“I left it in my dorm room. I was more worried about making sure you got food in your system before you turned into the wicked witch.” She glares at me, but Hunter won’t even look my way.
Thomas distracts Danielle when he asks her a question about whatever they’re studying, the number of notes and textbooks spread between them taking up a majority of the table.
I pull my phone out and attempt to text Hunter.
Green, my messages are still turning green. And when I don’t see his phone on the table light up with an incoming notification, I know he has me blocked.
My eyebrows crease as I stare at him, cocking my head to the side to watch him make notes.
“What are you studying?” I ask him, trying to make any conversation I can with him.
“English lit, we have a test tomorrow.” I still can’t see his beautiful brown eyes, and his cheeks have lost their rosy color.
“Want help studying?”
“No.” Well, I can take a hint. But one thing he doesn’t realize is that I’m not giving up on him that easily.
While they study, I take out my laptop and get back to work on my project. The hidden folder is tucked deep where no one will ever look, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. If I ever want to escape from the Carter name, it’ll take all the resources I can find.
My eyes are bleary from staring at the dim screen of my laptop for too long. I found a few legal documents that might help me, but the hardest part is making sure there’s no other legal jargon that opposes my argument.
Maybe I’ll be a lawyer one day, just like my dad wanted. But instead of helping rich people find loopholes for cheating the system, I can help minorities fight for the basic human rights they deserve.
“I’m done for the night,” Danielle says on a yawn, standing up and stretching. Thomas closes his textbook and rubs his eyes with one hand, and with the other, massages Hunter’s shoulder. My eye twitches as I stare athishand on Hunter.
“Me too,” Thomas says and starts organizing and putting away his notes.
Hunter finally looks at me, and a look of desperation crosses his face. But desperation forwhat?
“You want me to walk you back to your dorm?” Thomas asks, and I see red.
“I’m walking with him. We have to go by my room to get his notebook,” I snap at Thomas, and he looks taken aback before he straightens and looks at Hunter.
“Is that okay with you?”
Hunter nods. His teeth are clenched, and I watch as his jaw flexes. I feel triumphant as he packs his bag and slings it over his shoulder, not looking at me. I have him backed into a corner. And if he doesn’t want to talk, that’s fine. But he will listen to what I have to say.
He can play these games all he wants, but what he has forgotten is that not only am I selfish, I’m patient. Short-term games are fine and fun, but I excel at the long game.
Thomas grabs Hunter’s hand, and they walk out of the bay and start down the hallway. I follow behind at a respectable distance with Danielle.
“Did you find anything good?” she asks, her voice hopeful.
“Maybe. I’ll have to search a little bit more, but it looks promising.” I hate to get her hopes up, but when I started looking at ways to go around my parents’ will, I had to include Danielle. I didn’t want to inadvertently fuck her life up with mine.
Now that our lives are woven together, the decisions I make affect her. The only secret I’ve been keeping is the biggest one that could implode and destroy everything. But Hunter is worth it, and I’ll work tirelessly to find a way around the stipulations.
Having a college degree was a fine requirement; it was more of an annoyance than anything. The marriage aspect is what fucked us both over, because the agreement between my parents and her mom was supposed to be a courtship. We should have been able to end it at any time because we were teenagers, two sixteen-year-olds who should have been able to experiment. Butof course, when they died, thecourtshipturned into binding language in the eyes of the law.
The friendship we’ve formed in our time together has saved me from the darkest days, but now it’s weighing me down.
“Keep me updated and let me know what I need to do.”
I will, I always do. And no matter how many times we get our hopes crushed, I still dust off my jacket and start again from scratch.
27
HUNTER
