I sagged back farther into the chair. “Things were a lot less complicated when I hated him.”
“So, you’re admitting that maybe you don’t hate him anymore?”
I covered my face with my hands and let out a muffled, “I don’t know.”
I really didn’t.
Things had always been black and white where Drew was concerned—especially since our brief friendship in sixth grade disintegrated in a poof of smoke. But now I couldn’t deny that maybe my feelings were changing.
And after what happened with him before, it felt like a trap.
But as I sat there in our comfortable living room, with Rachel’s calming presence, the familiar sounds of Ayannapracticing her guitar upstairs, and Talia’s voice drifting down from her room as she talked to her family on a video chat, I had to admit the truth.
I was actually looking forward to seeing him again.
And that scared the absolute shit out of me.
NINETEEN
I couldn’t stop watching Harper.
Professor Keene was going on about some cognitive dissonance bullshit, but my eyes kept drifting to Harper three rows ahead of me. She wasn’t sitting on the opposite side of the room like she usually did, and this close up, I was able to notice things I hadn’t before.
She had this thing where she’d tuck her hair behind her ear when she was taking notes. Her red, curly hair was wild around her head, and I wondered how she kept that part behind her ear. She’d always reminded me of Merida fromBrave—a character I only knew existed because Ava made me watch it a million times when we were kids.
She would also occasionally tap her pen on her thigh to a rhythm only she could hear.
It didn’t even look like she was aware she was doing it.
My lips curled up at the corners as her head started bobbing slightly, in time with the rhythm of her pen. Then she stopped to scribble a note down in her notebook.
I should’ve probably been paying attention and taking notes myself, but I couldn’t look away.
It had been a long time since I’d paid this much attention to her without the goal of finding a weakness I could take advantage of.
“Your project proposals are due next Wednesday,” Professor Keene announced, snapping me back to reality. “You’ll each have five minutes to present your topic to the class for approval. I want to see clear research questions, methodology, and preliminary source lists.”
Shit. The presentation. Harper and I had settled on attachment theory after Tuesday night, but we still needed to figure out how to structure the whole thing.
“That’s all for today,” Professor Keene said. “Don’t forget to coordinate with your partners!”
Students started packing up, and Harper slid her notebook into her bag, her head still bobbing slightly to a song only she could hear. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about my conversation with Ava and what things might be like if the feud had never existed.
Would Harper even believe I was being sincere after everything we’d done to each other over the years?
I got up and walked down to her seat.
I supposed there was only one way to find out.
“Tinsley.”
She looked up at me. “Dumontier.” Her voice was carefully neutral, like she wasn’t sure which version of me she was getting.
“You free right now to work on the details for our presentation? Ava doesn’t have class for the rest of the day so she’s watching Rory. We could head over to The Grindhouse?” It was the campus coffee shop. Everyone would see us together, which added its own level of stress considering our feud had become campus gossip over the years.
“Sure.”
She stood up and I gestured for her to go ahead of me. She smiled and shook her head. “Oh, no, after you. I don’t trust you not to put gum in my hair or something. It’s been a while since you’ve tried to pull something.”
