Page 3 of The Casualty of Us (Philosophies of the Heart Duet #1)

“Never too late, O.” He chuckles, pushing open the door and stepping out before standing back to wait for me with a face full of mischief. “The rock star life would suit you.”

“True.” I step out and cock my head to the side while looking up to where he stands a good eight or so inches taller than me these days. “Think of all the hot guys I could bang as an international rock star.”

His face immediately falls. “Not funny.” He turns toward Sutton while muttering under his breath, “No banging will be taking place on my watch.”

I snort a laugh as he takes off, leaving me hurrying to catch up before quipping back, “You too, right?”

Because that was just mean of him.

He comes to a sudden stop, tipping his head back. “Kill me now.”

“Sorry, Ollie.” I reach up to flick his nose while passing him by. “Couldn’t live without my other half.”

“Ophelia!”

Aunt Sutton smiles openly with the greeting and closes the remaining distance between us, quickly wrapping me in a hug that takes me a couple of seconds to return. Awkward at the close contact and obvious warmth from someone I don’t remember all that well. Clearly she isn’t a bubble person, though.

“Look at you.” She steps back with a happy sigh before lifting her fingers to the ends of my brown waves and looking me over as if checking for injuries. “All grown up.”

“Yep,” I drag out, forcing my lips up a bit. “I hear that’s how it happens.”

Not really sure what I’m supposed to say but not wanting to be rude either.

“Yes, yes,” she hurries, finally letting go of my hair and allowing me the space to take a breath again. “Don’t mind me. I’m just so thankful to see you doing well after, well—” Her words come to a stumbling stop, and my mind supplies the rest of it into the empty space.

The kidnapping.

After the kidnapping.

Right.

She turns to Oliver then, quickly regaining her previous smile and holding out her arms again. “And Oliver!”

“Aunt Sutton.” He steps into her hug with much more ease than I did, turning his head to shoot a smug look my way. “So good to see you again.”

I stick my tongue out at him behind her back and hitch my backpack up higher as they break apart, fully ready to get a move on with this now.

“Well.” She looks between the two of us like we’re Christmas morning come to life. “I made sure you both arrived an hour earlier than the next round of students moving in so that I could be available to show you around.”

“Thank you so much for taking the time.” Ollie grins in return. “I can’t tell you how excited we are to be here.”

Her smile grows impossibly wider, and I have to stop my eyes from repeatedly rolling around in my head at how thick he’s laying it on.

“All right!” Sutton claps her hands together before gesturing to her right. “Let’s get going then.”

She and Ollie start down the path leading around the admin building, and I trail behind them. More than happy to let him be the lead here and not have to be her direct source of chatter as she starts to give us both the rundown on the campus.

“My office is here in the admin building, of course, along with the health center and various other administrators. Although hopefully I won’t be seeing too much of you both since students are typically only sent to my office for disciplinary reasons.

” She laughs at her own joke while looking back over her shoulder at me, pausing for long enough that I get the sense her brown eyes seem to be considering whether I really will be one of those students or not.

It has me forcing out a weak laugh before nodding at her. “Right.”

She turns back to the path as we come around the corner of the building, and Ollie shoots me a scowl behind her back this time.

“What?” I mouth back.

He rolls his eyes back around to smile politely as Sutton continues to chatter on about the history of the school, making me frown because we both know if either of us is ending up in her office, it’ll more than likely be him.

Not that he won’t talk his way out of whatever it is…but I would make sure to never get caught in the first place. Most of the time, anyway.

We come to the end of the admin building, and I can’t help but stop as the rest of the campus comes into sight. Sprawling out below us in a bowl-shaped valley with the rest of the buildings done in the same red brick style and the surrounding forest appearing endless from here.

The building directly in front of us at the base of the hill draws my attention first though, being the most unique one of the bunch.

Its two-story circular shape is almost entirely made of windows that wrap around it and are broken up only by the structural support of the brick.

Almost like a rotunda. Courtyards jut off from both the left and right of the building with a bunch of stone picnic benches as well, and I spy several students already sitting among them.

“Coming, Ophelia?”

