“And you’re one of those people.” I nod toward the bottle sitting by his door.
He looks over his shoulder. “It does help,” he says before bringing his eyes back to me. “Sometimes.”
“Not tonight?”
He shakes his head.
“Something in particular keeping you up?” he asks.
“No, I’m just a night owl.”
His expression softens. “Yeah.”
“You too?”
His eyes drift toward the mountains. “Always have been. I can usually fall asleep around ten or eleven. Especially if I’ve had a particularly physical evening, but then sometime between one and two in the morning, I’m wide awake again.”
A shiver runs down my spine as I imagine what exactly that physical activity could be.
He notices.
His eyes flash, and I thank God for the cover of darkness because I can feel the heat creep up my neck.
“You?”
I swallow hard and then manage to squeak out, “Same. I mean, not all the physical stuff. But thewaking up for no reasonstuff.”
He stands and turns, leaning his back against the railing, and looks down at me.
“It’s fine though,” I continue while not meeting his eyes. I pick my textbook up and wave it in the air. “I like the night better anyway. It’s quiet. Less chaotic. I can focus.”
“When everybody else is asleep,” he says, “things get calm.”
I smile. “You like the calm?”
That earns me a confused look.
“Yes.”
I laugh, and his brow furrows.
“What?”
I gesture vaguely toward him. “You don’t exactly seem like a calm person.”
“Me? I’m cool as a cucumber.”
I giggle, and he raises a brow in question.
“You kind of embody chaos, Axle Trust.”
He lets out a deep laugh.
The sound rolls through the night air.
“Chaos?”
“Absolutely.”
