Page 19 of Don't Be in Love

Holy shit.

My head snapped to the wall in horror. Panic crawled up my throat and threatened to suffocate me as my heart nosedived. I searched around the room for a space and locked in on the couch.

“You need to hideright now,” I whispered like a psychopath, grabbing onto whichever part of Dorian was closest to me and pulled.

“What? Why wou—”

“Is Addy in the back?” I could hear Sabrina getting closer now.

Shit, shit, shit, shit.

“I need you to lie down behind the couch.” I pointed to the floor.

He looked at me like I was a maniac. “No way am I—”

“Do you have to have a response toeverything?Just get behind the—”

The knob of the door creaked, and I did what was best.

Shoved Dorian onto the floor.

But suddenly, his hand was on my wrist, and he was pulling me down with him.

9

Don’t Let Your Friends Change Your Mind — Adelaide

“Addy?” Sabrina’s voice couldn’t have been louder than the pounding of my heart. The pounding of my heart which was beating against Dorian’s ribcage …

I hated him. I hated him, I hated him, I hated him.

And I was completely lying on top of him. Chest against chest, torso against torso, hips against hips. My right knee was wedged between his legs, pressed against the hardwood floor. My cheek was smooshed against the cotton of his T-shirt. The buckle of his belt uncomfortably poked my stomach.

I slightly rose with each breath he took. I could even feel the pulse in his fingers, where he was holding onto my arms to keep me from slipping off of him.

May as well strap me to an operation table because even that’d be less excruciating.

“She must be in the bathroom,” Mia spoke up.

“Oh bollocks. Well, I have to print these papers anyway. The printer at the flat stopped working and I didn’t feel like going to campus,” Sabrina explained.

“I’ll give you a hand,” Mia responded, much too enthusiastically.

“What’s wrong with you?”I whispered, pushing my hands into his chest to create some space. I wanted to look him in the face as he tried to give me his bullshit answer.

“Why don’t you want her to see us?” he shot back, his brows furrowing. As ifhehad a reason to be questioningme. “Answer the question.”

“Because she can’t know that I know you. And she definitely can’t know that I’m tutoring you orwhyI’m stuck tutoring you,” I exhaled.

“Why?” His nose scrunched up.

“Because you’re off limits.”

“I’moff limits? How’s that?”

I pressed my fingers to my eyes, having to tilt my face down to meet my hand. My forehead lightly grazed his chin. “My friend is interested in you. I obviously didn’t realize who you were beforehand or else I would’ve never … ya know.”

Based on the crease in his forehead, that was not the response he was expecting.