“Sweetheart, who was that?” my mom asked, her hand caressing my hair.
I didn’t know how long she and my dad had been standing beside me and if they’d heard the entire conversation, but I knew I didn’t want to share it with them. I ended up giving the most truthful, but vague, answer that I could.
“Somebody I used to know.”
Chapter Eleven
RIVER
“You’re what?”
Alex stuffed his hands into his pockets and shifted his awkward stance. “Dropping the class.”
“Eating too fast?” I echoed, the corner of my lip turning upward. “Don’t do that. It might give you heartburn.”
His eyebrows raised in pure confusion. “Do you see me eating anything right now? I said I’m dropping the class.”
“Dropping all that ass? Here? In this classroom? Now?”
Lola snickered beside me, while Alex threw his arms out to the side, staring at me with clear incredulity. We only had a few more minutes before the professor arrived to start the lecture, and I was wasting them with jokes. Well, I wouldn’t call it wasting because my jokes were something to be appreciated.
“Are you deaf?”
I raised my hands in defense. “I’m just saying what I’m hearing.”
“Or you really don’t want to hear what he has to say,” Lola suggested with a raised finger.
Scratching my head and scrunching my nose, I told her, “I don’t remember asking you. Hm, weird.”
She extended her arm and sent a light punch into my shoulder, muttering a couple of insults under her breath. I was about to retaliate, but she held her hand before my face like a stop sign and turned to Alex with slight concern. “You’re dropping the class?”
His gaze flickered to Lola and then to me, behind them, an emotion I couldn’t quite figure out. It wasn’t discomfort, which is what I expected him to have seeing each other for the first time sincethatday, but he was anything but uncomfortable.
Then, Alex’s eyes settled on Lola again, and they almost narrowed. Realizing he was staring, he pulled his gaze to the ground, shifting his posture and grinding his teeth. But I caught the clenching of his jaw and the way his shoulders angled to block her from his view. Subtle, but defensive. I don’t think he knew he was doing it.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d call it jealousy.
But that would be a projection of mewantingit to be jealousy. Wouldn’t it?
“I’m dropping the class,” he eventually said. “I thought it better to let you both know in person since we’re a group. Were a group.”
Lola’s expression fell. “What? You’re leaving us alone?”
Alex clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. “Unfortunately.”
His nose scrunched up cutely, the same way it would all those years ago. It was the whole reason I called him bunny in the first place. It used to be my telltale sign that something was bothering him. That, coupled with the word blabs his parents used to get upset about, but those weren’t as frequent as his mannerisms.
The professor, now at his podium at the front of the room, began taking out his teaching materials. Alex tugged on the straps of his backpack and turned on his heels, seeing that class was about to begin. “Good luck on the project.”
Showing up to let us know he was withdrawing from the class when it could have been a simple text was very Alex of him.
Lola pouted, her eyes following Alex as he exited. “Guess it’s just you and me.”
Professor Golding cleared his throat, willing the chatter to stop. He immediately began the lecture for today. How the hell was I supposed to sit through this class without someone beautiful to stare at?
“I don’t know how we’re going to do this without Alex,” I muttered.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “I already miss his input.”
