I especially didn’t want to think about the fact that I didn’t have much time left if things were moving so quickly with Theodore.
???
November 11, Thursday
Enoch
“Okay, but hear me out. I could just open a bunch of franchises, right? Every four years I’ll just follow you around and then open a new gym. We could afford a nice place to live once you’re able to get out of the dorms.”
“Dude, that would definitely be sick. But what if I get stuck in the middle of nowhere?”
“We’ll just send up all our prayers that you get stationed somewhere I can follow.”
“What if I’m overseas though?”
“Shit. I didn’t think about that. You really wanna travel overseas, huh?”
“Well, yeah, but it’s not a big deal if I don’t. Wait—” I squinted, moving around the slow person blocking my view. “Shiloh!”
I felt my face pull into a smile, ecstatic and relieved to finally see her after almost an entire week of radio silence. She didn’t hear me, in fact, there was a group of guys huddling around her.
“I think you can try harder to make that sound convincing, fuckface,” she scoffed as I approached her from behind.
The guy she’d addressed stared stunned. His friend closest to him, a lanky kid with glasses, held up a hand over his friend’s chest pulling him back a step as he took one step closer to her.
“What’s your problem? He just apologized. It’s not like he actually hurt you,” the kid said with annoyance, looking her up and down like he would find something to explain her behavior.
I put my hand on Shiloh’s shoulder, but she shrugged it off, taking several steps to the side before turning around to face me.
“Get your filthy—oh.” She shut her mouth, eyes wide and something flashed across her face. Her backpack fell by her feet, and she lunged towards me.
I wobbled, catching us both as her ankles crossed behind my back and I was suddenly supporting her entire body weight. I immediately hooked an arm beneath her legs and the other around her back. She tucked her chin into my neck, and I could feel her breathing in deeply. She let out something like a whimper and it sent my heartbeat even higher.
“I’ve got you,” I said, just loud enough for her to hear.
“What’s going on?” I asked calmly, looking between the two guys now staring at Shiloh in my arms.
“Ask her,” Glasses pointed at Shiloh. “She just went psycho on Luke for accidentally bumping into her.”
I pursed my lips in annoyance.
“Alright, no need to name call. Let’s just drop it and move on, yeah?”
The guys nodded and turned to walk away. The small crowd of students dispersed. I turned our bodies until her back was against the wall, blocking out the rest of the students in the hall.
“I’m right here,” I whispered against her hair.
I looked at Jae with wide eyes.What the hell?
He shrugged, giving me a‘Jesus, I dunno, man’look. Shiloh held onto me until the bell rang and slowly released her arms from around my neck. I lowered her to the floor, and she kept her head down.
“You okay?”
She let out a deep sigh. “I’m fine, clearly just psychotic.”
My mouth twitched into a half-smile, and I shook my head.
“I got your backpack,” Jae said with a smile, holding it out to her.
