Page 10 of The Casualty of Us (Philosophies of the Heart Duet #1)

Chapter Five

The first week of classes passes easily enough after that, with the boys joining us for the ones we share and Ollie popping over for dinner a couple of times as well.

He spends the time in my dorm either griping at me about how tired I look or staring in complete confusion at Marley.

It took me a minute to catch on to it, because he’s not usually at such a loss, but after his fifth attempt at conversation with her, during which she barely paid attention to him…

I finally got it. Then I proceeded to tease him mercilessly as soon as she left the room about how there’s at least one woman on the planet Earth who’s immune to his charms. Only fair in my opinion since the object of his attention has been doing the same to me about a certain rock star’s son.

All in all, a good week for the most part, though.

Even the part on Friday where our debate teacher told us to pair off and pick a topic to argue using the outline she provided us.

Hayes wasted no time in snagging the seat beside mine and spending the next hour arguing his point of why I should come to the lake with everyone else the next day.

I told him at the end that it was debatable whether he won or not, pun intended, but since he’d fed me all week, I’d consider it.

Which is why I’m now laid out on the dock in my one-piece cutout suit and a pair of jean shorts, tuning in absently to Marley’s chatter with Evie and Kennedy while watching the guys play around in the water with one of the school’s canoes.

Poor Holden lies out in the middle like a sacrificial animal, holding on as Ollie and Hayes rock either end in an attempt to tip it.

Ollie gets a little overenthusiastic with his next rock, sending himself headfirst into the water and making my lips lift with amusement.

Hayes’s open laughter draws my gaze next, and all that warm skin has me trying and failing not to run my eyes down to the cutout of his abs.

I barely jerk them away by the time my twin pops back up laughing, pulling himself back into the boat without feeling the need to check on my location and making my chest loosen with a bit of relief.

Maybe this place will be a good thing for us.

“Your brother’s hot, O.”

“Gross.” I snort, turning my head to the girls and meeting Kennedy’s appreciative eyes. “And don’t let him hear you say that or else I’ll have to spend the next year deflating his ego.”

“Pretty sure he’s already heard it a time or two.”

I roll my eyes at her appreciative grin. “He still doesn’t need any more encouragement.”

“Even I can admit he’s particularly pleasing,” Evie sighs.

“That’s enough trauma for me for one afternoon.” I wrinkle my nose, lifting up just enough to take a sip of the hard seltzer that Marley found somewhere. “Can we please change the subject now?”

I’m not usually a drinker but I’m also in college now, so I figure I might as well take a second to enjoy it.

“Fine by me.” Marley smirks down at me with an innocent bat of her lashes. “Want to discuss a particular rock star’s son that’s smitten with you instead?”

I scowl up at her. “No.”

“Come on, Ophelia.” She pokes my arm. “Give us all the dirty details.”

“Trust me,” I scoff. “There are no dirty details to give.”

I’m still just trying to keep my own shit together most of the time.

“Right, nothing,” Kennedy chimes in doubtfully. “That’s what has every girl in our dorm talking about you two’s little tie routine like it’s the second coming of Damon Salvatore.”

“It’s nothing .” I narrow my eyes, making sure to look them all over while tacking on, “He’s a shameless flirt who likes to get a reaction out of me. That’s all.”

Marley giggles at me. “Whatever you say, Bookish.”

“I do say.” I push up onto my elbows, lifting my chin with a haughty sniff. “So glad you understand how things work.”

“Ophelia, Ophelia.” I look over at the sound of Evie’s voice, not at all liking the sly look in her eyes. “The lady doth—”

“Don’t you dare.”

“Protests too much, methinks.”

“Oh god,” I groan, dropping back down and covering my face with my hands. “Anything but Hamlet, please.”

The girls all start laughing at my expense until Ollie’s voice interrupts us suddenly.

“Ladies.” I turn my head to see my twin hanging off the side of the dock next to me. “Can I interest you in a game of Marco Polo?”

“Marco Polo?” I immediately dive into my duty of ego deflation. “What are you, five?”

Unfortunately, Evie pipes up before my words can have much effect. “I’ll play.”

“Same,” Kennedy adds.

Ollie shoots me a smug look, and I roll my eyes at him as he tacks on, “Marley?” A hopefulness to his voice that most people probably wouldn’t catch. “Want to play?”

“What the hell.” I turn my head in time to catch her shrug carelessly. “I’m not one to turn down a good game.”

“You going to come, O?”

