had to grip the table for support.
He stopped when Christina called to him, and waited as she covered the ground between them, as graceful as a gymnast. She said something, leaning close and whispering in his ear, and his expression hardened, his jaw clenching as she finished. He replied and then continued over to where I was standing. His features betrayed nothing. I waited breathlessly, and he stopped in front of the table, eyes locked on mine, and I felt that odd tingling chill again.
I waited for him to say something, but he just stared at me – not making eye contact, but almost as if he were trying to match my features to something. I fidgeted with one of the plastic containers and swallowed hard, and then worked up the courage to speak.
“I…I never got a chance to thank you for…for the other night,” I said.
He blinked once, as though unaware of what I was talking about, confirming my worst fears. He didn’t even remember me, even after he’d rescued me from Luke.
One eyebrow on his gorgeous face rose a fraction of an inch. “Oh. Of course. No need to thank me. Anyone would have done the same.”
“I don’t know about that. But I…” My mind suddenly went completely blank. He waited expectantly for several beats, and then Trent called his name from somewhere over by the camera. He looked over at Trent and then back at me.
“Glad to see you’re okay,” he said, and turned toward where Trent was bearing down on him.
I choked back my nervousness and managed to blurt out a few words I regretted the second I said them. “I have your jacket.”
He hesitated and then waved a hand nonchalantly as he continued toward Trent. “No problem. It’s yours now.”
The words stung like a slap. He didn’t care. The incident, which had left me badly shaken and questioning myself (Was it assault? Was it somehow my fault?) barely registered in his memory. And the jacket was nothing to him. He probably had dozens like it, or got them free for some endorsement.
I felt about three inches tall. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I’d allowed my roommates to insert a germ of absurd hope that Jared might have…it was too painful to consider.
“Dumb,” I muttered bitterly. There was a reason I wasn’t interested in love, and this was a vivid reminder – as if I needed one.
Jared slowed for a few steps, almost as though he’d heard me, but then he picked up his pace to meet Trent, leaving me deflated. I could feel my eyes moisten, adding insult to injury, and bit back the sob that threatened to burst from my throat. My humiliation was now complete.
I spent the rest of the night in a daze, woodenly handing out coffee and sodas, counting the minutes until I could leave.
Chapter 8
I started awake after a restless night tossing and turning, my eyes burning from too few hours of sleep. Dust motes drifted in a beam of morning sunlight from the window, and I peered at the other beds, which were empty.
I sat up and checked the time and then swung my feet onto the floor and hurried to the bathroom.
“Crap,” I hissed. I’d slept through half my first class – not a good strategy for getting a decent grade, much less keeping my scholarship.
A one-minute shower later, I pulled on pants and a fresh shirt and laced my boots as my heart jackhammered in my chest. Once in the hall, I could hear that the dorm was empty. Apparently I was the only student who’d screwed up on her first week of school.
If I could have felt any more self-conscious than running across the empty field to the main academy building, I don’t know how. I half expected Mrs. Coates’s voice to ring out and call me to the administrative offices, but I managed to make it to the hall without being spotted.
I walked as silently as possible along the corridor to the classroom door, which was closed and had a note taped to it. Unbelievable. I spun and retraced my steps – Robert had moved the class to a clearing by the river instead of staying inside. It was his prerogative as the TA, but to me it just meant I was going to be even later.
I reached the area by the water just as the class was breaking up. Kate looked up at me with a frown from where she was sitting by Robert.
“Little late, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Why didn’t you wake me up?” I fired back.
She shrugged. “I tried. You told me to leave you alone.”
I blinked. “I must have been completely out of it. I don’t remember doing that.” I turned to Robert. “I’m so sorry. I worked really late last night…”
He smiled. “It’s not the end of the world. Just don’t make a habit
