I shake it off, this weird feeling. She’s still staring. I changed my mind; I thought I liked how she stared at me before, trying to decipher me, but now I can feel her judgment crawling over my skin. Now she’s looking at my inked arms the way my gran does. I don’t need her questioning me and my fucking choices.
“Stop staring at me!” I demand, and walk away. I turn the corner and feel breathless. It reminds me of those nights when I’d smoke just way too many cigarettes. I don’t smoke anymore, I don’t do that anymore, I have to remind myself, and lean against the brick wall and catch my breath.
She’s odd, that blond girl with too much attitude.
THE ENTIRE WEEK was shit. Party after party, noise after noise. All the sounds of misery.
At most I’ve slept a total of twenty hours in the past week, and I’m exhausted today. I can barely see straight through my throbbing headache, and I can’t find my keys this morning. I’m irritated as fuck and in a fighting mood.
While I’m turning my room upside down, there’s a knock at the door. I consider ignoring it, but the knock comes again, this time louder.
When I answer, a girl in a WCU jersey is standing in my doorway, her eyes red and her cheeks flushed.
“Can I come in?” she asks, her hands shaking.
“No. Sorry.” I close the door in her face. Seconds later another knock. Damn it. I don’t know who the chick is, but she needs to find another door to knock on. She continues tapping away at my door, and I yank it open.
Neil, one of the biggest of the douchebags in the fraternity, is standing there. His blond hair is ruffled, messy, and he smells like beer and pussy.
“What the fuck do you want?” I ask him, and walk back into the room, tossing a pair of jeans at him.
“Have you s-seen Cady?” His tone is off, his words slurred.
“Who?”
“The girl I was with last night? Have you seen her?”
I think back to the red eyes of the girl in the jersey, the way she was wandering the halls, and I shake my head. I thought she was high at first, and maybe she was, but it never does well to assume.
“She left and she’s not coming back. Leave her alone.” I grab a book from my shelf and throw it at him.
Groaning, he calls me a dick and leaves.
I’m still pissed as I drive back to campus, and I continue my newly found pattern of annoying Steph’s roommate.
“I’m excited for this class. I’ve heard really good things about it,” Landon tells her as I walk up behind them. They must be closer friends than I thought. Her voice is quiet when she responds to him, and he smiles at her. Her smile is warm, so warm that I look away for a moment.
Do they like each other? She has a mannequin boyfriend. He has a girlfriend, as far as I know. They must have broken up, by the way he’s looking at Tessa.
Halfway through class, Landon leaves and Tessa literally moves her chair farther away from me.
“Monday we begin our weeklong discussion of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice,” Professor Something-or-other announces to the class. I glance over at Tessa, and she’s smiling. Not just smiling—she’s grinning from ear to ear.
Of course she is. Chicks love Pride and Prejudice. They can’t get enough of Darcy and his pride-turned-charm bullshit.
I watch Tessa gather her things: a massive planner and every textbook this campus carries. I’m trying to pretend to stall, but really, even doing that is difficult, considering just how long it takes her to pick everything back up and put it neatly into her bag.
Following her outside, I say, “Let me guess: you are just madly in love with Mr. Darcy.”
I have to tease her over this. Have to.
“Every woman who has read the novel is,” she responds, her tongue sticking out a little at the end and her eyes focused anywhere other than my face. I follow her still and watch her look both ways before she crosses the street at the intersection.
“Of course you do.” I laugh, pausing a moment before I realize she’s gotten most of the way across the street without me. Damn, she walks fast.
“I’m sure you aren’t able to comprehend Mr. Darcy’s appeal.” Tessa tries to insult me as I catch up, but I just laugh again.
“A man who is rude and intolerable being made into a romantic hero? It’s ridiculous. If Elizabeth had any sense, she would have told him to fuck off from the beginning.”
.em hguorht decreip dah ti fi sa ,ti draeh I .ti draeh I tub ,ria eht stih dnuos eht tnemom eht htuom reh srevoc ehS .yadot dlrow eht morf deraeppasid ylgnimees evah taht selggig lanoitnetninu dna tneconni eht ,ni sA .elggig a fo dnuos tfos eht raeh I esirprus ym ot dna ,em ecaf ot snrut ssirP ssiM
.sserp I ”?toidi na si htebazilE taht eerga od uoy oS“
”.nettirw reve sretcarahc xelpmoc tsom ,tsegnorts eht fo eno si ehs ,oN“
.nottoc ekil ,tfos si hgual reH .ni snioj ehs dna ,gnihgual yleniuneg ,gnihgual flesym dnif I .toob ot ereht ni nworht eivom sknaH moT a htiw ,ot elba eb reven dluow sdlo-raey-neethgie tsom taht yaw a ni tenneB htebazilE sdnefed ehS
. . . tsuj I did kcuf eht tahW
.driew nmad oot si sihT .reh morf yawa kool I dna gnihgual pots yletaidemmi I
.suoixonbo dnA .driew s’ehS
.yaw rehto eht klaw dna reh ssimsid I ”.aserehT ,dnuora uoy ees ll’I“
?taht saw kcuf eht tahW ?em hguorht decreip elggig reH ?nottoc ekil tfoS
—tew ,thgit a ni flesym gniyrub yb tihs siht morf yawa dnim ym teg ll’I dna ,syawla sa ,ytrap rehtona s’ereht thginoT .rac ym ot klaw dna dnim ym fo kcab eht ot tihsllub taht hsup I
.rewsna ylkciuq I dna ,neercs eht no pu pop eman s’ecaJ ees I ,tuo ti gnilluP .sthguoht detrevrep ym morf em stcartsid tekcop ym ni gnitarbiv enohp yM
.emit doog a rof sekam syawla eh dna gniniatretne s’eh tub—enoyna ksa ,daehkcid gnikcuf A-edarg—elohssa na s’eH .ecaJ s’taht ,em roF .sevlesmeht tuoba retteb leef meht sekam ohw htiw tuo gnah yeht nosrep eno taht sah enoyrevE .kcab mih evah ot dalg eb ll’I dna ,elihw a rof enog neeb s’eH
xis
.dluoc eh sa reh htiw sruoh ynam sa dneps ot gnitnaw rof noitadilav dah eH .suoicipsus gnitteg sdneirf sih tuohtiw reh tuoba wonk ot saw ereht gnihtyreve tuo dnif ot nosaer a dna egarevel dah eH .reh htiw emit erom dneps ot esucxe na sa emag eht esu dluoc eh taht dalg saw eh ,yaw kcis nwo sih nI .reh htiw gniyalp saw eh emag eht naht erom saw ehs ,ylnedduS .efil sih ni ybressap a naht erom gnihtemos gnimoceb saw ehs wenk eh ,ydaer teg ot sekat ehs gnol woh ro ,gninrom eht ni pu ekow ehs nehw fo thguoht ehs tahw gnirednow flesmih dnuof eh nehW .erolpxe ot dedeen eh reh fo erom eht ,reh ot tog eh resolc ehT
