All Lined Up

“Maybe he felt you breathing down the back of his neck.”

“Maybe.”

Ryan checks his watch. “I gotta get to class, but let’s get lunch before you come back here this afternoon. What’s the closest cafeteria to your class?”

“Schaefer,” I say, and my stomach flips. That’s Dallas’s dorm.

“All right. I’ll meet you there. Try not to injure any pedestrians in your frustrated state.”

The only person I’m really in the mood to hurt is myself. If I didn’t have to get to Spanish, I’d stay and punish myself for another couple hours. I have a feeling I’m going to have to do more than my usual run to clear my head this afternoon.

Chapter 19

Carson

It quickly becomes clear that I should have just stayed in bed today when my Spanish professor lays my failing test on my desk just before the end of class. I shove it in my bag and make a beeline for the door.

It stays there, taunting me through my next two classes. Those taunts merge with all my thoughts about Dallas, and Ryan might actually be right about me posing a risk to strangers.

I don’t say a single word when we meet up outside Schaefer for lunch, and he must sense my mood because he doesn’t say anything either. I don’t let myself think about Dallas’s dorm somewhere in the floors up above me as I stalk down the stairs to the cafeteria in the basement.

I grab my tray and for today only I forget about eating healthy and what will give my body the best energy. I grab anything that looks good to me, and I’ve filled two plates by the time I’m done.

I see Stella first. She’s laughing loudly, drawing attention in a way she seems to relish. Dallas has her back to me, and she’s sitting straight in her chair because I know she’d never slump. All the same, she’s very still and has her head down like she wants eyes to just pass right over her.

Mine don’t. They never could.

Which is why I don’t realize that Stella has spotted us until she steps directly into my line of sight.

She steps up beside me under the pretense of refilling her drink.

“You do realize that if you hurt her, I’ll castrate you long before her dad gets to you . . . right?”

I punch my cup against the ice dispenser a little too hard to be casual.

“I’m not going to hurt her.”

“You forget I saw you that first night, all over her. She’s not like that, if that’s why you’re in it. She’s sweet and innocent.” Her voice falters on that last word, and she looks like she wishes she could take it back. “She’s not a hookup is what I’m saying. So if that’s what you’re after, get it somewhere else.”

“Do you really think I would risk my spot on the team just to hook up with her?”

She shrugs. “You wouldn’t be the first stupid one to try.”

My anger is too close to the surface today, and her words mixed with the thought of Dallas’s relationship rules make me so irate, I actually crack the plastic cafeteria glass I’m holding.

Soda pours out over my hand, and I curse, rushing to dump it out in the machine grates.

Ryan’s quiet mutter of “Incoming” is the only warning I get before Dallas is there beside us, drink in hand.

“You idiots do realize you’re holding up the line, right?”

I don’t look at her as I grab another glass and start to fill it up.

Stella leaves to head back to their table, and Dallas moves in closer to me.

“What’s up with you?” she asks.

“Nothing. I’m just having a f**king terrible day.”

I turn to go, and she grabs my elbow. She lets it go almost as fast, and if I weren’t so aware of her, I could have convinced myself that I imagined it.

“Sit with us,” she says.

I glance around the cafeteria briefly.

“What happened to not hanging out in public?”

“Sit beside Stella. No one will think anything of it.”

I don’t want to f**king sit by Stella, but I’m not stupid enough to pass up time with Dallas if I can get it.

Stella’s expression when I sit down beside her is the icing on the cake.

Ryan sits his tray down next to Dallas, but with one look at my face, he slides it down one spot and sits with one chair between them.

I wouldn’t have made him do that, but I like him all the more because of it.

“This is Ryan,” I say.

Dallas’s face is carefully blank. “I didn’t realize you had anyone with you.”

“It’s okay,” Ryan whispers. “My lips are sealed.”

When Dallas’s mouth falls open, and her green eyes catch mine, all that extra admiration for Ryan flies out the window.

“I didn’t tell him. He just kind of—”

“He didn’t,” Ryan says. “I’m just an intuitive genius. Probably going to get recruited by the CIA any day now.”

Stella snorts a laugh next to me, and at Dallas’s glare, she says, “What? I can’t laugh?”

“This isn’t funny!” Dallas’s tortured expression almost makes me wish I’d never sat down.

Stella is unperturbed. “You’re the one who brought him over here. If you’re that paranoid about gossip, there’s an easy solution. I don’t know how you thought it was going to play out.”

I can’t tell whether she’s more distressed by my presence here or Ryan’s, considering her rules.

“I wasn’t thinking! He just—”

She looks at me, and I really wish I’d never sat down. I want to spend time with her, not be the object of pity that I currently am.