“Nah.” I look back at Ollie with a dramatic sigh. “Not looking for a repeat of us trying to drown each other again.”

“I didn’t try to drown you,” he grumbles.

“No,” I agree seriously, even dropping my brows a little before shooting him a grin.

“You just complained to Mom for a week that you still had water in your lungs from your near brush with death and screamed ‘Five feet!’ anytime I came into the room.” The girls burst into laughter around me, and Ollie’s cheeks turn pink as he quickly pushes off the dock, leaving me to wiggle my fingers at him while calling out, “But have fun, big brother!”

Marley smirks at me while pulling off her cover-up. “You’re terrible.”

“And don’t you forget it.” I laugh softly, closing my eyes as the splashes of them getting in the water fill the air around me.

The sun on my skin relaxes me to the point of admitting to myself that I’m probably too tired to even keep myself afloat in the water right now.

A week of school with almost no sleep has sent my energy levels plummeting and it’s taken everything in me to just stay in the present the past couple of days.

To keep my mind from drifting too far off in classes.

To battle the dull pound that starts up in my head by midday.

That’s how it happens, though.

The less sleep I get these days…the more the memories seem to pull at me.

Maybe I can catch a quick nap out here. It’d be easier to do with Ollie’s voice reassuringly calling out Marco in the distance than alone in my dorm anyway.

I fold my hands over my stomach, decision made, and blow out a deep breath that has my body practically melting against the warm wood of the dock, fully prepared to drift so that my mind can finally find some rest when a drop of cool water falls against my cheek. Quickly followed by another.

“You’re stunning, you know that?”

I crack my eyes to see Hayes leaning over me with water dripping down from the strands of his black hair to settle against my skin.

“You’re supposed to be playing a game,” I chide automatically.

“I lost.”

He grins like the opposite is true, and my brows fall. “In two minutes?”

“What can I say?” He reaches over, bracing his hand on my other side and effectively caging me in. “Marco Polo.” All traces of amusement leave his face. “Just not the game I was born to play.”

“Well, I have news for you.” I reach up and give his shoulder a hard push, making him topple to my left. “Neither am I.”

He falls to the dock with a laugh before propping himself up on his elbow to stare down at me unapologetically.

“Hey, Hayes.”

I look over in time to catch one of the cheerleader girls from the other day smiling as she passes us by with a couple of her friends.

“Hey, Josey.” Hayes nods at her in greeting, and the words pop out before I can stop them.

“Isn’t she like a junior?”

“I don’t know, I guess.” He shrugs, eyes lighting up happily when ours lock a second later. “Why do you care?”

“I don’t,” I scoff, quickly closing my own again. “Just making an observation.”

“Mm-hmm,” he murmurs, going silent for so long that I almost start to drift off before he breathes out quietly. “Freckles.”

He punctuates the soft word with an even lighter touch as his fingers trace down the bridge of my nose.

Feathering across my skin and making me take a deep breath that carries something like cedar up my nose before reluctantly cracking my eyes again.

Staring up at his gaze that seems transfixed by the faint splattering of marks across my nose and allowing the contact for a moment more.

“You’ve got to stop it,” I finally sigh. “People are starting to get ideas about us.”

He smirks, lifting his finger from my skin. “And that’s a bad thing?”

“Yes.” I admonish seriously. “Yes, it is.”

“Debatable.” He shrugs, stealing my seltzer and taking a sip like it’s his own. “We can argue it next week in class.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Too bad.” His gaze runs over my face once before coming back to mine. “What was it like being kidnapped?”

I blink at him. “Are you serious?”

“Very.” He nods. “I don’t like feeling like I’m walking on eggshells around you when it comes to it.”

“What makes you—you’re just—absolutely,” I sputter ineffectually, mind whirling for the proper way to tell him to fuck off before settling on caustically pushing back. “What’s it like having a rock star for a father?”

Hoping to distract him for long enough that I can get enough breath to read him the riot act, but then he goes and knocks it from me again.

“Absent.” His eyes drift away from mine, but the emptiness in that single word holds more answers than a dozen ever could. “Absent,” he repeats with another small shrug. “But the old man invited me along for his tour next summer, so that’s something, I guess.”

I quickly look away as his gaze comes back to mine again. “Yeah.” Clearing my throat and staring at the sky instead, I finish off, “Yeah, I guess it is.”

Don’t do it, Ophelia.

Don’t you dare fall for his poor little rich boy with absently famous parents routine. Don’t tell him—

“Your turn, Freckles.”

“Goddammit.”