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For breakfast, we take over the long table by the windows in the dining hall. Nash and Rafe, who both eat like animals. Koda. Kenzie and Bianca. Tessa has refused all invitations since the football game. Offense has been taken because I liked her, whoever she morphed into that weekend. Mathers is here, too. He sits next to Kenzie and has been talking to her for ten minutes about a movie.
Paige is at the other end. She comes in late, in sunglasses, holding an iced coffee, and she looks down the table and sits at the far end next to Bianca. Not the two open seats in the middle. The far end.
Koda’s at the opposite end with his back to the windows.
They do not look at each other once.
And I mean not once. I’m watching, and it’s actually impressive. Koda doesn’t say much. Paige eats her eggs, scrolls on her phone, and doesn’t look up.
I watch her, waiting for her to reveal something. Nothing. She turns her phone over and says, to Bianca, “Do you want the rest of this?”
Under the table, Nash’s hand lands on my knee and stays there. I look at him, and he’s eating. He hasn’t noticed a single thing.
Okay.
Still weird.
He walks me back to Corvin Hall, and then he’s got recovery at eleven and video after, because there’s a game Tuesday and he’s dressing for it.
I keep having a small ridiculous feeling about that all morning, and he doesn’t seem to be having it at all, which is very Nash. He served it. It’s done.
At the bottom of the stairs, he takes my chin and kisses me.
“What are you doing today?” he asks.
“Laundry.”
“Should I meet you in there for old times’ sake?”
I smile up at him. “It’s four loads. One of them is entirely towels, because somebody leaves them on the back of a door.”
He touches my bottom lip. “Are you doing my laundry now?”
I bite his thumb.
“Don’t do my laundry,” he says quietly. “Seriously. I can do it.”
“I don’t mind.”
He pecks my cheek. “You don’t have to, babe. I’ll help you bring down your baskets.”
I release his thumb and smile. “Really?”
He kisses my lips. “Yeah.”
Later that day, there are five girls in my room, and I keep forgetting that I need to swap over the laundry.
The group chat has been going since last night about Halloween. It’s six days out. The girls have ideas.
“Okay,” Kenzie says. “Hear me out. The four elements.”
“There’s five of us,” Bianca says.
“There’s a fifth element.”
“No, I’m not coming,” Tessa says from her desk, without turning around.
“Yes, you fucking are!” I snap back.
