Page 39 of Fall From Grace
The girl takes a hesitant step inside, tosses one glance around the cramped room, and then looks at the door. “Should I—”
Should she close it? I won’t say no to some privacy with her, so I tell her, “If you’d like.”
She hesitates, and I take the time to study her. She’s on the shorter side of the spectrum, an inch or two above five feet, if I have to guess, with the size to match. She wears baggy clothes, the opposite of form-hugging attire, constantly drowning in thefabric—but I know, thanks to my extracurriculars, that she has some killer curves beneath those baggy clothes. Her brown hair has a warm, golden hint to it, along with an uneven kink in its long lengths. It falls well past her shoulders, thick and layered.
It’s only after she closes the door and comes to sit in the chair facing my desk that I snap out of it and smile when I meet her brown eyes. Based on the way she’s sitting, I can tell this is not something she’s used to. Meeting with professors, doing things she’s uncomfortable with; if there’s someone who likes to play it safe, it’s Wren.
But I know she’s been pushing herself lately, and I also know why: that damned ex of hers. I’ve been so zeroed-in on Wren and that Logan that I haven’t paid much attention at all to her ex. Someone like me can only juggle so much, and right now the girl across from me is the one I want.
Fuck. I’m dying for a hunt. I can’t help but wonder what Wren would do.
“What can I help you with?” I say, breaking the silence of the room as I lean back in my chair. I hope I give off a relaxed vibe, but I can’t lie, something about this girl puts me on edge. She’s not like anyone I’ve met before. Her intelligence, her night-and-day persona; she is a peculiar display of the human condition.
“Um,” she stutters out, sounding a bit awkward as she fiddles with her hands on her lap, “I wanted to talk to you about something. About the group project.” Her voice comes out soft, so faint the wind could carry it away. It’s almost like she’s so unsure of herself, she’s seconds from changing her mind and running away.
“Anything in particular? Is there something specific about the group project you wish to discuss?” I act stupid and say, “Come here with your group’s topic?”
Everyone is different. It is part of being human. But, for people like me, for people like my brothers, we’re keenly attunedto certain things. Most people can be lumped together. Most people react a certain way when faced with their impending death. Most would do anything to continue to claw at their cup of mortality to keep it full and stop it from tipping and emptying.
And they always fail.
What would Wren do in a hunt? What would she choose?
“I… I actually wanted to see if it’s possible to do the project on my own,” Wren says quietly, slow in meeting my gaze with hers. Her cheeks are twinged with just a bit of pink, like she’s so nervous to speak her mind that she’s embarrassed. It’s strangely adorable.
This girl… what’s someone like Logan Crew doing chasing after her? Is it for the challenge? I don’t see it at all between them, and if I’m honest, the thought of him chasing after her simply to hook up with her fills me with a rage I can’t quite describe. I’m no poet, but I recognize the signs as they build around me.
I wait a moment before I say, “I’m sorry, I can’t let you work on your own. College isn’t just about learning new things—it’s also about learning to work with the people around you. Group projects, as much as you might not like them, will help prepare you for whatever position you end up in once you graduate.”
It’s what my professors told me when I was in college, thrown into group projects I loathed with my entire being. They never cared if someone didn’t participate, if that person didn’t actually do any of the work. Someone like me, and apparently someone like Wren; we would much rather do it by ourselves. Loners.
Wren looks as if she wants to argue with me, but she must hold it in. She decides to go about it another way: “Okay, how about switching groups?”
Ah, so that’s what this is about. She doesn’t want to be paired with Logan, something I can’t really blame her for, but at thesame time, she’s the one who chose her group. She could have gone with anybody… and she agreed to be in a group with Logan.
I hedge, “Has something happened between you and…” I pretend to forget his name. Can’t act like I know all about them; to her, I’m nothing more than a professor. She has no idea the amount of things I know about her, nor does she know that I’ve been in her house and installed cameras and microphones, and have since listened to many conversations she’s had with her roommate, Sloane.
“Logan,” she tells me, and I nod along. “Uh, nothing has happened. I mean, not really. I just… I get the feeling he’s going to be deadweight. I’m going to do it all myself anyway, so if we’re not in a group together, I won’t have to deal with him at all.”
“Besides sitting next to him in every class?”
She looks away and shifts her weight around, crossing her ankles and tucking them beneath the chair, quite a meek display. Frankly, I don’t know if someone like her would make it through one of my hunts, but I can say with one hundred percent certainty, that if she’s in one of my hunts, I don’t think I could give her the same choice I give everyone else.
I want her to run… and I want to chase her.
“I’m sorry, Wren, but unless there are extenuating circumstances, I can’t let you work by yourself or switch groups. If I let you do it, I’d have to let everyone do it, and I don’t have it in me to grade sixty papers and sixty presentations.”
The corner of Wren’s mouth tugs downward in a cute frown. “I don’t think everyone would want to work alone—”
“Maybe not, but I have to treat everyone equally. Unless you fear for your safety working with Logan, I’m afraid I can’t help you.” I wait a moment, letting what I said sink in before I add, “Do you fear for your safety?”
“No,” she’s quick to say, along with shaking her head. “No, no. It’s not that. I…” She swallows hard, and then she bites herbottom lip, and I hate how I let my gaze fall, noticing the way her teeth nibble on that lip. “It’s complicated. I was just… I just wanted to work alone. I think I work better alone.”
“I can understand that, but you have to trust me when I tell you that people like us, if we want to go far in life, we’re forced to work with people we might not like, or people we might not be on the same level as, intelligence-wise.”
She sighs. “I know.”
“I do commend you for coming here and asking. It’s more than most students would do.” I lean forward and set my hands on my desk. “If you need help, if you need anything, it’s why I’m here. I might not be able to let you work by yourself, but you can come to me for anything else. The semester is only beginning, but I can already tell you’re one of a kind.”
