Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
I swung past, purposely clipping Holly in the shoulder with my bag. Missy was too short.
Kristina was waiting in the hallway, and we started down the back stairs, which were the closest exit. I could feel the weight of the atmosphere around us, her sympathy piling on top of it. After going through the door to her floor, she gave me one of those pitying looks.
“I’m sorry—”
I shook my head. “She just proved what my gut has been saying the whole time.” I gave her a tired grin. “She’s a weak bitch.”
She laughed, opening her door.
Casey, Laura, and Sarah were inside, and they stopped laughing as we walked in.
“I have a bone to—”
I cut her off, too. I was on a roll. “Would you have asked me to go with you if Sarah had been here?”
She stopped, and her face twisted up.
The answer was her silence. “That’s why I didn’t go with you.” I dropped my bag onto the floor and slumped down on the edge of Kristina’s bed. “I’m not a backup.”
Her mouth shut with an audible clicking sound, and she hung her head. “I see.” She swallowed, glancing to her friends, neither of which seemed to know what to say.
Just like upstairs and just like walking back with Kristina, the air was heavy. Too heavy. I grabbed my bag and stood. “Maybe I’ll just see you guys there?” But it wasn’t really a question as I breezed past Kristina.
“Wai—”
She started to follow me down the hallway, and I turned around. I held my hand up. “I’m worked up, and I might say something I don’t want to regret later. It’s better if I go now. Trust me. I’ll be on the second floor if you want to come find me. If you don’t”—I lifted my shoulders—“that’s fine, too.”
The front desk attendant, Shay’s friend, was there, but I didn’t feel like talking. Thankfully, three girls were talking to her, so she was busy, and I slipped past them.
The library was busy.
That was normal for a Sunday evening. Friday and Saturday were for fun. Sunday was for last-minute studying. After going through the main door, I went through another small hallway that housed a small coffee cart, and then through another set of doors. Four detectors were set up for everyone to walk through. The large front desk was immediately to my left. There was a large computer lab across the main floor with glass doors that separated it from the rest of the library. People could be louder in there, and it was where a lot of people met to work in group projects. The rest of the library was a mishmash of computers, individual studying nooks and crannies, and bookshelves everywhere. There were a bunch of tables set up on the main floors, and each floor held study rooms lined against the walls with similar glass doors separating them from the rest of the library.
When Casey, Laura, and Sarah came to the library, they picked a table in the large computer lab or a table out in the middle of the main floor. It was still the rule to be quiet, but there was leeway given to those tables, and that was why they only sat there. They came to the library to somewhat study, but mainly to socialize or see if they could get answers from any of their party friends.
Kristina was prone to seek out a quiet place for studying, so thirty minutes later when she found me at my own table on the second floor, I wasn’t too surprised.
“Let me guess.” I grunted, grinning with a pen between my teeth. I took it out. “They’re talking more than studying?”
She sighed, sliding into a seat across from me. “They’re still at the dorm.”
“What?”
She rolled her eyes. “Casey felt bad. They were going to stop and get food to bring to you as a peace offering, but some guys showed up, and they went downstairs to study instead.”
My grin was back. “And they wouldn’t shut up so you decided to come without them?”
“I was coming anyway. It isn’t your fault Casey was insensitive, and she does feel bad.” She leaned closer. “I know my friends come off a certain way, but they can be really sweet sometimes. They don’t mean to be mean.” She waited a beat. “Most of the time.”
I laughed, was hushed by someone we couldn’t see, and clamped my mouth shut. “Thank you for coming,” I whispered before picking my pen back up and returning to my notes.
Kristina and I fell into an easy routine.
I was caught up for the week, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t get ahead, and poli-sci was a class I really needed the help. The boringness of it wasn’t exaggerated. Even my eye sockets wanted to be ripped out if I had to go over any more laws.