Page 15 of The Casualty of Us
“Okay, whoa.” He points sternly at Hayes. “You there, baby sister, remember?”
Hayes finally looks away, moving his gaze to Ollie and clearing his throat. “Right, sorry.”
“And you.” Ollie’s hand comes to the side of my head, physically turning it his way and letting me spot the nerves on his face. “Hayes is my football-playing roommate.”
“Ah.” I blink up at him, swallowing down the bacon with a nod. “Gotcha.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Hayes’s voice has me glancing back over at him, pausing for a second before shrugging. “Nothing, really, you’re just a Kyler.”
Any trace of dimples leaves his face, and I have to stop the grin that tries to pop up from my own amusement. “What’s a Kyler?”
“Nothing,” Ollie quickly interjects. “Just a twin thing.”
Hayes opens his mouth, but Holden beats him to it, interrupting absently. “Twins are weird.” Drawing all of our gazes as he sips some orange juice. “Just saying, there’s been lots of studies on it, and twins are weird. They have freaky ESP with each other and stuff.”
I giggle at that, pausing before taking another bite to toss out. “I think I like you, Holden.”
“I have coffee too, if you want some.”
I look back at Hayes to see him sliding a large cup my way, and the bacon must be doing something for me because the urge to scowl isn’t as strong as before.
“No, thanks.” I shake my head. “I don’t drink coffee, it makes me too jittery.”
He tilts his head at me curiously. “What do you drink then?”
“Tea. Black. With two—”
“Sugars and a splash of coconut milk,” Ollie finishes for me, sliding his own mug my way.
I don’t hesitate to pick up the tea and drink a sip, knowing that it’ll be perfect.
“See?” Holden points between us with his fork and shoots Hayes a look. “Freaking weird, man.”
“Sorry.” Marley drops into the seat next to me with a huff. “They took freaking forever to get my food.”
“No worries.” I wave her off, quickly taking another sip of tea and grabbing a second piece of bacon before nodding at the guys around the table. “Marley, this is Hayes, Holden, and my brother Ollie.”
“Oliver.”
“Right.” I roll my eyes at his immediate interjection. “Sorry, Oliver. Guys, this is my roommate Marley.”
Ollie leans against the table, looking past me with the charm now exuding in full force. “Nice to meet you, Marley.”
“Huh?” She looks over at him while cracking her water bottle open. “Oh yeah, nice to meet you.” Her eyes move between us a couple of times before she laughs. “I see what you mean.”
She moves on to her breakfast then, and Ollie whispers in my ear, “What did she mean, she can see what you mean?”
“Nothing.” I shrug, stealing his fork to start in on Hayes’s pancakes. “Just told her we look alike, is all.” Cutting myself some neat little bites before peeking up at him to find a confused look there. “Chill. She’s cool.”
I bump his shoulder with mine, popping a bite of pancakes into my mouth and looking back to see Hayes poke his own fork into one of my perfect pieces. The grin he gives me whilebringing it to his mouth practically begs for a reprimand, but I don’t engage beyond a roll of my eyes. The others start chattering about classes and sports and all things freshman year related, giving me the opportunity to find out that I’ll have Holden in my Lit seminar while both Ollie and Hayes are in math with me. Everyone is starting to wrap up breakfast and gather their things when Hayes mentions that he has Spanish first today but is really looking forward to debate on Friday as well.
I jerk my gaze back his way, brows falling at the information as Marley chimes in. “Oh! We’re heading to French now, they’re on the same floor, right?”
Not giving me a chance to question his choice of class before our group starts to head out together from there, Ollie and I linger at the back as he tries to bully me into giving him answers about not sleeping last night while the others stroll in front of us. He gives up eventually when he has to break away with Holden to find their classrooms, leaving me with Marley and Hayes as we make it to our building. All of us come to a stop inside of it and stare at the option of elevator versus stairs as my brain unhelpfully reminds me that my class is up on the fourth floor.
Considering that both elevators already have a line waiting for them, though…
