Page 55 of Degradation
She shakes her head. ‘No reason. I need to get to class.’
My eyes narrow. She’s keeping secrets. As soon as I get back later, I’ll run a full diagnostic on the system, I decide. Just in case we need to be worried. After Halloween and the fact that Marcus and the other two are still living in the house, I’m not taking any chances.
‘It’s cold outside,’ I say, hoping that some regular conversation will put us back into normal territory.
She shrugs. ‘I’ll be all right. I barely feel it.’
I glance down the corridor.
‘Do you have your phone?’
She nods.
‘Okay. I’ll need to carry you down.’
She lets out a breath as she looks in the same direction that I am.
‘Fine,’ she mutters after a moment.
She swings herself down the hall to the top of the stairs, tensing as she holds her crutches in one hand and looks back at me expectantly.
With a deep breath, I follow and, when I get to her, I lift her carefully into my arms, trying not to focus on the way her body feels against mine, how much I wish I hadn’t fucked everything up like I always do.
I descend slowly with her and put her down at the bottom. She doesn’t look at me as I open the front door for her, and we leave the house. If she wonders why I’m going with her, she doesn’t voice it and neither of us says anything as we walk down the driveway.
The trip onto campus doesn’t take long since the science building is so close, but I notice that Daisy is shivering after only a few minutes. She’s trying to hide the fact that she’s freezing, but I notice.
How can she not even own a coat? Doesn’t it get cold in the UK? Wouldn’t she have brought at least a necessity like that with her?
I make sure she gets to class, gritting my teeth when she just goes inside like I’m not even there. I deserve her anger, but this punishment she’s giving me, it’s like I’m invisible. I’d rather she was mad at me the way I’ve seen her mad at Shade. I want that fire, not whatever this is.
After messaging the others to let them know she’s in class safely, I walk to the Quad slowly, searching the Web for what I’m looking for and seeing the perfect item after a few minutes.
I can’t help my small smile as I put my phone away, greeting a couple of the guys from the wrestling team in Grinder as I go in. I was only grabbing a coffee, but I decide to take a seat after I get my drink and shoot the shit for a while.
‘Practice is tonight at seven thirty,’ Baker says as I sit down. ‘Coach has something going on before, he said.’
Deluchay sniggers. ‘Fucking that chick from the library probably. I saw him with her at the diner in town holding hands and shit.’
The other two chuckle. ‘She’s hot though. Librarians are hot.’
There’s muttered ascent from the table and then no one says anything for a moment.
‘Hey, whatever happened with that girl?’ McCauly, another guy from the team pipes up in the conversation lull, not looking up from his phone.
I barely look at him. I haven’t spoken to McCauly much. He made the team last year, and as far as I can tell, wrestling is the only skill he has. There’s not much going on upstairs.
‘What girl?’ one of the other guys asks.
‘That one Jolie was trying to get us to mess with.’
My ears prick up and I’m suddenly paying a lot more attention to this conversation. Are they talking about Daisy?
What the fuck?
I stay calm, pretending I hardly care enough to listen and praying the idiot keeps talking. I tap on my phone and stifle a yawn.
‘I haven’t seen her in a few days. Maybe she wised up and left the school before the student body ran her out?’
