Page 38 of Seven is Swell

“I have my weekly yoga class over in the athletic building. You don’t have to walk me all the way over there, I’m sure you have class to get to also.”

“I have about an hour to kill.”

“Don’t you want to study or get some homework done or something?”

He carefully drops my wrist and takes a slight step away from me. “I understand. You could have just said you didn’t want me to walk you, Delaney. I’m not fragile. I enjoyed our class today; let me know if you have…never mind. You won’t have any questions over the weekend because we haven’t gotten our next assignment yet. I hope you have a nice weekend.”

“Wait!” I wind my arm back with his again, linking my own hands around it this time as we finally exit the classroom and start heading down the hall. “I wasn’t saying that to get rid of you. I was only trying to offer you an out if you were busy. I don’t expect you to put me above your own studies. I love your dedication to this partnership, but you need to take care of yourself, too.”

He stops me out in the hall, looking nervous as all get out. “It’s not just for the assignments, Delaney.”

His voice is so quiet I have to have to lean forward to hear him. “It’s not?”

“I know I’m not good at…sending hints or showing you things, and I know you’d never actually consider courting somebody like me, but you must know that I’m working so hard in this class because I want to impress you.”

“Really?”

He rolls his eyes at himself. “I told you, I’m not good at this stuff. I’ve never really had anyone I truly wanted to impress before. I know how busy you are trying to figure out all these new bonds and balance school and…I don’t expect anything, you know. I just wanted to let you know that I a-a... I a-ad…Iadmireyou.A lot. You’re always kind to me when everyone else just ignores me or makes fun of me. I’m not cool like Cory and Adam, I’m not big and strong like Jackson and August, and I certainly don’t have the credentials of Professor Wilder, or any of the intrigue of your gargoyle, and I don’t even know if you have any intention of courting anyone else, but in another life I would be honored to entertain the idea. I think…if the circumstances were different, I could be really good to you.”

I think I feel my heart breaking. “Wilford, do you have any idea what a catch you are?”

He’s about to open his mouth to speak when someone I absolutely do not want to speak to rounds the corner.

Panicking, I pull Wil into the nearest women’s restroom and lock the door behind us, because I don’t want to humiliate him any more than everyone else already has by abandoning him.

“Delaney! What are you doing? I am most certainly not permitted to be in here! What if there was a woman in here…changing a tampon or something?”

I can’t even suppress the giggle that erupts out of my mouth, nor do I want to.

Realistically I know that Headmaster Aspis will see August and Jackson out in the hall and assume I’m in here, but that’s all fine and well because it still means I don’t actually have to face him. I’m not ready to do that. Not sure I’ll ever be actually after our last disastrous interaction. “Wilford, if there were any women in here, they’d be behind a stall, with complete privacy, but there’s not. Look, all the stalls are empty. Besides, women come into bathrooms to talk all the time. We talk while we’re peeing, too, It’s not weird.”

He looks positively horrified. “Youwhat?”

“Talk...in bathrooms? About…stuff?”

“You...while you…women are so mystifying! I could never! Aren’t you embarrassed when your tinkling is audible?”

Oh my gods. That just makes the giggling a thousand times worse. At least my bodyguard babes will know I’m perfectly well in here, because I know the doors are hardly soundproof. “You haven’t been around many women, have you?”

“Pickles, no. You are the first I’ve been even slightly familiar with. I was raised in a very strict environment; sexes were not to mix unless they were courting. In fact, I am breaking so many rules right now, Delaney. My mother would faint if she knew the position I just put myself in.”

I wipe the tears from my eyes, but then I do feel sort of bad. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just saw somebody I didn’t think I could handle talking to at this moment in time, and it seemed easier to hide than deal with him. Also, I thought if I up and disappeared like a magician’s assistant in the middle of a conversation, it would go against what I had just been saying to you about wanting to spend some time with you.”

“You…enjoy spending time with me? Truly?”

“Yes, Wilford. I think you’re refreshingly sweet.”

“And you don’t mean that…ironically?”

I step into him and wrap my arms around him, giving him a proper hug. “I’m not one to say things I don’t mean. I would never tell you something if I meant something else.”

“May I ask why you did not wish to speak to whomever was walking towards us? I must admit that I was so wrapped up in you that I hadn’t even noticed who was around us.”

“There you go again, being casually heartthrobby. How has no one snatched you up?”

“Because I’m hardly an ideal partner, Delaney. Please, distract me with your woes.”

“One of these days you’re going to see yourself clearly, I will make sure of it; in fact you just wait until the middle of the semester when things switch around and it will be my turn to woo the pants off of you and make you feel special. You’re going to be pants-less for weeks. Okay, you really want to know the tea? I think it might cause you some sort of heart-related harm. Do you have a history of heart attacks in your family?”

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