Page 75 of Silent Heart

I frowned, but she smiled the comment off.

***

“I swear I’m not stalking you,” Cami Joe said.

I snapped my head up from my dorm room door, key suspended from my hand. Cami walked down the hall, keychain swinging around her finger. She stopped before the door across from me.

“This dorm is for upperclassmen and graduate students,” I blurted out, but quickly added, “Not that I mind! You’re just full of surprises.”

“Oh, you havennoooidea, Harley.” She laughed.

But…it was the way she said my name. As if I was in on the secrets, and that was the funniest part to her.

It couldn’t be that we were in three science classes together. The only places our schedules differed were the human versus animal components.

“Hey.” She paused at her door. “I’m going to grab a bite to eat at the cafeteria before hitting the library to start on the reading list. You can say no, and we can sit awkwardly across from each other, or you can join me?”

The best part about her offer was that it didn’t feel weird. Not in the slightest. Maybe because she was so young and determined to prove herself, and I was on the other side of the spectrum? Or maybe it was the kindred spirit. Either way, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I liked this girl.

I smiled. “Give me ten minutes.”

I kicked off my shoes at the door, dropped my bag on the chair, and stopped in front of the mirror. The fine lines around my eyes only crinkled when I smiled. But unlike earlier, I had something to smile about. As odd as it was, I had a friend. Cami Joe mightbe over a decade younger than me, but like me, she knew what she wanted and was willing to put in the work to obtain it.

“It still doesn’t answer how you have access to this dorm,” I said, checking that my door was locked.

Cami slid her phone into her pocket and hefted the book bag over her arm. “My family has connections.”

She didn’t need to say it to know the obvious. She came from money. But she didn’t put on airs, even though her outfit cost as much as my car payment.

“Let’s go,” I said with a wave of my hand.

A little while later, while we compared notes on the anatomy class, Cami looked up from her bowl of fruit. “Are you single?”

Taken off guard by the abruptness of her question, I gulped. “Yeah, not that it’s any of your business, but I am.”

“It is my business. I have to ace these classes if I want to shave off a year of undergrad and hurry into my residency.”

And here I thought I was an overachiever. “What’s the rush? You’re young, shouldn’t you want the college experience?”

“Shouldn’t you want a husband, home, and kids?” she countered sharply.

I winced. “That’s not in the cards for me.”

Studying me for a minute, Cami looked out the window. On the lawn, students were milling about, laughing and talking. “They’re so oblivious in their safety nets. People are dying just down the block, and here they sit, on their phones, complaining about first world problems.”

Who the hell is this kid?And what shit had she seen in her very,veryyoung life?

Looking back, Cami gave me a nod. “That’s not me. I know how lucky I am to be here. I can tell you feel the same way, which is why we’re going to get along great, Harley.”

What else could I say except agree? “Yes, I think we are.”

Chapter 30 – Harley

There were moments when I swore I could feel eyes on me. I blinked, shielding my gaze from the deceptively bright October sun. Cami Joe was far ahead, people mingling between us, but I moved at a slower pace, and now stopped to search the campus sidewalk. No one was there. I was seeing things. In the sea of students, there were no familiar faces.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling. It was an itch, tickling my skin. The oddest part of the strange and seemingly random occurrence, it didn’t feel like a bad thing. It was fleeting, there and gone in a blink!

I sighed, reaching to touch the sensitive skin at the back of my neck.

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