Page 96 of A University of Betrayal

“Bay?” I asked in alarm, and she lifted her head toward the window, staring with concentration into the void.

“Do you feel that too?” she asked quietly. “This energy?”

What was she talking about?

My chest filled with worry.

“No,” I replied, confused. “Are you all right? Are you cold?”

I didn’t feel any pain, which should have calmed me down, but instead it had the opposite effect.

Bay suddenly shook her head. “No, I was just dizzy for a moment.”

Suddenly, her cell phone buzzed and Bayla flinched. She stared at the display for a moment, and when I followed her gaze, I realized it was her alarm clock.

I raised an eyebrow. “Why is your alarm clock ringing at this time of day?”

It was six o’clock in the evening.

“It’s called apill alarm clock,”Bayla explained and continued eating.

I eyed her suspiciously.

“For those pills your mother makes you take?”

“No,” she said quickly. “For the other pill.”

I felt lost. Was she taking more medication that she didn’t know the effects of?

“The contraceptive pill.”

Realization spread through me, accompanied by embarrassment.

“Oh...” was all I could get out, and I felt warmth shoot into my head, but Bayla didn’t seem to notice.

“Youreallydon’t seem to know anything about women, can that be?” she said with a smirk and that playful twinkle in her eyes that automatically made me return her smile. “That must be a total turn-off for Emely.”

I leaned back in my seat with fake indignation. “What’sthatsupposed to mean now?”

Did she think I didn’t know how the female body worked? I had never slept with a woman before, but I was no longer a thirteen-year-old teenage boy who had no idea about anything. It had just taken me a little longer to understand what kind of pill she was talking about.

“Nothing,” she just said and grinned mischievously which made me squint at her.

“What’s going on in your head, Blueberry?”

“Julian!” she blurted, confirming that this nickname was an excellent choice for her.

I watched in amusement as she reached for my glass of water, removed a white pill from a blister pack and took it.

I wondered why she was taking the pill at all. After all, she didn’t have a boyfriend as far as I knew, and she didn’t seem to be the type for one-night stands. She probably just took the pill because it had other benefits for her.

“What?” Bayla asked. I realized only now that I had been staring at her the whole time and shook my head.

“Nothing.”

I decided it wasn’t a good idea to bring up her sex life, simply because it was none of my business. We were neighbors, and she was a Quatura who hadn’t really liked me until two weeks ago.

Hubble Confesses