Page 53 of With You

But now River’s seen it. And he doesn’t seem to think of it that way at all.

He goes back to taking care of me, applying new bandages and securing them just tight enough that they won’t move, but not so much that it’ll hurt me. Once he’s done, he runs his hands over them, inspecting his work before he decides he’s done a good enough job. It’s probably all in my head, but it already feels ten times better.

River stands, discards the old bandages, and puts everything back where it belongs before he comes back to me. He presses a kiss to my forehead, and I close my eyes, exhaling shakily at the same time he does.

“No practice today,” he whispers. “Just stay with me. Laisse moi prendre soin de toi.”

I nod, too worried to speak and ruin the moment. He leaves me again, putting his outer clothes and shoes back on before he grabs my slippers from my bag and guides my feet into them. He tidies away the rest of my things, throwing both of our bags over his shoulder as he comes closer to me again. He reaches his hand out to me, and I give it to him without hesitation, intertwining our fingers as I stand, and we leave the studio.

I should be more worried about someone seeing us like this, but all I can think about is how nice all of this is. I like the idea of River taking care of me, holding hands as we walk through the hallways like a normal couple. I want all of that with River, more than I care to admit to him.

It’s a weird in-between time of day where it’s too late to see everyone getting out of their last class, but too early to see them all going to dinner either. The hallways are mostly empty, and anyone who does see us doesn’t care enough to spare us a second glance.

I expect River to take me back to my room, but instead he guides me toward his. I’ve never been in this part of the dorms before, and my heart rate spikes at the thought of getting caught by Damien or Grayson. They must be back from their classes, and we’re so close to their rooms that if one of them steps out into the hallway for even just a second, we’ll be spotted.

I cling tighter to River, stepping closer to him as if that will turn me invisible. He glances down at me, confusion on his face before he understands my worry.

“It’s this room, right here,” he says, gesturing to the next door on the left.

He unlocks it, then presses his hand to the small of my back to usher me in. His room isn’t what I expected. Pictures line the wall of his family, his parents together at premieres and on catwalks, with a smaller version of the boy I’m falling for attached to them. There’s some of us, too. I don’t remember half of these pictures being taken, but there’s us in ballet classes together, on stage at performances together when we were younger. I’m surprised to see even a few from last year, of our group together as we started our new journey here. He has so many pictures of him and Damien growing up, and River is smiling brightly in all of them.

His desk is messier than I expected, with textbooks and notes scattered across it. He catches me looking and attempts to organise them into a neat stack, but stops when I can’t hide my laughter.

“I’ve been slacking a bit,” he gives as an excuse. “Needed to catch up.”

I nod, giving him a wry grin as he shakes his head, holding back his own smile. River sits on his bed, pulling me down with him until we’re both flat against it. He turns on his side to face me, and I do the same. He strokes a hand across my cheek, pushing stray curls of hair out of my face.

I graze my finger across his face, mapping out all the details of it in my mind. I don’t know if we’ll have more moments like this, so I want to keep as much of this one as I can.

River shifts closer to me, his arm curving around me as he pulls me in until my head is tucked under his chin. His thumb runs back and forth across my cheek as he drops a kiss to the top of my head.

“I’ll order food for us,” he says, tipping his head back and tilting mine up so we can see each other. “Then I’ll check your bandages.” He kisses the tip of my nose. “Then we’ll sleep.”

He presses his mouth against mine before I can even realise what he’s said.

“I can’t sleep here,” I tell him, shaking my head.

His thumb keeps grazing across my cheek, and the motion makes me want to fall asleep right away so I can stop overthinking it.

“Why not?”

Because it’s too intimate, I want to say. Because if we do fall asleep together, and I hear your breathing in the middle of the night, feel your weight and warmth around me as I drift off, then I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to sleep without you again. Because I think I’ve fallen in love with you, and that was never in my plan.

“I need to go back to my room,” is all I say.

“Stay with me, Amelie,” he pleads quietly, the words ghosting across my skin. “Let me have one night with you.”

I should leave now, should tell him that this is all getting to be too much for me, that I can already feel myself shifting my priorities to spend time like this with him instead of practicing.

Instead, I nod, giving in to him because, in this moment, I can’t find it in myself to care about anything except the way River’s looking at me, like maybe he’s falling for me, too.

Chapter 21

River

I never thought I’d look forward to coming back to school after winter break, but spending the whole three weeks following my father around to meetings, dinners, and events makes university feel like a haven. At least Damien was with me for some of it, but even then, he’s just as bored of it all as I am.

Both of us are glad to be back, and once we get settled into our rooms again, we go off to find the others. Amelie spent most of the break with Evie’s family in Switzerland because her parents were off around the world somewhere, and she didn’t want to join them. Although we weren’t that far from each other, we never had time to meet up. Having that break apart only makes the thought of seeing her now feel so much better.