Page 23 of This Is War: All's Fair Duet
Squeezing my eyes shut for a moment, I give myself an internal shake to get the image out of my head. “Jesus, Hazel.”
“Sorry.”
When I finally peer at her, she gives me a cute shrug,an apology in her eyes. I heave out a breath, then turn, putting myself on a collision course with our newest resident advisor’s room.
Hazel’s slim dancer’s legs move double-time to keep up with my much longer strides, and she finally grasps at my elbow, tugging to get my attention. It does her no good, as I have a one-track mind and simply keep moving with her hanging from me like an annoying barnacle. I feel her ice-blue eyes on my profile, a witness to my impending meltdown. Rya can’t be in there with him. I stop outside the door, fuming, my anger teetering on the brink.
“She’s not in there. She wouldn’t be.” To her credit, Hazel does her best to stop me from lifting my hand to pound down the door.
“Oh, no?” I give her a pained smile. “We know now that she was there with Jaxon Saturday night and into Sunday morning. Then again last night. She only just met the asshole, and she’s already spent more time in his room the last twenty-four hours than she has her own.”
“She passed out, you know that.” Hazel frowns. “And then had to get her phone back.” Her brows pinch together harder than I’ve ever seen them before. She’s mad. “You’re being a real dick, Logan. What the actual fuck?”
Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions.I heave out a breath, admitting to myself that it’s because I’m fucking terrified.And I won’t ever give Jaxon the benefit of the doubt, especially when it comes to Rya. “If you think that’s all that’s going on, you’re not seeing the entire picture. You’re eating up the bullshit exactly like everyone else, because he’s only feeding you a small portion of the truth.”
Her eyes widen.
“Yeah,” I growl, sarcasm practically dripping from my lips as I spit, “so, ‘what the fuck’ is the exact right sentiment. Good job.”
In the end, I don’t have to bang on the door because Hazel does it for me. I watch, mildly impressed, as she whacks her hand on the wood. She hits it so hard the pen attached to his message board falls onto the floor. “Rya, are you in there?” She’s loud enough that there’s no way Rya didn’t hear us if she’s in his room. A few seconds later, Hazel shakes her head, then grabs my hand, dragging me back down the hall. We stop at the elevator bay, where she hits the down arrow.
“Where are we going?”
“I figured you were hell-bent on finding her.” Hazel’s brows pull together as she side-eyes me.
The elevator door slides open before I can argue too much. I follow the irritable but determined blonde inside while she stabs at the button for the main floor. Turning around to face me, she crosses her arms over her chest. “Ilove Rya and all, but maybe you’re right. She should probably be looking at what’s right under her nose.”
“Sorry, what?”
She shakes her head, muttering, “Never mind,” then fits her bottom lip in between her teeth and works at it the entire ride down, averting her gaze.
Together, we wander the expansive first floor of the building, which includes four residential hallways, study rooms, and bathrooms. We never see a single sign of Rya, not even when Hazel jokingly opens the janitor’s closet with an impish grin.
Several minutes later, Hazel shrugs after we do a similar check of the second floor. She huffs out a breath before wincing, an apology clear in her bright blue eyes. “I’m beginning to think she’s not in the dorm at all.”
My chest tightens at all the possibilities.Or if she is, she doesn’t want to be found.
14
RYA
I hesitateoutside Logan’s room, unsure if he’s already gone to bed or not. But it’s bothering me that he didn’t respond when I texted him back. There’s this horrible twisty feeling in my stomach that he’s going to be upset when he finds out I was with Jaxon. My eyes crash shut. I don’t know what to do. There’s this part of me that wants to figure out what the issue is that festers between them.
A choked laugh burbles up my throat. Logan has lovingly called me Little Miss Fix-It on more than one occasion. I can’t ever seem to let a problem slide without trying to help. The first time he said something about that pesky part of my personality, I thought he meant it as a bad thing, but he’d assured me it wasn’t. Will he think it is now, though, with Jaxon involved?
I fidget for another minute, staring down at my tired feet, and draw in a breath that I’d hoped would be more steadying than it actually is. I hate to bug him—or Levi, honestly—but the reality is there’s no way I’m sleeping until I put eyes on Logan. So, I can stand here fussing over my indecision or take action. Exhaling hard, I lift a hand and tap softly on their door.
At first, there’s no response, no sound at all, then a second later, the door cracks open. Levi pokes his head out, bracing his forearm on the door frame as he rubs at his eye with the other hand. He frowns for a second like he’s confused. “Hey.Thereyou fucking are. You need something?”
“Um.” My brow furrows. Shit. From theThere you fucking are, I’m guessing Logan was looking for me earlier. A sick feeling of guilt flows hot and sticky through my veins. I clench my teeth together, peering behind him. I can totally tell Logan is lying on his bed. I tip my chin in his direction. “I wanted to find out what happened earlier. He said there was some story I wouldn’t believe.”
Levi raises a blond brow, then scrubs a hand through his sandy hair with a chuckle. “You could say that.” He shakes his head. “I’ll let him tell that tale. But what happened to you? When he woke my ass up for a second time, he was in a really shitty mood. He said he looked for you every-fucking-where.”
I grit my teeth and suck in a breath. “I guess we had a misfire of sorts. Total communication failure.” Levi frowns, glancing over his shoulder. In that moment, I’m hit with the overwhelming feeling that he’s trying to keep me out of their room. Did Logan tell Levi he didn’t want to see me? What is this, some sort of best friend block?
Just before winter break, I had to have Hazel tell Winston—one of the more obnoxious baseball players—that I wasn’t in the room while I hid behind the door because he just couldn’t get the message that I wasn’t interested in him. But this is different, right? It’s me. And Logan is clearly here. Frustration leaches into my blood, flowing swiftly through me. “Levi, are you going to let me in or not?”
He grimaces, and the idea that maybe I was right after all and Logan doesn’t want to speak to me makes it hard to breathe. After hesitating for several beats of my anxious heart, he mutters in a low voice, “Fine. I’ll give you two some space, I guess.” His chest rises with his slow, deep intake of breath, then he pushes off the door frame, and exhales hard as he backs into the room.
