Page 7 of Starstruck

“I don’t know,” Daisy started, stealing my attention back as sheshopped the clothes we’d hung up. “If I’m gonna form an addiction to this place, I think I’d rather drink the poisoned caffeine over there.” She laughs, raising a thumb over her shoulder.

After a few gulps of water, I screw the lid back on my bottle andthrow the thing on my bed before joining her in front of the closet. “It’ll be an addiction that’s worth it. Trust me.”

Laughter that felt like the nervous kind slipped from her smile, butthen, out of nowhere, her hands stop pulling at the chunky cardigan she was clinging onto, and her body goes still. I don’t have time to ask her if she’s okay before she’s turning her back to me and casually heading over to her bed, her hands scrambling to find something.

Before I can guess what she’s looking for, suddenly her left hand isgripping a gold pen, and in her right hand is… a tissue.

And then it clicks.

“More lyrics?” I ask her, doing nothing to hide how my smile onlygrows the more I watch her.

Something that sounds like an “Uh huh.” mixed with a “Yeah!” leavesher mouth, as her spine only curls further the longer she writes.

She’s done this three times now–stopped whatever it was she wasdoing to jot down the lyrics that had popped into her head. The first time she did it was in the candy aisle in 7/11, sacrificing her Red Vines to pull out her phone and open her notes app. The second time she did it was right before we fell asleep, scribbling away on the same tissue she was now.

If my eyelids didn’t feel like fifty-pound weights then I would’ve asked her there and then what on earth she was doing, but one quick look at the acoustic guitar perched at the end of her bed was all I needed to put two and two together.

“Sorry,” She breathes, pushing the tissue and pen under herblankets before skipping back over to the closet. “I swear, if I don’t write them down the second I think of them, they’ll never cross my mind again—wait.” My head springs up to face her. “How did you know what I was doing?”

I blow a quick laugh through my nose, before shifting and noddingmy head at her guitar. “That, and I think I heard your dad mention something about your music classes when he came by yesterday.”

“Oh, yeah.” Her voice felt flat as those words sneaked past hertight smile. “I’m sorry if he came off… rude, yesterday. If he didn’t have two kids to move into the dorms, then he would have said hello.”

I let the flowy white skirt I’d picked out go limp in my hand, as myhead swings to face her. “Two kids?” I ask, before watching Daisy nod and walk over to the bathroom door, my wide leg jeans, her chunky cardigan, and a cami that could’ve belonged to either one of us tucked up to her chest.

“My brother. Twin brother, Finn. He decided to be a copycat and chose to study at Liberty Grove right after I claimed it as my first choice.” She tucked a long curl behind her ear. “I’m sure you’ll meet him at some point.”

After a quick smile 1she headed into our bathroom, the slow trickle fromthe shower sneaking through the cracks under the door a second later.

I began pulling the thousand and one baby tees that I thought Ineeded to bring, finally deciding on a baby yellow one, when the text tone of my phone erupted from the bedside table. I padded my way over to it, starting to swap my pyjamas for today’s outfit as I pressed on the notifications that were starting to pile up.

The Girlies

Today at 7:28 AM

Cora

@goldie what time did you wanna meet again? i just wanna make sure we beat the crowds !!

Rory

@goldie she’s lying.

@rory i know she’s lying

Rory

she just wants to gawk at that cute Pin’s barista before his shift finishes

Cora

literally leave me alone

i am a woman with needs

SUE ME

but to answer your question we shouldn’t be too long !!

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