Sutton’s voice makes me jolt, drawing my attention to where she and Ollie are waiting for me at the base of the hill.

“Yeah.” I swallow, hurrying down after them. “Sorry, just taking it in.”

“I understand.” She smiles, pointing to the building I was just inspecting.

“This is the mess hall where you’ll have all your meals.

We don’t keep a strict schedule on the timing of them but the kitchen does close at ten p.m. every night, so be sure to eat or get whatever you’d like by then.

” I force myself to pay attention to what she’s saying since it seems to be necessary for my survival and ignore the curious glances we get while passing the other students sitting outside.

“You’ll order all your meals through the tablet provided to you by the school.

There’s a preset menu of options each day and a designated pickup area inside. ”

We pass close by a small group of girls that are already wearing what look like some kind of dance uniforms. The strips of forest green and white fabric leave a slim strip of stomach on display with Pinecrest emblazoned across their chests.

Oliver drops behind Sutton slightly, lagging back with me and suddenly standing taller with a grin on his face that has an immediate scowl rising on mine.

I lift a hand and shove at his back, making him stumble on past as Sutton continues, pointing to a large, six-story building on our left.

“This is where most of the arts and language classes are held. Each department has its own floor.” She moves her finger to the right as we pass the mess hall, and I catch sight of a matching building there.

“That building houses all the math and science classes. It’s honestly a little bit of a hodgepodge, but the lower level-classes are typically held on the bottom two floors, with the top two being reserved for more advanced areas of study such as computer coding. ”

Right. So avoid the math building at all costs.

“And here.” She comes to a stop while gesturing proudly to the most ornate-looking building I’ve seen yet. Its three stories of red brick filled with evenly spaced windows that are crawling with ivy, and a smattering of chimneys decorate the arched roofline. “We have the library.”

“Please,” Ollie starts dramatically. “Whatever you do, don’t let O go in or we won’t make it out for the rest of the year.”

Sutton laughs softly. “Yes, it’s a favorite of mine as well.

” She gives me a wink that I return with a more genuine lift of my lips this time before she sets out again, pointing to a two-story building peeking out at us from the left, with the curved front of it reminding me of the mess hall.

“Back there is what the students here affectionately refer to as church. It serves as our assembly hall and also hosts theater productions and the like.”

We follow along after her quietly as she takes us past the library to where six large buildings sit behind it.

Each one is five stories tall with pretty arched front doors and more evenly spaced windows.

The farthest from us has the most students milling around the front of it, but Sutton veers to the left and brings us to the last building in the row, only giving me the chance to run my eyes over it once and catch the word “Excelsior” etched into the stone over the entrance before bringing us to a stop.

“And this is home,” she sighs happily. “For you two at least.” A clear fondness to her voice as she turns to point out the dorms while naming them off right to left. “Meloria, Orion, Sirius, Polaris, Meteora, and Excelsior.”

“Can’t miss that theme,” I mumble, words tumbling out before my mind can censor them, and Ollie’s resounding snort has Sutton giving us another polite smile.

“No, I suppose you can’t.” She nods back at the Excelsior dorm.

“Please think of your dorm as a home. Everyone in it is a freshman, same as you, and your room won’t change during the entirety of your four years here unless you choose to live off campus.

Neither will your dormmates.” My brows fall a little at that, weighing the pros and cons internally as she continues.

“We do things a bit differently that way, feeling that it fosters closer relationships among our students.” She turns back to us with a laugh.

“You can even leave your things here during the summer if you want, and no one will touch them.”

“Thanks, Aunt Sutton,” Ollie interjects, saving me from having to respond while considering the possible cons of having the same roommate for the next four years of my life. What if she’s nosy? Or overly peppy?

I need her to at least understand basic privacy and appreciate some silence if we’re going to be able to cohabitate. Plus my insomniac tendencies these days.

She’ll need to ignore those.

Possibly my random late-night absences too.

Fuck.

I definitely should have requested a private room or something. Used this Sutton connection to its full advantage. But then I would have had to self-flagellate over taking up a whole dorm just because of my trauma.

Fuck.