Figures.
“Don’t worry,” I say to try and reassure him. “I’m not going to go running off to tell Warren. I do think it sucks though that he gets to hang something over your head, and that you have to share a room with him at all.”
“Eh, it’s alright. I actually don’t mind sharing. Even if I didn’t have to share a room, I would still probably want to.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I like having the company.”
Not me, I would be perfectly happy to be all by myself and not have to deal with anyone else’s drama at all.
Chase is kind of sweet. Sweeter than I had given him credit for. The fact that he’s been hiding Warren’s secret and trying to help his friend is … surprisingly attractive.
There’s definitely a lot more to these boys than originally meets the eye.
I’m not quite ready to think that maybe I’ve been completely wrong about them, but I am getting closer to thinking that maybe I might want to lay off the revenge a little bit. Like Alaska and Clark had said, maybe I have been taking it a little too far.
Who cares if Bridget is regaining her foothold with her friends? If that means I have to spend one less afternoon listening to Tammy or Annabelle talk about which exotic location they’re going to for Christmas break, that’s fine by me.
If I really look at Chase as he is here and now, sitting snuggled up with me in my dorm room—I honestly think I could even, might even like him. He’s not at all the guy that I thought him to be for a while there.
His first impression is more accurate than anything. Soft. Kind. Funny. And to be honest, I like sitting snuggled up with him here in my bed a lot more than I thought I would.
“It’s still a little cold in here,” I say as I move to get up and go get another blanket from out of my closet. “I’ll be right back.”
When I go to move, Chase puts his hand on my wrist, and I look over at him without realizing how close our faces already are. I’m not sure what he was originally getting my attention for, but I am sure that he has my attention now. I see his eyes dart down to my mouth, and before I can ask him why he’s reached for me—Chase leans in, pressing against me as he puts his warm lips on mine.
The kiss is soft, and deep, and everything about the feeling of his hand on mine and his mouth on mine, and our bodies pressed up against each other, is intoxicating. When he pulls his mouth away, I no longer want to get out of bed. I’m definitely not cold anymore.
Not with the heat flooding through me.
“I just wanted to do that before you got the blanket,” he says with a grin.
I reluctantly get up from the bed, taking the empty cups with me to clean up as I go and set them on the desk. By the time I retrieve another blanket and come back to the bed, hoping to cozy up with Chase some more, it’s too late.
Chase is already fast asleep. He’s wrapped the soft blanket around him, slouched over against the wall, and is softly snoring.
A good thing too, because if we’re going to spend the rest of the break here together holed up in my room, I’m going to have to be careful. I don’t want to do anything I might regret.
Not so fast. Not until I know, for sure, that he can hold his own once Warren and Sterling are back at the end of break. I’ve already seen once before what they can turn him into.
That still doesn’t stop me from sliding back into the bed next to him and pulling the blanket up around me. I fall asleep as I listen to his steady breathing next to my ear.
Chapter Sixteen
The next couple of days are calm and uneventful—almost too uneventful, if I’m being honest with myself.
A part of me wonders what’s going to happen after this. What’s going to happen when the break is over again? I guess I wonder whether things will be different now that we’ve spent this great weekend together, like whether we might actually be friends … or maybe even more.
When Monday morning arrives, there’s no shortage of buzz on campus with everyone returning back from break and getting ready to plunge ahead toward the holidays and exams. The winter semester has a lot of exciting and important events here on campus that none of us are truly immune to.
Chase seems to be on board with all of it, but the only one that I’m really looking forward to is the gala.
I want to make sure I do everything in my power to make the best first impressions on the review board and solidify my chances to getting out of here early. Even if just thinking about it makes that new, nagging pit form in my stomach.
A mere minutes after Chase leaves my room Monday morning, Bridget walks back in, which means that both she and Warren have returned from break. I haven’t stopped thinking about what Chase said.
I wish Warren had just been honest with me earlier on in the semester. Knowing what I do now, that I’ve been keeping him from his tutoring sessions by not covering for him during our volunteering assignment, it kind of makes me feel like an asshole.
An asshole who didn’t know any better, but an asshole still.
“How was it?” Bridget asks as she flops her suitcase down on her bed. “Spending the break alone I mean.”
I’m sure that she is expecting to hear about how horrible and lonely it was for me to be here all by myself on a holiday break while everyone else was with their families, enjoying king-sized meals and adult conversation.
“It was good,” I say flatly, but I can’t help
