Page 59 of The Casualty of Us (Philosophies of the Heart Duet #1)

Chapter Thirty

I lay upside down on the boys’ couch, a Sour Punch Straw hanging from my mouth, and stare at Hayes’s door.

Pretty sure I’m in a permanent sugar coma after our two-day sleepover in the guys’ living room, during which we binged not only the Matrix trilogy but also all of the Jurassic Park movies at my insistence.

Falling asleep to the TV playing every night with Ollie’s hand in mine and Hayes eventually curling himself around me at some point with a soft kiss pressed to the top of my head.

Neither of us brought up what happened at Graham’s during those two days, but the change was there regardless.

In the constant pull now. In the little ways he seeks out my skin and I seek out his without really thinking about it. Even in our sleep.

Ollie starts to hum the Jeopardy! tune rather loudly from the chair on my left, and I snort a laugh, calling out to the door, “Hurry up! I want to see!”

“What do you think it is?”

I turn my head while sucking some of the sugar off of the straw, mumbling out around it. “Bet he has another tattoo somewhere.”

His face falls into a scowl. “What do you mean another?”

“Nothing.”

Someone drops something in the hallway loud enough to be heard through the dorm door, and another person shouts back. All of it brings a small smile to my face at the sounds of everyone moving back in around us again.

Right before Hayes’s door opens, and the Sour Punch Straw drops from my mouth.

He runs a hand through his hair. “What do you think?”

“Dude,” Ollie scoffs a disbelieving laugh. “What the fuck did you do?”

“Cheyenne showed me how.” He shoots Ollie a put-out look, messing with the silvery-blue strands that still show off his black roots. “I was going to do it before coming back, but I got a little distracted.”

Ollie sputters, barely getting out, “You spent your summer learning how to do hair from a girl?”

He gasps for a single breath before busting out laughing as Hayes narrows his eyes at him. “I spent my summer learning about girls from a girl who likes them too.” It effectively shuts Ollie up as a dumbstruck expression fills his face and Hayes lifts a brow at him. “What’d you learn, Oliver?”

I blink, staring at the guy who just launched himself right up there beside the legends of rock with a…well, not crappy, but decent enough dye job in the bathroom. Eyes not really sure where to look considering that he must have taken off his shirt to dye the hair and those sweatpants are hangin—

“Freckles?” I snap my mouth shut and lift my gaze back up to find a thoroughly amused look filling his face. “What do you think?”

“I think…” I sigh deeply, prolonging the suspense for a moment before sucking in another breath to deadpan, “I hate you so, so very much.”

His dimples cut deep. “Then I’m doing something right.”

“Wait,” Ollie mumbles. “What exactly did she teach you? Like hair stuff or like… other st—”

The door to their dorm bursts open, cutting him off and making all of our heads turn toward where Marley is standing with panic written all over her.

“ Where have you been?! ” she screeches as soon as her eyes land on me, doing something between a run and a march while continuing to berate me. “I have been waiting over an hour for you to show up.”

I barely have time to lift myself up before she’s grabbing my hand, completely ignoring the boys while hauling me off the couch.

Leaving me to stare at her in bewilderment before she starts to tug me toward Hayes’s room.

Barely having time to glance back at the guys in confusion before she slams the door.

“What the fuck?” I stare at her as she hops between one foot and the other. “What—”

“I accidentally slept with my cousin.” She pauses, her face turning beet red as she adds so quickly I can barely keep up. “Except I didn’t know he was my cousin—and it’s only through marriage, not biologically, but I still threw up in my mouth a little bit when I found out.”

“Holy shit,” I whisper stupidly at her. “That is definitely not the news I expected you to come back from summer break with.”

Her hands fly up to cover her mouth for a moment like she might be sick, and she nods before gasping. “Not helpful!”

“Sorry.” I cringe. “How did that even—”

A rattle of the door has me stopping short and turning to look at it with narrowed eyes, not really needing to confirm my suspicions, but…

I give her a small smile. “One second,” I grab the handle of the door, pulling it open to let Hayes and Ollie topple to the floor at our feet with similar horror-filled expressions before adding casually. “Maybe we should take this back to our place.”

I’m a little blurry eyed the next morning when I walk into the mess hall.

