Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 124135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
The tapping of his hand on his desk pulled my attention. The skull and numerical tattoos danced with the movement. I couldn’t take my eyes off those fingers, because I knew what they were capable of. I had seen them play the piano. And play on my guitar.
I looked up at the sound of someone clearing their throat. Bryce was standing beside us. His face was pissed, his eyes boring into Cromwell in his seat. “I sit there,” Bryce said. I hadn’t spoken to him after Friday night. I was ashamed to say that my head had been too full with Cromwell.
“Yeah? Well I’m here now,” Cromwell said, dismissing him completely. I closed my eyes, hating the confrontation.
“Why’re you such a dick?” Bryce spat.
Cromwell kept his face forward, completely ignoring him.
Bryce let out a single humorless laugh then walked past us. “Bryce,” I said, but he either ignored me or didn’t hear me. I wasn’t sure which.
“Cromwell,” I said. His stubborn expression said it all. He wasn’t moving anywhere.
Lewis came into the room. Cromwell’s leg brushed up against mine. He didn’t move it. Lewis looked around the room, and his eyebrows lifted slightly when he saw Cromwell beside me. Cromwell shifted in his seat. But then Lewis addressed the students, and class began.
* * *
Bryce was out of the classroom the minute Lewis dismissed us. I sighed as I watched him go. There was clearly no love lost between him and Cromwell.
I stood. “Bye, Cromwell.”
He got off his seat and followed me out into the quad. I thought his body would be tense and his face would be pinched. But he seemed relaxed. I’d never seen this from Cromwell before, and it confused me more than anything. He nudged his chin at me when I left to go to my next class. I shook my head as I watched him leave, wondering what all that was about. He hadn’t spoken to me apart from greeting me when he sat down. But he’d pressed his leg against mine, causing shivers to break out all over my skin. And he’d leaned in to me, his arm occasionally brushing mine. My emotions were going haywire. I had no idea what was going on with us. With him. The fact that he wasn’t glaring at me felt strange. The fact that he was almost being warm and kind…I couldn’t bring myself to believe it.
Yet I couldn’t deny that being on the receiving end of his small smile made my heart sing.
After my morning classes, I went to the cafeteria. Easton was at our usual table. I grabbed a salad and made my way over. Easton, as always, was eating enough to feed a small army.
“You got enough there, East?” I joked.
He scrunched up his nose. “Nah. Was thinking of going back for more.” Easton looked over my shoulder. “What the hell?” he said, a smirk on his mouth. I followed his gaze, and my mouth parted at what I saw.
Cromwell stood in the doorway, scanning his eyes around the room. When they fell on us, he walked right in our direction. For once, my heartbeat found a rhythm—and it was exactly in sync with Cromwell’s footsteps.
He sat beside us. He pulled a few unfamiliar candy bars from his pockets, opened one, and started eating. Easton looked at me, then back at Cromwell. “You lost, Dean?”
Cromwell finished off one candy bar and opened the next. He looked at Easton then spared a flicker of a glance to me. “No.”
Easton carried on eating, looking at Cromwell as if he were some science experiment. “You know you’re in the cafeteria, yeah?” Cromwell raised one eyebrow at Easton. Easton laughed and pointed at his candy bars. “And that they serve food here.”
Cromwell sat back. He glanced around the cafeteria. “I’m good with these.” He opened his last candy bar.
I pushed my salad around my plate. “So,” Easton said. “How’s your project coming along?”
Only silence met him. “It’s not,” I finally said. “We’re no longer partners.” I wasn’t an overly shy person. Wasn’t easily intimidated. But the images of Saturday night clogged my mind and made me lose the ability to speak around Cromwell.
Why was he here in the cafeteria? Why had he sat next to me in class yet spoken zero words but my name?
Easton glared at Cromwell. “What did you do?” Cromwell stared back at my brother. Easton always joked with people. He was always happy. But he had a side to him that people didn’t know. Especially when it came to me.
Cromwell’s jaw was clenched. I covered Easton’s hand with my own. “Nothing happened, East. Lewis saw that our work wasn’t as good together as it was apart, so he allowed us to work alone. That’s all.”
Easton narrowed his eyes, first on me, then on Cromwell. “You sure?”