The door opens and Cole comes in, the corners of his lips tilting up when he sees me. “I figured you’d be back here. I brought coffee.”
“Yes! Life saver. I’ve been too lazy to get up.” I grin at him and do the whole grabby hands thing, which just makes him laugh and shake his head as he brings me the java awesomeness.
“I’m sure the fact that Shadow is asleep on your ass has nothing to do with you not moving…” He chuckles as he crouches to give me the drink.
These last few weeks he’s warmed up a lot, and when it’s just been the two of us, which it has been most Tuesday afternoons ‘cause the others are all in class, we’ve had time to actually hang out and get to know each other a little.
I mean, he’s not exactly talkative, so it’s not like I know his life story, but I’m comfortable with him in his silence.
“It has nothing to do with that sweet little demon,” I say, sticking my tongue out at him as he takes his bag off his back and sits down with us. Fi and Hellion come out of their beds and sit with him once he’s comfortable and I narrow my eyes at the little traitors.
The puppies are totally all team me, but those two have been much harder to bring over to my side. They’re loyal to the boys, I’ll give them that.
“Have you told the others yet?” he asks, glancing up at me after we’ve both been quiet for about twenty minutes.
Dammit, he’s never going to let it drop.
Cole was the one who came back to my room first the day Serena died, so he saw the note, but he agreed to let me tell the others in my own time. I still think it’s a sick joke, but I also don’t want to deal with it.
Because if I read too much into it, the guilt that Serena potentially died in my place is going to sink me.
I can’t deal with another death on my conscience. I barely survived the first.
“You know I haven’t. There’s no point. It’s been three weeks. Nothing else has happened, no one has come after me. No more notes. It was probably the same asshole from that night at the party just fucking with me.”
He quirks a brow at me. “Or that guy at the party is the sicko that strangled Serena after raping her, and he was coming for you, except you’ve been here with us and the dogs since then.”
“Don’t be so freaking rational.” I sigh, exasperated. “The odds of your version being correct are really small. I mean, I know my personality isn’t exactly Little Miss Sunshine, but I don’t think I’ve pissed anyone off enough for them to want to kill me.”
“You should at least tell the twins. You’re dating them. You shouldn’t have secrets.”
“Everyone has secrets,” I counter, and he nods.
“You’re right, but not all secrets could be deadly.”
“I’ll think about it. After tomorrow’s day of hell with Crawford.”
He frowns at the mention of my professor. “I thought he’d let up on you?”
“So did I,” I grumble. “But his hatred of me seems to be back in full swing. I don’t understand what I did to piss him off so bad.”
“I have my own suspicions, but Sawyer’s still sitting in on your classes with him, right?”
I nod. “He is, though I still don’t know why. I also don’t know what Sawyer said to him at the start of the year that made Crawford hate me so much.”
“You’re exactly Crawford’s type,” Cole smirks. “Travis didn’t want you to be his next target, so he sent Sawyer to sit in since he’s the only one of us with Wednesdays free.”
“As if Travis cares that much.” I snort a laugh.
“You have no idea,” is all he says in response, leaving me speechless for the first time in a while. I try to push away the thoughts, especially when the conversation I overheard still plays in my head when I let it.
He packs away his stuff without saying anything and heads toward the stairs, but turns back to me before ascending them. “For someone who seems to know so much, you really have no idea do you?”
* * *
After Cole and his cryptic bullshit yesterday afternoon, saying I got no studying done is a bit of an understatement. Instead, I persuaded the twins that Chinese food was the best idea ever and we took the pack for a walk. Which was as much fun as I thought it would be.
Except now I’m staring at the test paper in front of me, wishing I’d have shut off my over-thinking, overly negative brain and just focused on studying, dammit.