Page 49 of Kings of the Campus

“Ha! Got you!” Jace crows as his character finally takes mine out, and I realize I’ve been zoning out.

“Yeah, yeah, you got lucky,” I mutter, tossing the controller onto the couch.

My mind drifts to the last time I saw Tessa. She looked tired like she’d been carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. I should have pressed harder to find out why she accepted our ceasefire so easily.

“Cookies are almost ready,” Devin announces, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Sweet,” Jace says, already reaching for the remote to pick a new movie.

I wonder what things would be like if we hadn’t tried so hard to push her away. Would we be sharing the holidays with her right now? I shove that thought to the back of my mind. This is how things are supposed to be. We wanted peace, didn’t we? We wanted her to leave us alone.

So why does it feel like something’s missing?

Once the holidays are over, campus starts coming back to life. Students trickle in, bundled up in scarves and heavy coats, the buzz of a new semester on the horizon.

I trek through campus to get my caffeine fix, feeling a little blue postholidays when I see her across the way.

Tessa’s walking across the quad, her head down, hands in her coat pockets. My heart stutters in my chest, caught between a mix of surprise and something else—relief maybe?

I start walking toward her before I even realize what I’m doing. “Tessa!”

She glances up, her face immediately guarded. She stops but doesn’t make any move to come closer.

“Hey,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady. I stop a few feet away, giving her space. “Can we talk?”

Her eyes narrow a little, suspicious. “About what?”

I rub the back of my neck, trying to find the right words. “We owe you…I owe you an apology,” I say, laying it out on the line.

Tessa looks at me for a long moment, her arms crossing over her chest. I can tell she’s weighing whether or not I’m being sincere. And honestly, I don’t blame her. We’ve jerked her around enough.

“For what?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

“We went too far. We treated you like crap. We kept you at arm’s length and blamed you for everything, and you had every right to react the way you did. We let things spiral and for that, I’m sorry. I know that this isn’t going to make up for everything, but I hope it’s a start.”

She’s quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry too,” she says, her voice soft. “I lashed out, but I guess I could have just come talk to you before everything got so out of hand. Maybe if I’d tried that, we wouldn’t have gone through what we did.”

I feel a weight lifting off my shoulders. I expected her to yell and throw accusations but once again, she took me off guard, surprising me. “I feel like we both made bad decisions. Maybe we can move past them?”

Tessa smiles and my heart melts. “I’d like that.”

“There’s one more thing,” I say, glancing around like I’m worried someone might overhear us. “Would you like to come hang out with me for a little while?” I can see the hesitation in her eyes so I rush to spill the rest out. “I swear there’s no ulterior motives. Jace and Devin won’t even be there. We can just watch a movie.”

She goes quiet, looking like she’s weighing the options. But then, after a moment, she sighs. “Alright. One movie. But that’s it. No funny business.”

I nod, barely hiding the relief that’s bubbling up. “Deal. No funny business. You pick the movie.”

“Of course I pick the movie,” she says, a small smile playing on her lips. The two of us walk across campus together, occasionally bumping shoulders as we navigate the snow-covered pathways. Once we arrive at the frat, I usher her inside and take her coat and scarf.

I’m not sure if it’s just the fact that I missed her or what, but she looks incredible. She’s wearing a heavy, black sweater tucked into a pink and black plaid skirt and she’s got on chunky black boots. It’s like her usual look but a little more punk, a little more badass.

On top of that, she looks practically radiant, like she’s glowing from within. It takes my breath away.

“How have you been?” I ask, trying to keep my composure. I promised her that this hangout had no ulterior motives, so I’m not going to make a move.

“It was a quiet break,” Tessa says, oblivious to how much she’s affecting me. “You?”

“We just hung out here,” I admit. “I wanted to make sure we were here in case the new Sigmas needed us.”

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