Page 50 of Lunar Crest University

I half expect him to sit next to me. In fact, I find myself hoping for it, but I remind myself that we’re not alone, and he has been ignoring my presence for the last ten minutes.

The ride to the airport feels excruciatingly long—between forcing myself not to look in his direction and trying not to get in my head about the entire situation, it feels like hours have gone by before we finally arrive. The weather isn’t nearly as dreary as it felt in Lunar Crest, and the amount of people bustling around makes my anxiety feel like it’s shooting through the roof. I’d never been a big city kind of girl. I’d stay in Lunar Crest for the rest of my life if I could. My soul lives and breathes for the small, quiet town with fall weather all year round.

I don’t know if he looks at me as we’re unloading the luggage from the bus, because I gaze at everything but him. My cuticles, my shoes, or my phone to respond to Levi, who told me to have a safe trip. I’m in an isolated bubble through baggage check and security, keeping to myself until we’re waiting in line at the TSA checkpoint—and I have no other choice but to acknowledge his presence as he stands behind me. I’m painfully aware of hisclose proximity, it makes goosebumps prick along every surface of my skin in waves, soothed every few seconds by the heat that radiates from him towering closely over me. Genevieve is in front of me, distracted by her phone when he lowers his lips down to my ear.

“What’s going on?” he asks.

I glance over my shoulder, and I’m met with dark brown eyes. “What?”

“Are you upset with me?”

I frown. “Me? I should be asking you that.”

The line moves up just a smidge, and the spell between us is broken as he leans away from me. Stepping forward, I create some distance as my head tries to get through to my heart, reminding it that I deserve an apology for the way he’s acting. The hold his dark eyes have on me makes it easy to forget that, so I choose not to look back at him again as we slowly trek our way through TSA. It’s a blur of chaos as the workers rush us through, and I scramble to place all my things into the bin as I kick off my shoes. I can feel his eyes on me as we walk through the giant metal detectors, but I ignore the feeling before collecting my shoes and belongings again at the end of the line.

It used to be easier to be angry with him, to stand my ground, but that was before I knew what it felt like to be writhing under his touch. What his skin felt like against mine. How his mustache feels when he’s kissing my thighs.

“You’re avoiding me.” Luca’s voice is low behind me, but it makes the hairs on my neck prick all the same.

“Only giving the same energy I’m receiving.”

And then, he’s a few feet away from me again as the three of us walk together to our gate for the flight. Genevieve being here makes it nearly impossible to talk about anything, and as much as I want to say screw it and confront him right here in the middle of the airport, I clamp my lips shut and wrap my armstightly around myself as a source of comfort. There’s too much noise, too many people, and I want my brain to just bequiet.

Everything feels like a fuzzy dream as the overstimulation shrouds me, so I keep my head down and push through the process of boarding the plane.My seat. I just need to sit down. I need to sit down, listen to my headphones, and close my eyes.

My chest squeezes as I breathe carefully through my nose, letting the agent scan my ticket before I hurry down the hallway. I’m not sure where Luca or Genevieve are, but I don’t care.

My seat.

Much to my dismay, as soon as I settle down into my window seat and take a deep, grounding breath, I lift my head to see Luca is right next to me—and like a cherry on top of a disastrous cake, Genevieve is on the other side ofhim.

Perfect. A shit sandwich.

I look out of the window, zoning out on the guy on the tarmac with the orange wand, ready to guide the plane. Flight attendants start demonstrating the safety procedures, but I don’t turn my head to watch. I’m too scared I’ll catch his eye, and as soon as I do, my willpower will falter completely. It’s not until the plane starts gliding down the tarmac to prepare for takeoff that I face forward instead. I hate this part.

My hand grips the armrest as the plane starts speeding up, and I squeeze my eyes closed before the shaking of takeoff can happen. My breath halts in my throat as we lift off the ground, and my heart pumps erratically inside of my chest.

“Don’t hold your breath, Finley,” Luca whispers next to my ear. “Breathe through your nose.”

Wincing, I push the air through my nose before shakily inhaling again. My knuckles are white from gripping so tightly, and my other hand is clenched into a fist in my lap. Even my knees are touching as I tense up entirely.

“Are you okay?” he asks lowly.

“Fine,” I grit out.

“Just try to relax.”

I hum in response.

I’m not sure how long we sit like this in silence, me breathing carefully through my nose and flexing my stiff fingers, him staring down at me like I might pass out suddenly if he looked away. Apparently, it’s long enough for Genevieve to doze off, because as I twist my head to raise my eyebrow irritably at him for staring at me, I see she’s asleep.

“I was stressed out with all the students being sick,” he mutters, and my eyes flicker back up to his. The sound of the plane makes it easier to speak to each other without anyone overhearing us. “And then the dean was asking me a million questions, and I just…I’m sorry.”

I harden my gaze. “So you’re acknowledging you ignored me first?”

“Princesa, I’msorry.”

“You do realize this is becoming a trend, right?” My anger wilts as I say it, and I pull my eyes back to my hands in my lap. “Getting what you want from me and being standoffish afterward?”

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