Page 6 of Beautiful Nightmare
“That’d be fun.” I grin, feeling like I can actually talk to this girl. “No guy back home, then?”
“What?” She whips her head to me. “Oh. True love. Right. No. I never had much time between school and practicing. Not that anyone was ever interested.”
“You’re not missing much yet. Guys are… not worth it. Trust me.”
Her brows go up as we open the door to the dining hall and hurry up the stairs. Raven is thankfully distracted from my statement by the woman sitting on a stool at the entrance who’s swiping the card of each student as they enter. We hand her ours, and before we know it, we’ve roamed halfway around the building and have filled our plates with all sorts of delicious-looking food to sample. Either they’ve busted out the best stuff for our first day or meals here will be ridiculously good.
“The amount of food on my tray is a little embarrassing,” Raven groans. “I want to try a little bit of everything, though. See what’s good, you know?”
I breathe out a sigh of relief as we set our plates, drinks, and silverware down at one of the square cloth-covered tables. I take a seat across from my suitemate. “Oh thank God.”
She gives me a funny look. “What’s that mean?”
“I confess,” I grit my teeth, “I was the tiniest bit worried based on your size that you were one of those girls who doesn’t eat.”
“Ah. No. I eat like a horse. I just have a metabolism faster than one. Remember, I’m the one who asked you if you wanted to get food. Twice.” She winks, and her pale-blue eyes twinkle.
I acknowledge her statement with a head bob as I pick up my fork. “You’re a lucky girl.”
“Yeah, it’s whatever.” She shakes her head. “I’d give anything for a little more junk in my trunk. But anyway, yeah—I’m a terrible influence. I’ve got an Oreo addiction. If you look in the cabinet on the far right of our kitchen, you’ll see what I mean.”
“Well, I’m totally jealous. But at least I can eat in front of you and won’t feel bad. Or self-conscious.” I wrinkle my nose as I twirl some of the spaghetti with meat sauce around the tines of my fork. “I bake a mean chocolate chip cookie. I know it’s not Oreo, but we’ll have to see what you think sometime. Just need to find my baking sheet. I haven’t unpacked it yet. I kinda got interrupted.”
“Yeah,”—her brows draw together—“about that…”
I sigh, glancing down at the food on my plate. “Would you— Um. Is it okay if we let that lie for now?”
Slowly, she nods. “Yeah. No problem. But when you’re ready to talk about whatever caused all that earlier, I’m happy to listen. Totally your call.”
“Thanks. I mean that. It’s just a lot for day one, you know?” At her nod, I switch gears. “So, tonight… do you think Star will show up at the dorm meeting?”
Her lips purse like she’s thinking before she responds. “Who knows. It seems like she’s a hermit or something. Completely antisocial.”
In my head, that’s me. Star is doing what I was considering before Raven introduced herself. But I need to get on with my life, and that’s never going to happen if I hide in my room. I know that. It’s taken gaining some distance from my earlier loss of composure to remind me. That can’t have been Hawk. No way.
FOUR
HAWK
Maddox stands in front of the door to the girls’ suite across the hall from us, gingerly working with some sort of tool he’s got wedged in there. He’s concentrating pretty hard, so it surprises me when he mutters, “Do we want to know what you’re going to do in here, or should we ignore the fact that we’re breaking into these girls’ suite when we haven’t even introduced ourselves? You do know we have to live across the hall from them for an entire year, right?”
I glance over my shoulder, checking the hall for the tenth time to make sure we’re alone.
“The meeting won’t be over for another thirty minutes at least,” Kellan grumbles, running his hand over his jaw. “We have time.” His tongue peeks out, slicking over his lower lip. And even though he’s the voice of reason, that’s also a sure sign he’s getting a little squirrely about this.
“And you’re sure all three left?” I ask. “There’ll be no random surprises in here that’ll lead us to get beaten over the head with a baseball bat or something, right?”
Kellan nods. “Yeah, I’m positive. I watched like you asked me to. The two blondes took off a while back. Probably went to dinner before the dorm meeting. The brunette with the pink streak through her hair left just before seven. That was only the second time I’ve seen her all day. She locked this door behind her, so I think we’re definitely all clear.”
I blow out a breath, glancing anxiously at Maddox again. “Anytime now, man.”
Just as the words leave my mouth, the lock pops, and he turns to me with a devilish grin as he twists the knob and pushes the door open a crack. “You were saying?”
I snort. “Took you long enough. Not as easy as they make it look in the movies, huh?”
“Nah. It’s not hard. I’m outta practice. But usually once I’ve picked a particular lock, I can get in quicker each time. You know, just in case we need to do this again.” He shrugs, pushing the door open further and waving me in. “Your Highness…”
“Fuck off.” I shoulder check him as I pass, and he grunts but follows.
