Settling by Shelley Workinger

Author:Shelley Workinger [Workinger, Shelley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BluA
Published: 2011-06-27T23:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

By the time I reemerged, the sunset was almost complete, but the night lights hadn’t come on yet, shrouding the campus with eerie shadows. I felt like the kid who’d hidden so well playing hide and seek that everyone else had given up and gone home.

I hurried back to the dorm, stopping by my room for just a second to grab my notes before heading to Alexis’s. I hoped I wasn’t late for our play-date.

Pulling my door closed behind me put me directly facing Trudy’s. I was torn between wanting to talk to her about everything that was going on and being so mad at her that I could scream. I didn’t know why I was so much angrier with her than Colonel Clark for keeping the same secret; I actually hadn’t even realized until this minute that I hadn’t asked him about it in his room. I’d like to pretend that was because I’d been considerate of his condition, but that wasn’t it. For some reason, I felt that she’d violated my trust more, and since I was also pretty sure that if I tried to talk to her, I might not be able to keep my calm, I turned and walked away.

Alexis’s door swung in at my touch; as I stepped inside, I saw she’d just turned the knob with one elbow, her hands busy running floss through her front teeth.

“Sorry,” she said, pulling out the string and ducking across the hall to throw it in the bathroom trash.

While I waited for her, I let my eyes drift around her room. It was the first time she’d had me over, though we’d been trying to set it up for weeks. I hadn’t expected to find the space cozy and inviting, but I’d never thought it would be so plain – nothing at all Alexis – and to have such starkly white walls and even floor.

“Miranda talked me into alfalfa sprouts at dinner,” she explained as she came back into the room. “Now I feel like someone sowed my mouth with grass seed and I’m still hungry.”

“So,” she went on, “getting a glimpse at college life?” Of course. I should’ve put it together right away; the room was a replica of her dorm room in New York. Now the tile floor and metal bunk beds made complete sense.

As she crossed to the built-in desk to turn off the music she’d been listening to, I had to ask, “What is that?”

“Starless, by Crossfade. You like it?” she asked, surprised.

“Um, no,” I answered honestly. But even though I had no love for the metal sound, the band and song names caught my attention. “Fade and Starless? Could be our campus theme song.”

“Huh,” she said, “I hadn’t thought of that.”

That’s because I do enough over-thinking for all of us, I thought, making a mental note to look both up later.

“Take a load off,” she suggested, so I went over to the lower bunk, the only seating option I saw in the room besides the desk chair.

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