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“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. I needed to move this conversation along, or I was going to break down. I was either going to spiral into panic about thinking what would happen if Jaxon found out about my feelings and left me, or I was going to freak out about that lie that was holding me in a stranglehold. “I’m starving. Let’s get food.”

Jaxon didn’t need any prompting to stand and drag me toward the buffet. I sadly only got salad—dressing-free—chicken breast, and broccoli, while Jaxon loaded up on French frights and vegan Grendel cheese sandwiches. Thankfully, when we returned to the table, the conversation had moved on. They were talking about classes, teachers, homework, the usual. I nodded along while picking at my dinner. I only snuck a couple of frights from Jaxon, who grinned.

By the time dinner was done, I was flagging. I was a morning person. I didn’t do late nights. And I was already wanting to sleep, but I needed to do some homework first. On the walk back to the dorm, Jaxon held my hand, as was becoming the norm. The sky was slowly growing dark, and the stars had begun to peek out from their hiding places.

“Are you going to the party tonight?” Jaxon asked.

I mmm’d. I honestly didn’t know. I didn’t want to. We had class first thing in the morning, and I had to work out, not to mention do Jaxon’s hair. Also, I really didn’t want to spend time with my team, even though I liked them.

“Is that a yes?”

“It’s an ‘I don’t know.’” I sighed, looking over at him. “Would you come with me?”

His expression flattened out. “If you want me to.”

If that wasn’t a non-answer, I didn’t know what was. “I don’t really want to go. I’m tired.”

“Then let’s not.”

A warmth bloomed in my gut and made me squirm a bit. Jaxon had assumed that we were an “us,” which… Well, it did things to me that I refused to acknowledge, because it was a huge NOPE.

When we stepped into the room, I flopped onto the ground and starfished out. I groaned. Silence. Peace. Safety. Jaxon chuckled, but he stepped around me with ease, no doubt too used to me doing this.

“Did you want to work on our paper?” Jaxon asked, settling at his desk.

“Not really.” This horrid paper. Nothing screamed an introductory English class more than a paper on a play.

“How about reading the play?”

I’d read Hamlet before. I’d read all of Shakespeare’s plays. In high school, I’d gone through an I’m-so-cool-and-artsy phase that made me read a ton of classic British literature—I’d hated basically all of it, though Jane Austen’s works and Bleak House by Dickens had been fairly interesting. I peeled open one of my eyes and suggested, “How about we watch a rendition of Hamlet tonight?”

“Okay,” Jaxon said with a shrug.

I sat up with a groan. “Kenneth Branagh’s version is probably the most accurate.”

“How do you know that?”

I flushed. Yeah, I’d watched a shit ton of different remakes during that cool artsy phase, not that I was going to admit that to Jaxon. Gods, freshman year of high school had been the worst.

I grabbed my laptop and pushed Jaxon toward his bed. He settled back with his legs open. I blushed even harder at realizing we were going to have to cuddle. Well, we didn’t have to, but we sure as hell were going to. Jaxon set my laptop aside and pulled me down between his legs, then wrapped his arms securely around my waist, keeping me there.

“You okay?” Jaxon asked.

“Yep,” I squeaked as I leaned into his embrace. This was probably going to be the best watching of Hamlet ever.

Chapter Fourteen

Jaxon

“Carter, I need your help,” I said as I sidled up to him outside the library. Never before had I felt like the gargoyles adorning the gothic building were looking at me as much as I did now. Some of them weren’t even alive, but it was as if all of them were staring at me. This might be a bad idea, but I couldn’t not do something after Christopher had said something.

Carter readjusted his bag, then took a sip of his coffee. “What do you need?”

I took a deep breath. “Chris mentioned that your parents were going to South Korea for Chuseok.”

“Yeah. They go every year.”

“Well, he seemed upset.”