Page 37 of Starstruck

Her sigh melted in my ears, and when I lifted my eyes, I noticed herhead resting against a shelf, as she fluttered her eyes closed. Like she couldn’t believe what I was saying. “God, Tristan, you should tell someone. You can’t just let her getaway with that—”

“I know… I know.” I met her eyes. “Apparently, it’s some big tradition here at Liberty. She reckons it’s a campus-wide dare—see how many bases you can hit without getting caught, or something?"

Realisation washed over her face. “Oh, that.”

I raised my brows. “You’ve heard about it?”

She nodded, the dim light catching her eyes. “I think everyone'sheard some retelling of that story, but it’s like a legend, and it’s gross and rude and… something you shouldn’t have been subjected to.”

She might’ve missed it, but I didn’t. The way her fingers fidgetedwith the sleeves of her cardigan when I brought up bases, how her eyes stayed fixed on the table when she talked about the dare—it was all there, just beneath the surface. Her voice stumbled, the air between us thick with what she couldn’t say, but I caught it. Every unspoken word.

I couldn’t help but shake my head, letting out a small breath as Isteered us onto safer ground. Something about her discomfort tugged at me, enough to change the subject without a second thought.

“Did you need something? Or did you just happen to run into a livesex show on your stroll through the library?” I finished my words with a laugh, which coaxed one out of her, pretty and delicate.

She nodded, fiddling with the books in her arms before strollingover to the other shelf. “It was nothing, really. I was going to ask you tonight, at the Lions game, but I didn’t know if you’d be there so when I spotted you I thought I could ask you if you were going, but then I might as well have just asked you what I was originally going to ask you tonight so it made no sense to wait and I—”

“Goldie?” I ask her, a chuckle rolling from my tongue.

“Yeah?”

I nod my chin at her, a smile curling up my lips as I murmur,“Breathe, Sunshine.”

She seemed to settle then, almost, letting go of a breath, whichmade her whole body sigh.

It was then that I felt what I’d felt that night of the freshmanevent. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was, but she was the thing that caused it. She was the recurring element. It felt like grief, that sensation that knotted inside of me, like I missed her even though she was standing right in front of me.

She eventually regained the breaths she’d lost speed talking,before her smile lit up. “I wanted to tell you that… well, it’s my birthday in a few weeks, October 31st.”

I didn’t mean to look shocked by that, but I couldn’t help not be.

The girl who embodied sunshine and all things good was born on the spookiest day of the year? How did that add up?

“I didn’t want to mention it to anyone, but when Cora found out sheinsisted on organising something. So now she’s booked a table at some restaurant in Manhattan, it’s Italian, which is my favourite, so she didn’t have to do much persuading in the end. And actually, I thought it would be nice as our first outing, as a group.”

I nodded, not wanting her to stop talking.

“And it’s after the presentation too, so we can also celebrate that.Ideally, I’d love to go out dancing or something like that, but we can’t drink so there’d be no—”

I shook my head. “We can drink.” I corrected her.

But she simply shook her head, her smile thinning. “No, we can’t.”

I shrugged, peeling my curved spine away from the bookcase. “Well, I'm nineteen, and the rest of you are all eighteen, right? What’s the issue?”

Her laugh was quiet. “If we decide to have this dinner in your andCora’s homeland, then we can drink, yes.” She took a step towards me, her cupids bow popping as her mouth did. “But this is the USA, sir, the fun doesn’t start until we’re twenty-one.”

If I wasn’t too busy smiling down at her, I would have told her tonever call me ‘sir’ again. Not because I didn’t like it, oh no, I liked it a tad too much.

I told those thoughts to do one before clearing my throat, the actI’d built up over these past few weeks only now descending back over me, as I shuffled on my feet. “I’m starting to think my parents sent me here for more reasons than they told me about.”

Her laugh stayed hushed as it glided through the dusty shelves, butstill, I imagined a melody for the song I was working on this morning, the chords of her laugh that I could lace in there without anyone but me knowing what they meant.

“Big drinker are you?” She asked as her laugh faded, dipping hersmile to the floor for a second.

“Since I was sixteen, ma’am.” I joked, although the suddenaftertaste of sour drinks and burning spirits invaded my mouth.

I hadn’t drank since that night, and now just the thought of it mademe want to run. Bolt back through the shelves and catch my breath that I could feel slipping away from me, just like it was that night.

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