The silence seeps into my bones, and the echo from the whining hinges sends an ache through my heart. There, taped to the wall beside his window, is a piece of paper folded with my name written across it. Tears sting the back of my eyelids as I take the paper off the wall.
I’m sorry I had to leave this way. I wish this didn’t have to happen. I don’t know if I’ll be coming back. Please don’t hate me. You’re my best friend, Vix. You’ll always be my best friend. Love, Aussy.
I’m unsure whether a heart can actually split into two, but if it can, that’s what mine is doing at this very moment. He’s gone, he left me, and I don’t know if he’s ever coming back.
ONE
VIX - PRESENT
Bang bang,bang,a loud rap on the neighbouring door startles me from my sleep. I reach for a pillow and pull it over my head, attempting to block out the socialization going on in the dorm hallways. Not today, Satan. Today is not the day to be woken by the inevitable life roaming about on the other side of these paper-thin walls. Do I wake up like a cranky bitch every morning? Yes, but in my defence, my life has been nothing short of a shit show lately, one fucking day after another.
Halgrove Hill University is supposed to be my fresh start. At 2,016 miles from my hometown, Draveport, it was a no-brainer that this would be where I ended up. As far away from that dead-end town as possible. I roll onto my back, no longer able to fall back to sleep, and drag my hands down my face. Forcing myself out of bed, I decide that if I’m going to make it through this day, I need to make myself look like a semi-functioning human being. I pick up my phone from the nightstand, and the screen lights up. No missed calls. No text messages. No surprise. It’s 7:15 a.m., and I don’t have anywhere to be until class starts on Monday.
I saunter over to my floor-length mirror in the middle of the shared room. It’s freshman weekend, and everyone is getting settled on campus. Moving in, meeting roommates, building a social life. You know, things that normal university students do. My side of the room has a few boxes I haven’t unpacked yet, including an open suitcase I’ve been rummaging through on the floor since arriving yesterday. The other side of the room is still empty. No roommate yet.
Standing in front of the mirror, I give myself a once-over. I’m heavily tattooed, and I know that I come off as intimidating when people first see me, but my bark is way worse than my bite. With my raven black hair, grey-blue eyes and my all black everything fashion choices, I had never fit in with the girls in my hometown, and the guys… well, they were boys. Childish, immature, and more concerned with who they can convince to blow them at a party on Saturday night than they were with anything else.
I throw my long, wavy hair in a ponytail and strip off my sleep shorts and tank top, replacing them with a pair of black leggings and my Sleep Token crop T-shirt. I top off my look with a pair of black ankle boots. A touch of mascara, and some lip balm, and I’m good to go. Grabbing my phone, I head for the door, deciding that if I’m going to survive this year, living on this campus, I should at least know where they make an orgasmic cup of coffee.
Scavenging the campus grounds,I look for my basic need for survival in a cup, but come up short in every direction within walking distance. This can’t be happening. To some, it wouldn’t be a big deal having to march their way to the dining hall to get a cup of coffee. Butme? I’ll go Lorelai Gilmore on someone’s ass if I haven’t had a fresh cup of Joe the moment I open my eyes.
Opening the doors to the dining hall, I swipe my meal card, taking in the new faces I’ll be seeing over the next few semesters. The hall is large, dimly lit, and has an elegance to it despite being designed like a cafeteria for rich people. I make my way to the coffee station, gathering four to-go cups, filling each one to the brim with my scalding hot addiction, and grab a tray to fill with little milk cups and sugar packets. The smell itself has me panting like a feral animal. Picking up my tray, I feel triumphant. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, inhaling the hot, liquid comfort I’m holding.
Balancing my victory in my hands, I turn my body too confidently for what I’m carrying in my not-so-stable grip and collide with a tall, hard body, spilling my steaming hot coffee all over the stranger, myself, and the floor.
Nice one, Vix.
My cheeks burn red as I try to hold back the tears that are threatening to escape my eyes over something so minor. Yay for anxiety. Realization hits me that I’m standing there staring at the mess I’ve made on the floor.
Speak, you idiot.
“I’m so sorry—I didn’t see you th—” My boots lose traction, and I slip in the coffee. I’m about to hit the floor when the stranger’s arm reaches out and wraps around my waist, gripping my hip with his hand, hoisting me back onto my feet like I weigh nothing more than a feather.
I need to get myself together. I will not die from embarrassment at the hands of a stranger. Straightening myself out, I take a deep breath and lift my chin. A tall, dirty-blond, tattooed god stands above me with a good foot of height over my measly 5’4”. The deepest blue eyes I have ever seen stareback at me, and he looks all too pleased with my self-sabotaging.
He’ssmiling. I might just die from embarrassment after all.
Every part of him looks like trouble. Beautiful and magnetic, like a storm so intense you feel the danger just by being anywhere in its vicinity, but you can’t look away from its beauty. He’s everything I need to stay far, far away from.
“Let me get you more coffee, wouldn’t want to keep that many caffeine-deprived people waiting,” he jokes while reaching behind me at the coffee bar and begins filling new cups. He grabs a stack of napkins and hands me half while we both crouch down and cover the floor drenched in my disaster.
“They were all mine. This seems to be the only place on campus I can find that has my reason for waking up in the morning.” He nods his head, a smirk still splayed across his face.
“Do you find my struggles amusing?” I ask him, and his eyes snap to mine, smirk deepening the corners of his mouth.
“Are you always this cranky first thing in the morning?” His voice is deep and gruff, its sound rumbling through my insides.
“No, I’m also cranky at noon, in the evening, and I’m a special kind of bitchy after midnight.”
His smirk now grows into a full jaw-dropping smile, “Noted. Would you like some help bringing these coffees back to your dorm, Gremlin?”
He thinks he’s being cute.
He is.
“I think I can manage on my own, thanks though.” I give him a wink and turn on my heel, heading back to my room tohide myself away and forget this mortifying interaction. I hear him chuckle behind me as I walk away.
“I’ll be seeing you, Gremlin.”
