“Is that how it is with you? You say your piece and leave?” Liam called after me. I turned to face him. He wasn’t as amused as before, but he didn’t look as mad as I was.
“You wanted to talk. We talked.”
“No, I wanted to explain myself,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “On second thought, no. I’m over this cat and mouse game you’re trying to play.”
He huffed. His grin was so smug. “I’m not playing any games here, Autumn. But for the record, you’re the mouse and I’ve already won.”
“Find somewhere else to sit in class,” I yelled over my shoulder as I walked away.
“Kidding. I’m still trying to explain myself.” He caught up to me.
“So, do it,” I said, rolling my eyes. Here I stood, thousands of miles from home, in an argument with a stranger. My past would always haunt me. Maybe I was the problem after all.
“I didn’t take you up to my room to have sex with you. I didn’t want you there in the first place,” he said. I swear to God every head in the hallway turned in our direction. My face was redder than my hair.
“Thanks for clearing that up.” I tightened my hold on my bag and kept walking. You will not cry. You will not cry. You will not cry.
“Shit, I didn’t mean it like that. You fuck with my head,” he said, catching up to me. My pace was almost a jog. I couldn’t believe he was keeping up with me.
“You won’t have to deal with my head fucking if you leave me alone,” I snapped. He jogged in front of me and stopped. I sighed with frustration.
“That’s the thing. I don’t want to. I like you,” he said.
My eyes grew wide. “You don’t know me.”
“I know you enough to know I want to be friends.”
I sighed, conflicted. A very tiny part of me believed him. An excessively big part of me went through trauma that he could never imagine. I would never trust anyone in this world, much less someone who was giving me as much whiplash as the guy standing in front of me.
He was watching me with those beautiful hooded eyes again. When I looked at him, he threw a boyish grin at me. That was the thing about beautiful people: they knew the effect they had on you, and they used it to their advantage.
“You don’t even have to be my friend. Just help me pass English,” he said.
“You didn’t fail that class. No one does.” I rolled my eyes again.
“You don’t know that. If I fail, it will be your fault. Can you live with yourself after that?” he asked, grinning. I switched my hips, putting my weight on another leg as I balanced my bag.
“I’m quite positive I could,” I said, smiling back.
“Fine, so we’ll meet after English at the coffee shop by your dorm for an hour every week?”
“You’ll leave me alone for the rest of the week?” I asked, biting my bottom lip to contain my smile.
“I will, but I don’t think you’ll want that after being around me,” he said confidently.
“I can’t decide what I like least about you: your arrogance or the fact that you try to pick up girls at bus stations.”
He laughed a deep, rich, husky laugh. I hated to admit it, but I liked making him laugh. He shook his head at me.
“That was a first for me,” he said, grinning. He looked straight into my eyes. “When you see a beautiful girl on the side of the road, it’s hard to pass up your chance.”
“I think that’s called prostitution, and it’s illegal.”
“I can’t win with you. I saw you, fully clothed, waiting for a bus before dark. I could tell you were a student. I was concerned. If anything, you should be thanking me,” he said. His arrogance was back, but he was clearly enjoying our banter.
“Thank you for reminding me of the importance of stranger danger,” I said. With that, I stepped around him.
“I’ll see you Wednesday! It’s a date!” he yelled.
“Studying is not a date!” I called back to him. I didn’t turn around. I didn’t need to see him to know that he was smirking, and it was beautiful. People stared at me as I walked to my dorm. He’d won the first round.
Eleven
“Autumn!” Mandy called, sounding relieved as I walked into the bookstore. There was a short bald man beside her, watching me with curiosity. My face heated as I walked toward them. I hated being the center of attention. With two pair of eyes on me—one happy, one suspicious—I was dying inside.
“She showed on her first day. That must be a good sign,” he said.
“Don’t listen to him. We really only hire college students, so you can image we’ve been burned a few times before,” Mandy said.
“No offense taken,” I said with a tight smile, unsure of what to do.
“This is Mike. He’s second in charge. We’re both going to show you how to do things today, so you can get a feel of what we both like.”
“Perfect.”
Mike and Mandy went back to pulling textbooks from boxes, while discussing Game of Thrones. I’d never felt so out of place in my life, and that was saying something. I twirled my hair for a minute, hoping they would look up.
“I just need to get the books out?” I asked. Mike looked at me as if I had grown two heads.
“Yeah, just do everything we do,” Mandy said. “Do you watch the show?”
“I don’t watch TV,” I said as opened my first
