Page 212 of A University of Betrayal

“Didyou?”

“Yes...” she just said and looked at me, exhausted.

Together we finally went downstairs and the three of us ate dinner.

I couldn’t help noticing that Bayla ate less than in the campus canteen, where she devoured as much as a full-grown Senseque. But here, she seemed to be lost in thought.

Diana and I talked about the move and the new cabin in the woods my father had found for us. Bay kept quiet and listened, even if she wasn’t really there. I helped her mother afterward before we both went back upstairs and at some point, began to devote ourselves to themission,as she and Larissa always called it and for which I was here in the first place, while Diana hung over files from her work in the living room.

It was difficult to rummage through the mysterious room because the drawers were all locked and I couldn’t see any way to force them open. Apart from that, the room was full of books, and only the bedside cabinet contained information about the mysterious Alice in the form of a student ID card that was a good twenty years old. There were also old notebooks, but they only contained information about the lectures.

At some point, time was running out, and we left the room, frustrated by the many unopened drawers where the remains of the diary could have been – if the burglar hadn’t taken them last week.

Diana came upstairs just five minutes after our risky action and wished us a good night before disappearing into her room.

Eventually it was so late that Bayla rolled out a mattress for me.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go back to campus?”

“Please don’t bother. If my mother wants you to come here tomorrow, I don’t want you to run out of gas unnecessarily.”

I didn’t say anything else, just nodded silently. I really couldn’t tell if she was just doing this for her mother or if it was really okay for her if I slept over.

“I can go down to the couch...”

“And leave me alone?” She laughed suddenly, and my stomach tingled strangely. Probably because she’d been worried all day today and hadn’t smiled once.

It suited her when she smiled. Of course, it did. Her skin stretched, little dimples appeared next to her lips, and the gleam in her eyes intensified.

“Forget it. You’re staying here. I’ve been wanting to throw another sleepover party for a long time,” she continued with such cheerful seriousness that I had to smile.

“So, you’re into kids’ stuff?”

“If by that you mean building a den and lying in it with fairy lights and flashlights and telling each other ghost stories?” She tried hard to put a new cover on the bed linen, but she was smaller than the blanket, and so I took it out of her hands to continue covering it, which she fortunately didn’t comment on. “Yep. I’m into kids’ stuff then.”

“Sounds like fun,” I laughed, and Bayla looked at me in alarm.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t do that as a child.”

“Yes, once, at the Copelands. We got intoa lotof trouble.”

The memory was pleasant, but there was something melancholy about it. It was a long time ago, and it was just a flashback to a time when we had been young and stupid.

“You and Emely?”

Bayla looked at me as she covered the pillow.

“And Nash, and an old friend...”

Her eyes narrowed. “Sounds a bit bittersweet.”

“It was, to be honest.”

If I Lose Myself – Alesso vs OneRepublic

OneRepublic, Alesso

“Then it’s about time your experience gets an update.”

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