“Don’t tell Ava or anyone else what happened,” Jules said when we reached the corner where we had to split—her to the left, me to the right. “I don’t want them to worry.”
“I won’t.” She was right. Ava would worry, and there was no point in getting her worked up over something that had already happened. “You sure you’re okay?”
I almost offered to walk Jules home, but that might be too much. We’d reached our limits of civility with each other, as evidenced by the next words out of her mouth.
“Yes.” She rubbed her thumb and forefinger over the opposite sleeve of her coat, her expression distracted. “Don’t be late to Ava’s party on Saturday. I realize punctuality is not one of your few virtues, but it’s important you’re on time.”
My sympathy evaporated in a gust of annoyance. “I won’t be late,” I said through clenched teeth. “Don’t worry about me.”
I walked away before she could respond, not bothering to say goodbye. Jules had to ruin it every. Single. Fucking. Time.
Maybe her prickliness was a defense mechanism, but that was none of my business. I wasn’t here to peel back her layers like we were in one of those damned romance novels Ava liked so much.
If Jules wanted to be insufferable, I had every right to save myself from suffering by removing myself from her presence.
The wind nipped at my face and howled through the trees, underscoring how quiet the streets were. Hazelberg was one of the safest towns in the U.S. but…
The way Jules’s hand shook while we were waiting for the metro. The tension in her shoulders. The paleness of her skin.
My brisk walk slowed to a meander.
You’re reading too much into one movement. Just go home, man.
So what if it was dark and she was alone? The chances of anything happening to her were slim, even if she was a magnet for trouble.
I closed my eyes, unable to believe I was even contemplating doing what I was about to do.
“God motherfucking dammit.” I bit out the words before I stopped and double backed in the direction Jules had gone in. I set my jaw, growing angrier with each step.
Angry at my conscience, which reared its head at the worst times. Angry at Jules, for existing; at Ava, for being friends with her, and at Thayer’s housing coordinator, for placing them in the same room and therefore making their friendship an inevitability all those years ago.
Fate liked to screw with me, and it’d never screwed me over harder than when it’d introduced a certain redhead into my life.
It didn’t take me long to catch up with Jules. I stayed far enough behind her so she wouldn’t notice me but close enough I could see her. The bright colors of her hair and coat made it easy, even in the dark.
I felt like a total creep, but if she saw me following her, we’d get into another argument, and I was too tired for that shit.
Luckily, we arrived at her house in less than ten minutes, and I relaxed when I saw the glow of lights behind the curtains. Stella, another college friend of Ava’s and Jules’s roommate, must be home already.
Jules walked onto the porch, reached into her bag…and paused.
I tensed again and edged behind a tree on the opposite sidewalk in case she turned around, but she didn’t. She just stood there, frozen, for a full minute.
What the hell was she doing?
I was about to cross the street in case she was in shock or something when she finally moved again. She took the keys out of her bag, unlocked the door, and disappeared inside.
I released my breath in one long, slow sigh. It formed a tiny white puff in the wintry air, and I waited another minute, my eyes lingering on the spot where Jules had stood, before I turned and walked home.