I move fast.
Stares follow me.
I know because I spotted them, sitting around the Snake table, before I looked away.
Serena and Asta sit there with Landon and Mildred, all sheathed in snowsuits.
I keep my cheek to them as I move down the buffet, grabbing what I can before rushing to my old table.
The draughty one.
It’s free this morning, Courtney and James nowhere in sight.
I start on the most important part of my meal.
The coffee.
It’s been too long since I’ve had any.
I guzzle the first, faster than I should, then push aside the empty latte glass.
I rush through the toast. It’s overly buttered and soggy, a smear of pale yellows.
I’m on the second slice when someone drops a tray in the hall, and the clatter clangs my bones.
I flinch and throw a look over at the buffet.
Teddy, in a certain hangover, stumbles back from Dragana. His mouth twists around unkind words before he kicks the dropped tray under the buffet, then reaches for another, fresh one.
Dragana’s face is aflame. A fresh stack of school newsletters piled in her arms, she backsteps—out of his annoyed path.
Teddy moves down the buffet, and only then does Dragana drop the pile of newsletters onto the side-bench.
The newsletters are late today. Usually they’re printed and stacked by the buffet for breakfast.
“Olivia.”
I wince.
Stiff in my seat, I throw a look across my table.
And I am met with a pair of diamond eyes.
A hand reaches up through my insides, fists my heart in its vice grip, then drags it down to my gut.
Hands in his pockets, Dray stands on the other side of the table, just a few steps in from the open doors.
Behind him, Oliver stalks by. He spares a stormy look at me on his way to the buffet.
Dray lures me back to him. “Olivia…”
I blink, the echo of his voice whispering at my ears, like I’m in a trance.
I look at him.
The sandy hues of his hair are tousled, strands falling into his sleepy eyes.
In plain slacks and a corded sweater, I guess he’s not joining the others on the slopes today.
