Page 135 of The Casualty of Us
He gasps for a single breath before busting out laughing as Hayes narrows his eyes at him. “I spent my summer learning about girls from a girl who likes them too.” It effectively shuts Ollie up as a dumbstruck expression fills his face and Hayes lifts a brow at him. “What’d you learn, Oliver?”
I blink, staring at the guy who just launched himself right up there beside the legends of rock with a…well, not crappy, but decent enough dye job in the bathroom. Eyes not really sure where to look considering that he must have taken off his shirt to dye the hair and those sweatpants are hangin—
“Freckles?” I snap my mouth shut and lift my gaze back up to find a thoroughly amused look filling his face. “What do you think?”
“I think…” I sigh deeply, prolonging the suspense for a moment before sucking in another breath to deadpan, “I hate you so, so very much.”
His dimples cut deep. “Then I’m doing something right.”
“Wait,” Ollie mumbles. “What exactly did she teach you? Like hair stuff or like…otherst—”
The door to their dorm bursts open, cutting him off and making all of our heads turn toward where Marley is standing with panic written all over her.
“Where have you been?!” she screeches as soon as her eyes land on me, doing something between a run and a march while continuing to berate me. “I have been waiting over an hour for you to show up.”
I barely have time to lift myself up before she’s grabbing my hand, completely ignoring the boys while hauling me off the couch. Leaving me to stare at her in bewilderment before she starts to tug me toward Hayes’s room. Barely having time to glance back at the guys in confusion before she slams the door.
“What the fuck?” I stare at her as she hops between one foot and the other. “What—”
“I accidentally slept with my cousin.” She pauses, her face turning beet red as she adds so quickly I can barely keep up. “Except I didn’t know he was my cousin—and it’s only through marriage, not biologically, but I still threw up in my mouth a little bit when I found out.”
“Holy shit,” I whisper stupidly at her. “That is definitely not the news I expected you to come back from summer break with.”
Her hands fly up to cover her mouth for a moment like she might be sick, and she nods before gasping. “Not helpful!”
“Sorry.” I cringe. “How did that even—”
A rattle of the door has me stopping short and turning to look at it with narrowed eyes, not really needing to confirm my suspicions, but…
I give her a small smile. “One second,” I grab the handle of the door, pulling it open to let Hayes and Ollie topple to the floor at our feet with similar horror-filled expressions before adding casually. “Maybe we should take this back to our place.”
I’ma little blurry eyed the next morning when I walk into the mess hall. A night of talking Marley off the ledge as she panicked pretty much continuously has me dragging as badly as my first day of last year. The happiness that’s lingering from the blissful two days before that, though…that’s new. As is the smile that lights up my face when I see Holden sitting at our usual table.
I skip over there, wrapping my arms around him from behind and sighing dramatically. “I missed you so much friend.”
He stiffens in surprise for a second before a quiet laugh leaves him, and he glances back. “Missed you too, O.”
“Little ol’ me?” I gasp in mock surprise, lifting a hand to my chest. “You don’t say.”
I give him another squeeze before letting go to make my way over to my designated seat on the other side of the table, sliding into place next to Ollie and dropping my backpack from my shoulders while looking Hayes over this morning. A grin tugs at my lips as he meets my gaze across the table and slides my mug over before flipping his tray sideways.
Restarting the year.
“Dimples.”
“Freckles.”
I look down into the mug with a soft snort as Marley chimes in curiously, “Wait a second—”
“Marley, have you checked your schedule yet?” I interrupt quickly, ignoring the probing look she shoots me and instead grabbing my backpack to pull my tablet out. “I didn’t get a chance last night, and I really hope I don’t have to walk far this morning.”
“Yeah.” She nods, giving me the side-eye but complying anyway. “I have poli sci first thing and intro to business later today.”
“Damn.” I start to navigate through the tablet to my schedule, grumbling, “I really hope I don’t have poli sci first. Isn’t that up on the third floor? I really was hoping for no stai—”
No. That’s not right.
That’s clearly a very big fucking error because there’s no way I would sign up for that.
