Page 42 of Built to Fall
Lina walks through the lobby of our apartment and looks slightly above it all. Not as if she thinks that, but more so like it’s simply a fact of nature. I can’t say I’d disagree.
For the past few weeks, Lina has walked slightly above everything else in my mind.
Kara and Eden walk on either side of her, and all three of them are carrying takeout bags.
Noticing her has completely stopped me in my tracks. I’m no longer making my way toward the elevator. I don’t even consider what it looks like for me to be standing here, stopped, watching her.
“What are you doing?” she asks, stopping directly in front of me.
“Hey, Lina, nice to see you. I’m doing great, what about you?” I reply sarcastically.
I watch her head tilt the tiniest bit. It’s barely noticeable.
“Do you wait around in the lobby of our apartment to wait for me or something?” she shoots back in the same tone. “Because I don’t reallylovethe idea of having a stalker.”
“We both know that wouldn’t get me very far, considering our last few run-ins have been while you were either throwing up in my backyard or running at odd hours of the night.”
“The most notable of them being inthiselevator,” she counters, walking toward it.
“Shh.” I mockingly place a finger over my lips. “Nobody needs to know what happened in there.” I look toward Kara and Eden, winking before facing Lina again. “I don’t kiss and tell, remember?”
Her two friends laugh, thankfully catching the joke, which isn’t shocking considering they’re used to Lina’s sarcasm.
I’m expecting Lina to say something sharp in return, but I’m completely caught off guard when she whirls around and presses her hand over my mouth. It’s enough to silence me, mostly because of how shocked I am, but I still can’t help the smile that forms against her palm.
“You’re not as funny as you think you are.” Her expression remains unreadable. “And what do you mean,‘your house’?” She changes the subject. “You live here.”
Just to prove I can’t answer her questions, I mumble unintelligibly while she has her hand over my mouth. I don’t pull away from the feeling of her palm, though, enjoying the cool touch against my skin.
“Lina,” Eden teases with a grin. “He can’t answer you if you’re covering his mouth.”
I raise an eyebrow at her smugly, as if to say,“See?”
She doesn’t flinch, nor does she move her hand. Just stares at me like she’s daring me to say something else—like she knows I will the second she lets go.
“I think he’s enjoying this a little too much,” Kara muses, and that’s what finally makes Lina drop her hand.
She rolls her eyes, looking as though she’s not entirely sure why she even bothered in the first place.
But I can still feel the ghost of her touch lingering and the smirk she couldn’t see.
“The house is one of my dad’s rental properties. People check out on either Friday or Saturday morning, and the cleaners come early the next morning, so it’s the perfect place to have parties the night in between,” I explain.
She runs her fingers through her hair, all the way from the roots to the ends. “Makes sense.”
Right then, the elevator door slides back open. As the girls pile in, I make the decision to join them.
The last time I was in the lobby with Lina—when I found her out running and made sure she got back okay—I took the stairs instead of the elevator. It was mainly to prove to her that I’m nottryingto make her angry with me.
But tonight, I don’t care.
“I can’t believe we got takeout after eating our weight in ice cream,” Eden says, clutching her stomach as she leans against the back wall.
“It will be worth it,” Kara tells her.
“Says you,” Lina says, poking her in the ribs. “You eat like you have multiple stomachs. Yet, you look like you have thousands of metabolisms.”
“Where would all those fit, anatomically?” Kara asks, smirking as she runs her hands up her waist.
