Ryan raised his eyebrows. He actually looked pretty impressed by this strange habit I’d developed.
Not that I cared what Ryan thought of me.
Lifting my cup, I tried again to take a sip without scalding myself. My tongue didn’t flinch in protest. The temperature this time was much more palatable. “You never know when you are going to get kicked out of your own dorm for the weekend after all. Having everything you need with you at all times is actually a good plan then.”
“What do you mean?” The space between his eyebrows creased, the book next to him completely forgotten.
“My roommate and I don’t have the most … ideal of roomie relationships,” I said. That was putting it mildly.
“Ah.”
Yes,ah.
I reached for his copy ofPride and Prejudiceonce more, looking to see if there were any notes in the margins. If I had to guess, I would say that Ryan did a lot more than just skim. Which, of course, made no sense if he was here with me, asking for help on a book he chose yet also insisted he knew little about.
“She and her boyfriend will be there, and frankly, I’d rather not be.”
“Gotcha. That sucks. If it were me, it wouldn’t be the first time I had been thrown out of my room for a night,” commiserated Ryan. “Only made me gladder when I got my single. It’s like a dream.”
I could only imagine.
“I live down in the sports house,” he went on.
Figured. I turned my gaze back down to the book, continuing to let the tea bag steep in the hot water in my cup off to the side.
“Can I try it?”
I peered up through the shag of my bangs to where his finger pointed. “My tea?”
“Yeah,” said Ryan, leaning back, however, as if it were an awful thing to ask. “Unless you don’t want me to.”
I shook my head slowly, nudging the cup toward him.
As he took a careful sip, the steam curled around his chin. His face immediately wrinkled.
“Not a fan?”
Ryan shook his head. “No. I’ll stick to overpriced coffee, thanks.”
I almost wanted to laugh at the unnerved expression on his face. Instead, I looped my hand around the rim of my tea, bringing it back closer. “What do you drink, caramel mocha frappés?”
“They are a perfectly good source of energy.”
“From sugar,” I granted.
He laughed. “I didn’t say that wasn’t the case. Delicious though. So,” he said, “you’re really just going to hang out here for the next two days instead of going back to your dorm room?”
I was about to answer with what my plans were, but I paused. I hadn’t thought about staying here in the library. In theory, technically, I could do that. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard of someone abusing the library hours like that before, but I had been here long enough to know that they never locked the doors with the alarm from the inside. I’d been the last one in the library as the night turned back into day before. Why not extend those late-night cramming hours?
Slowly, I dipped my head, lips pursed. That was exactly what I was going to do. Hiding out here sure beat sleeping on a lumpy common room couch where who knew what acts people had committed on it.
“We can stay here for as long as we want, but once the door shuts behind us after midnight?” I clicked my tongue. Then, we’d be locked out.
“We?”
I rolled my eyes. I had said that.
“So, you’re really going to help me?” He grinned wide. “Like, really, it wasn’t a joke before. For a minute there, even though you had left your stuff here, I did have the thought that you weren’t coming back from your tea expedition.”
