Page 6 of Paper Doll

I chuckle to myself as I watch her storm off, then jog to catch up again as she pushes the heavy door open. “Are you always this friendly?” I ask, following her outside.

“Are you always this persistent?” she fires back.

“Hey, I’m just trying to be a nice guy here, do my part by helping out a new student,” I drawl as I keep in step with her. She comes to an abrupt halt at the intersection of the sidewalk, her head snapping left, then right.

She clearly has no idea where she’s going.

“Just let me show you to the dorms,” I coax, stepping around to plant myself in front of her again. “Since you’re new around here, I’m betting you could use a friend.”

Her gaze darts up to meet mine, delicate throat bobbing with a hard swallow. Indecision flickers in her expression as she sinksher teeth into her pouty lower lip, eyes darting side to side, then returning to my own with a look of resignation. “Fine,” she breathes, her shoulders slumping.

My lips spread into a victorious grin. Seems like she responds better to the gentle, nice guy shit. I suppose I can work with that.

“C’mon,” I urge, tipping my head in the direction of Sutton Hall. “I’m headed that way anyways.”

She blows out a breath and nods, taking my lead as I start down the sidewalk.

“So, what’s your story, Ava?” I ask as I steer her to a fork in the path that weaves between the main building and the rest of campus.

She shrugs, gaze fixed on the ground as we walk. “There’s not much to it.”

“C’mon,” I probe. “Where’d you transfer from?”

“Just a small community college in the city.”

“New York?”

“Mhmm.”

I glance over at her with renewed interest, searching my mind for some flicker of recognition. Everyone who goes to school here is from some prominent family or other, and if she’s from NYC, we would’ve run in the same circles growing up. Odd, because I swear I’ve never laid eyes on this girl before today. She’s hot as fuck– if we’d met previously, Idefinitelywould’ve remembered. Though I suppose she could’ve slid by under my radar if she had a recent glow-up.

“How’d you wind up here?” I question, fishing for information to fill in the blanks.

“My new stepdad.”

Ah, there it is.Her mom must’ve married into money. A lot of money, if she was able to buy her way into this place, or a family name that’s worth even more.

“Let me guess, he dumped you here so he’d have your mom all to himself?” I snort.

Ava grinds to an abrupt halt, pivoting in my direction and cutting me a glare. “It’s not like that,” she snaps defensively.

Shit, guess that struck a nerve.

I hold up my hands in surrender. “Hey, I didn’t mean anything by it. Bad joke.”

Ava heaves a sigh, scrubbing a hand over her face. “Sorry, I’m just…” she trails off, kicking a toe against the cement walkway underfoot. “I’m having a really weird day. This whole thing was just sprung on me this morning, and I’m not a fan of change.” A pretty blush paints her cheeks as she peeks up at me through her eyelashes. “I swear I’m not always such an uptight bitch.”

“You’re not being a bitch,” I reassure, intercepting her as she brings her hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear for what seems like the tenth fucking time. My fingertips graze the soft skin of her cheek as I sweep the strands back for her, letting my fingers linger just a little longer than necessary. “I get it. Change is hard. But this place isn’t so bad, you’ll see.”

She nods, her cheeks reddening to a deeper hue. “Can we just… start over?”

The corner of my mouth ticks up as I shift closer.Got her. “Sure.”

She takes a miniscule step back as if she’s flustered by my proximity, which tells me she’s on the hook. Now I’ve just gotta reel her in.

The two of us start walking again, coming upon the back entrance of Sutton Hall, the co-ed dormitory that the entire student body of Corvus College calls home.

“This is it,” I say, gesturing to the door.