Page 67 of The Addict

Well, that just wouldn’t work either.

I had no desire to seek out Noah anyway, so I figured that everything would be just fine, and I could go on living my life like none of this shit ever happened.

Habitual and simple. Back to my normal existence.

Besides, Mom and Dad are going to be home in just a few weeks, I told myself.

All I had to do was go to college, make sure my grades were steady and didn’t crash...

...and go on as though I had never laid eyes on the Hansens.

It should be simple enough.

NOAH

I set my books on the dining room table, exhausted from a long day’s work. The worst part was that the food options on campus were revolting. The people I met weren’t great either.

That Chelsea woman seemed familiar, but I knew that I never met her before. She was annoying, the way she followed me around the whole day, presuming that I had no idea where my classes were. I knew she was just trying to get my attention, but still.

Whatever. If that’s the worst college could throw at me, then I was more prepared than I thought.

“And how was your first day?” Damian inquired, situated at the coffee table reading a book.

“Fine, I suppose.” I didn’t feel like lying to hurt his feelings. I doubted that it would work and besides, I had cycled through enough lies these past few days.

“So… what’s up?” Damian, who was clearly unaccustomed to my being home at this time, asked me awkwardly. From what it looked to me, he was bored out of his mind leaving work early to be home by my return time. Give it a few more weeks, I considered. I seriously doubted Damian would want to continue working in the afternoons. Damian usually got home at seven or later, but when I looked at my watch, I noticed that it was only three in the afternoon.

Huh. This was the time when I would normally get out of bed.

“For starters, I’m starving.” I called out from the kitchen, yanking open the fridge.

The bare shelves stared back at me, and I groaned in irritation. Practically empty.

“How is this possible?” I yelled out, holding up a half full carton of juice and a pack of cheese. What the fuck did we even have housekeepers for? Weren’t they supposed to take care of this?

“I suppose we should ask the maid to go shopping,” Damian mumbled from the other side, swatting his hand dismissively. He hadn’t even glanced up from his book.

I poked my face around the corner. “Hey, if we need groceries, I can go. I need to get out of this house, anyway.”

Apparently, I seemed entirely too eager, because Damian’s eyes narrowed in a thick suspicion. “Well, you can’t go out,” he answered sternly. “You have homework, right?”

I rolled my eyes. “I can do it later, can’t I?”

“No,” Damian spoke firmly. “Complete your priorities first, Noah. The last thing you need right now is to be kicked out of college because you didn’t do your work.”

Placing the two useless items back into the fridge, I muttered, “Fucking dumb.”

“What was that?”

I grimaced, quickly trying to throw out his cover-up. “Nothing. Anything interesting happened to you today? My professor’s pretty cool, I guess.”

It grew silent.

“Damian?”

“Mr. Thorne called the house today.”

I bit my lip and tried to make myself sound busy in the kitchen. Shuffled some pans and shit. I already knew what Damian must think of me. I really didn’t want to start this conversation, but I had to know why Silas called.