Page 13 of A Wish for Us

Her cheek twitched in annoyance, but she still didn’t remove her hand from my laptop. “I’ve worked too hard to get this far, and I won’t let someone like you, someone who breezes by in life, screw it up for me.”

She seemed desperate, somehow. Still, fire lit me up inside. “You don’t know a thing about me.”

“No, I don’t,” she said back. “And I don’t need to. I don’t care whether you like me or not. But we’re stuck together for the duration of this assignment.” She swallowed, and then her voice softened. “To have someone like Lewis teach me is a dream come true.” Her hand slipped off the laptop. Istared at the spot it had just been on. “Don’t take it from me.” There was a small catch in her voice.

I didn’t know why, but it made that damn stabbing feeling I chased away so often slice through my stomach. Bonnie reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of paper. “The TA was handing these out as we left. You were gone before he could get one to you.” I didn’t even look at the piece of paper as it landed on my desk.

Bonnie sighed in frustration. “It says we have to have a rough outline of our project done for Friday’s seminar.” She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “I won’t be around for a few days, so we need to talk about this now.”

The thought of working with Bonnie made an uneasy feeling sprout inside me. I didn’t like to feel anything. I was happy numb. But for some reason Bonnie Farraday sparked life back into my dead soul. “I’m busy.” I sat back down, throwing my headphones back over my ears. I had just taken the volume off mute when my laptop lid was pushed down again. This time harder. I had to count to ten…really bloody slowly.

The anger I lived with daily was waking up.

I slid my headphones off my head and put them around my neck. I turned. Bonnie was still beside me, fuming. She closed her eyes, and her shoulders sagged. “Please, Cromwell. I know you’re pissed at me for what I said to you in Brighton. I can hear it when you speak to me. But we have to get this outline done.”

Even at the reminder of that, fire boiled my blood. “I’m not pissed off at you. I feel nothing toward you,” I said coldly. I didn’t want her to think her words had had any impact. Especially how much.

“Right. Okay then…”

My jaw clenched as she started rubbing her arms. Like I’d hurt her. That annoying stabbing feeling was back in my stomach again. She moved toward the door then stopped dead. She spun and faced me, chin tilted upward. “Come with me for a coffee. We’ll hash this out. I’ll write it all up. You don’t have to do anything but contribute to the idea. We just need to decide what we’re gonna do.” I blew out a long breath. I simply wanted to be alone. I was better off alone. “Just come, please. Then you can get back to your drum pad.”She was persistent. I’d give her that.

I really didn’t want to go, but oddly, I found myself getting up. “You have an hour.”

Bonnie’s shoulders sagged in relief, and then I followed her out of the door. I locked it. With a key. I turned, and she must have known what I was thinking. “Easton gave me one. I’m normally the one who picks him up and brings him back home from parties. It made sense for me to have one.” She glanced down. “I won’t use it again without permission.”

Something stirred in me when her brown eyes dropped. I quickly pushed it away.

Bonnie led us out of the quad. She didn’t walk beside me, just slightly in front, which was fine with me. A few girls smiled at me, and I made a decision that I’d get my end away sometime this week. Looked like it wouldn’t be hard to pull around here. I’d gone too long without, and I was getting agitated too easy. Distracted.

Mainly by Bonnie.

Bonnie stopped at her car. “If I only have an hour, I’ll drive us there. It’ll be faster.”

Students looked at us as Bonnie pulled away from the campus. “We’ll be officially dating by tonight, just so you know,” she said.

I snapped my head to her, eyes narrowed. “What’re you on about?”

She pointed at the students. “Downside of a small local college. The rumor mill is rife.”

I leaned back in the seat and watched as Main Street came into view. “Great. That’ll help me get laid.”

Bonnie laughed without humor. “Not so much. You’re the shiny new toy here. Girls thinking you have a girlfriend will only make you even more attractive than you are to them right now.”

“Good to know.”

Bonnie parked outside Jefferson Coffee. She got out of the car, her bag of notebooks and Christ knew what else slung over her shoulder. I had about ten dollars in my wallet and my hands stuffed into my pockets.

I traveled light.

I hadn’t been here before, but the place was like any other hipster coffeeshop I’d seen, all red walls, with a small stage in the back.

“Hey Bonnie!” about five different people said as she led us to a table at the back of the room. She smiled brightly at them, losing that smile when she sat down and looked up at me.

My fist clenched. I didn’t like that fact. And I hated that I seemed to care.

I sat down, and a guy came over. “The usual, Bonnie?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Sam.”

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