Page 2 of Sweet Ruin

“You’re not a problem,” I whispered back. “In fact, I think you might be the solution.”

I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders a little as I looked at him. Wes was right. Noah had been acting very strangely recently. After his fight at the soccer match, I’d tried to comfort him, and he snapped at me. But he later apologized. He’d blamed it on the pressure his grandfather was putting him under. Maybe that pressure had gotten to him once again and he’d cracked. It didn’t excuse what he’d done, but maybe he would apologize this time too.

“Got any other problems I can solve?” The low rumble of Wes’s voice tugged me from my thoughts. He was still leaning in close, and his brown eyes were sparkling.

“Maybe…” I replied, my gaze dropping to his lips. He grinned and started to move closer. Our lips were just about to touch when the door to the room burst open.

“Ugh, my eyes!” Sawyer cried out.

Wes grabbed a pillow off his bed and tossed it at his brother, but Sawyer easily dodged out of the way. “We weren’t even kissing,” Wes said.

“But you were going to.”

“Apparently not if you’ve got anything to do with it,” Wes complained. “I thought you were on team Wesobel.”

“Oh, I am. But only when I don’t want to be in our room.” Sawyer winked at me before launching himself onto his bed. It was a mystery how he managed to get comfortable considering the amount of clothes strewn across it. Wes looked like he was about to storm across the room, pick up his brother, and throw him and his dirty laundry out into the hallway, but I didn’t want him to cause a scene. It was Sawyer’s room too, after all, and I didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable in it because of me.

“How was the rest of your night at the Halloween carnival?” I asked Sawyer before Wes could make his move to kick him out.

“Well, everyone loved my costume,” Sawyer replied, totally unbothered by the fact he’d clearly interrupted us. “It makes me wonder why I even go to the gym. Obviously, my Sawyer magic affects the ladies no matter what I look like.”

“Sawyer magic?” I laughed. In an effort to match Wes’s Thor costume last night, Sawyer had dressed as the overweight version of the character fromAvengers: Endgame.Clearly, it hadn’t affected his confidence with girls.

“Yeah, Sawyer magic, it’s a thing,” he replied.

“If you were so happy with your costume, why did I see you running round the carnival half naked?” Wes grunted. He was still glaring at his brother but seemed resigned to the fact he was here to stay.

“Well, I left my costume on for the dunking booth, and it got wet. It was so heavy I had to ditch it.”

“You walked around the carnival shirtless?” I asked. “It was so cold last night. Are you crazy?”

“It wasn’tthatcold, and I had a cape,” Sawyer replied with a shrug. “Do you mind if I put the TV on? The guys are all watching some movie in the common room, but there’s a game on I want to watch.” Yep, Sawyer wasn’t going anywhere.

“I was just about to head off anyway,” I said.

“You don’t have to leave.” Wes looked disappointed.

“It’s okay. I should get back to my room. Cress might be wondering where I am.”

He followed me as I walked to the door and gathered me up in a warm hug. “Sorry about Sawyer. Let me know if you want to hang out tonight,” he said. “I can come to your room, or we can go for a walk. Whatever you want, I’m here.”

“Thanks,” I said. “But I think I’ll be okay. You’ve already made me feel a lot better, and I haven’t had a chance to do any homework yet this weekend with everything that’s been going on. We could do it together, but you’re somewhat of a distraction.”

“Only somewhat?”

I smirked and pushed him back into his room. “I’ll see you later.”

I let out a breath as I started back to my dorm. Wes might have made me feel better about things with Noah, but I was still missing my mom.

The rain hadn’t let up when I got outside and, even though I ran across the courtyard, the downpour soaked through my clothes quickly. Thankfully, the girls’ dorm wasn’t far.

I was almost to the front entrance when a high-pitched giggle rang through my ears. I saw two figures emerging from the building, and I froze as I realized it was Noah and Veronica.

Rain was pouring down around me, but my feet were pinned to the floor. Noah’s arm was effortlessly slung across the back of Veronica’s shoulders, and my blood turned to ice as she reached up and ran a hand through his hair.

I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t move at all. The way he hugged her close to him betrayed an intimacy that made my heart stop. I was furious with Noah after what he’d done last night, but my stomach still plummeted when I saw him with the girl he’d told me not to worry about.

What was his problem? First, he punched my father, and now he was moving on with Veronica of all people? She’d taken such pleasure in trying to destroy me this semester.

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