Page 16 of Twilight of Embers
I’d wanted normal for so long, and I was finally getting it. That felt amazing.
By the time I reached my room, I was huffing and puffing. I needed to take up jogging or make a visit to the gym on campus. This was getting pathetic.
Setting one bag down, I pulled my key card out of my back pocket and swiped it over the pad. The light flashed green, and I opened the door.
At the sound, Delaney whirled around from her spot at her desk. Except it wasn’t really a desk anymore. She’d transformed it into a vanity of sorts, with a massive lighted mirror and more makeup and hair products than I’d ever seen outside of a beauty store.
“Where have you been?” she clipped.
I blinked a few times as I crossed to my bed, setting down the bags and sliding off my backpack. “Uh, I went to get my books and to the library. Did we have plans I didn’t know about?”
Delaney’s jaw tightened, her mouth barely opening as she spoke. “I heard you had coffee with Knox Gallagher this morning.”
Gallagher. I finally had his last name. It fit. His full name packed a punch, just like the man himself.
“Well?” Delaney pushed.
“Well, what?” I asked as I began organizing my textbooks on the tiny desk next to my bed. I wasn’t sure they were all going to fit. I was taking a full load this semester, and each class seemed to be in competition for the thickest book.
Delaney let out a strangled noise. “Did you have coffee with Knox?”
I glanced at my raven-haired roomie. She’d obviously slept off her hangover. She looked perfect now. Dark hair curled, makeup expertly applied. She wore leggings and a sweater that clung to her curves in a way that wasn’t showy but still hinted at what was beneath it.
I couldn’t help but look down at myself. I wore ratty jeans, scuffed-up Vans, and Knox’s sweatshirt that came to my knees. I wanted to wince.
“Um, yeah. I guess.”
“You guess?” she shrieked. “The whole campus is talking about it. Do you know him from home or something? Why didn’t you tell me? You need to invite him to do something with us.”
I sucked in a breath and stumbled back a step. The girl’s eyes were wild with desperation. “I don’t really know him. He just helped me when I was lost yesterday, and then I ran into him this morning.”
Leaving out the fact that he’d been heading to our room to find me seemed like a good idea at the current juncture.
Delaney’s amber eyes narrowed on me, and her nostrils flared. “Is. That. His. Sweatshirt?”
I froze. Did I lie?
“It has his number on the back,” she snapped.
Crap.
“I, uh, forgot my jacket. He was just being nice.”
“Tell me everything from beginning to end. Right now,” Delaney demanded.
I winced. The idea of sharing the few moments of true kindness I’d experienced from Knox today felt wrong. It was something I wanted to hold close to my chest.
“It really wasn’t any big thing,” I lied. Knox’s kindness had been everything to me. “He showed me the way to the student center yesterday, and we talked about school today.”
Delaney scoffed. “I hardly think Knox Gallagher is going to go on and on about classes.”
“Do you know him or something?” I asked.
A hint of pink hit her cheeks. “My sister’s a junior. She knows them all. And when I visited last year, I met Knox. We really connected.”
The way she accentuated the word had nausea rolling through me. “Oh.”
“Yeah, I’m just waiting to let him know I’m here. Wouldn’t want to be desperate.”