A night of talking Marley off the ledge as she panicked pretty much continuously has me dragging as badly as my first day of last year.

The happiness that’s lingering from the blissful two days before that, though…

that’s new. As is the smile that lights up my face when I see Holden sitting at our usual table.

I skip over there, wrapping my arms around him from behind and sighing dramatically. “I missed you so much friend.”

He stiffens in surprise for a second before a quiet laugh leaves him, and he glances back. “Missed you too, O.”

“Little ol’ me?” I gasp in mock surprise, lifting a hand to my chest. “You don’t say.”

I give him another squeeze before letting go to make my way over to my designated seat on the other side of the table, sliding into place next to Ollie and dropping my backpack from my shoulders while looking Hayes over this morning.

A grin tugs at my lips as he meets my gaze across the table and slides my mug over before flipping his tray sideways.

Restarting the year.

“Dimples.”

“Freckles.”

I look down into the mug with a soft snort as Marley chimes in curiously, “Wait a second—”

“Marley, have you checked your schedule yet?” I interrupt quickly, ignoring the probing look she shoots me and instead grabbing my backpack to pull my tablet out. “I didn’t get a chance last night, and I really hope I don’t have to walk far this morning.”

“Yeah.” She nods, giving me the side-eye but complying anyway. “I have poli sci first thing and intro to business later today.”

“Damn.” I start to navigate through the tablet to my schedule, grumbling, “I really hope I don’t have poli sci first. Isn’t that up on the third floor? I really was hoping for no stai—”

No. That’s not right.

That’s clearly a very big fucking error because there’s no way I would sign up for that.

“O?”

Ollie’s shoulder bumps mine, and I jerk my head up, staring at him before realization has me snapping. “I’ll be right back.”

I shoot out of my seat, head already turning as I look for the little herd of forest green and white.

My eyes slitting the second they land on her and leaving me momentarily fighting the urge to take a different object to another cheerleader’s face.

I grasp the tablet in my hand and remind myself with each step over there that she did hold my hair.

She held my hair. She held my hair. She held—

“What the fuck is this?” I slide the tablet down the table to where Lisette is sitting at its head, pointing at the schedule on it as she lifts her gaze to me expectantly. “That. Right there.”

She heaves a sigh worthy of her new queendom, looking down as we both pointedly ignore the other sycophants. “I don’t see a problem.”

“It’s saying that my athletics credit has been filled with cheerleading!”

“Again.” She waves a hand at me like I need to hurry it up. “What’s the big deal?” I narrow my eyes at her, opening my mouth to snap that this is a very big and incorrect deal, when she shrugs innocently. “I mean, you do owe me a favor.”

No.

I clench my jaw at her implications, hissing out between my teeth, “No way.”

She pauses at that, holding my gaze for a moment before looking me up and down with a slow perusal.

“You got great bones, Fitzroy, but you need to learn how to play well with others if you ever want to make it to the big leagues.” Her eyes come back to mine with amusement.

“I’ve taken a personal interest in flushing you out, so you’ll be my little this year as well. ”

Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit. I never should have let her hold my hair.

Maybe if she realizes what a cluster this will be. “I’ve never even been a—”

“And this way, neither of us has to deal with Josey moping around during practices.” She lifts a brow at me in challenge. “Or was I wrong about all this, and you don’t owe me a favor?”

Any hope I had of escaping this somehow flees me at that, leaving me glaring at her while accepting that apparently there’s going to be a whole lot this year I didn’t count on.

Because I made the deal and…she was right, which she clearly knows by the smirk on her face, but I didn’t think she’d make me do this .

“Fine,” I snap, trying to retain at least some of my dignity while whispering loudly, “But I’m not sitting here every day.”

I spin around as her laughter fills the air behind me, and she calls out. “See you at practice on Friday!”

Fuck.

I inhale sharply through my nose while heading back to the table, noticing the way everyone’s wide eyes are on me, and retaking my seat silently.

“Um,” Ollie snorts next to me. “Care to share with the rest of class?”

“I’m guessing this has something to do with your newfound friendship?” Hayes lifts his brows.

“You could say that.”

“Wait,” Marley interrupts for a second time. “You became friends with the devil this summer?”

I roll my eyes, mumbling while looking over my schedule again. “She held my hair.”

“So what’s the deal?”