Page 78 of When The Night Falls

His wit really was flawless, and I was delighted he had caught the reference.

‘Who are you texting?’ Olivia suddenly asked.

When I looked up, she was studying me with an arched brow. Her question drew the attention of Aaron, who paused typing on his laptop and gazed in my direction. His kind eyes filled me with guilt. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong – we weren’t a couple – but since it was novel to remain in touch with one of my previous bed partners, it seemed immoral even though it wasn’t.

‘Phoebe.’ I said my sister’s name as though it was the obvious answer.

‘She’s awake?’ Aaron asked, surprised. Blood rushed to my face at his astute remark. ‘Isn’t it like six o’clock in New York?’

‘She’s just woken up,’ I lied again.

‘Right.’ He frowned, and I knew he didn’t believe me, but he refrained from probing me further. ‘Tell her I said hi, then.’

‘Me too,’ Olivia said. ‘How is she doing?’

‘She’s doing well,’ I said dismissively and focused on my phone. I wanted to avoid further interrogation.

Lol maybe

Anyway, I appreciate the offer, but I honestly don’t have time. Exam’s on Friday

I’m hardly allowing myself toilet breaks atm

Christ

You clearly need training in stress management

I’d be happy to tutor you in that as well. You’d get a 100 % discount

Both Aaron and Olivia stole glances at me, so I pressed my lips together to hide my smile.

Full-on life coach, aren’t you?

Accept and you’ll find out

Limited offer

I need to get back to revising. Enjoy your lunch

Sighing, I put my phone aside and told myself not to check it again for the remainder of the day, but I failed every hour and was equally ambivalent every time I saw that he hadn’t sent anything else.

§ § §

All through Wednesday, I checked my Instagram more than usual because I both dreaded and hoped to find another message from William. But, following my rejection yesterday, he hadn’t initiated any contact. I opened our message thread several times throughout the day only to see that he had been active now and then, but it hadn’t been to message me.

On Thursday, I managed to recover some of my self-control and hardly checked. He had been active a few times, but since I no longer expected to hear from him, seeing it hadn’t bothered me that much.

When the clock struck seven, I closed my textbooks, every tab in my Chrome window, and my Word documents, to quit revising for the day. I was one of those students who always took the evening before my exams off to let the information process into my long-term memory, so I planned to do some wall-staring for the remainder of the evening before I would go to bed at nine.

Wall-staring was one of my favourite activities. I could lie for hours at a time just staring at the ceiling while I contemplated life. Consequently, boredom was an entirely foreign concept to me, and I had always been grateful for that. My mind entertained me endlessly, so I had never been one to depend on external stimuli. Being stuck in traffic or waiting for the Tube was actually something I enjoyed because of that. Dad liked to say: ‘If you’re bored, it’s because you’re boring,’ and that statement resonated with me.

I wasn’t sure what time it was when I reached for my phone to check it. My heart did a flip when my screen lit up.

William had messaged me again.

I sat up and unlocked my phone.

19:57

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