Page 68 of No One Else
“What happened with Carter?” Luke asks, concerned now.
I tell him everything, starting with the flowers he sent and ending with me making one hell of an enemy at the Kappa Delta Phi house.
He whistles low, smiling to himself.
“What the hell is funny about any of this?”
“It’s just-” he rolls his lips between his teeth, thinking over his words, “and don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve never heard you even raise your voice to anyone before. You’re the nice guy around here, you know? And now you’re off threatening people, practically picking fights. You’re growing up,” he says slyly.
“Shut up,” I smile reluctantly, punching his arm. The contentment quickly fades, though, and I blow out a breath, returning my head to my hands. “You think I did the right thing?”
“It’s the only thing you could do,” he states confidently, his reassurance easing something in my chest. “He’s messing with your girl.” He stands and heads over to his locker, the thing still filled to the gills with crap, no matter how many times he claims he’ll clean it out. “Are you going to tell Natalie?” he asks, catching a stick of deodorant as it falls out.
“No. I’m pretty sure she wants me to leave it alone. But she didn’t say that explicitly, so...”
“So you did what you had to do,” he nods in agreement. “Listen, you want to blow off some steam? I’ve got beer and video games at my place,” he says enticingly.
“Yeah,” I laugh, glad I ran into him. If not, I would have exhausted myself on the treadmill, trying to chase away these thoughts.
I follow him back to his apartment, the familiarity of hanging out here calming me, draining the last of the Carter-induced tension.
He got the message. He won’t bother us again.
He won’t.
Right?
16
Natalie
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“IT’S REALLY COMINGtogether,” Angela says, surveying the plans we have laid out in front of us for how everything will be set up for the gala.
“And if everyone on the guest list actually comes, they’ll be swimming in money.” I roll up the oversized papers, packing them away for our next meeting.
