Beg You to Trust Me (Lindon U #2)(7)
The morning I’d walked back to campus from the football house, few of my suitemates got one look of me closing the suite door and congratulated me on my first walk of shame like I should wear it like a medal.
I’d simply grabbed a fresh pair of clothes as quietly as possible because Becca was still sleeping and took a forty-minute shower that consisted of me trying to keep my sobs quiet until the water ran cold.
It hasn’t been easy keeping the events of that night at bay, but Becca hasn’t exactly made me feel like I could talk to her about it. And the longer time passes, the less I want to speak on it anyway. The night after the party, I’d lashed out at her for telling me the details of her latest boy obsession. I hadn’t cared about how cute he was or how many times he looked at her during their class. And I definitely didn’t want to hear about her intention of hooking up with him.
She called me a bitch.
I flipped her off.
The tension between us grew.
Hefting a sigh and forcing myself to forget about all of that for now, I ask, “Do you want to go to Huden with me for dinner?”
She pauses from applying eyeliner in the mirror to look at me. “I was planning on going into town with the girls to grab something to eat at the diner. Dee mentioned the bakery across the street being pretty good too, so we might stop there.” Her focus goes back to her makeup, carefully applying the black liner under her lashes before sighing. “Did you want to come with us?”
It’s an afterthought, a pity invite that makes my lips twitch into a frown, but I find myself taking it anyway. Mostly because I know Olive went home for the weekend to see her mom and, technically, I became friends with Deanna and Aliyah first. I’d met them both at orientation in the group we were all put in together. It was Becca that decided she wanted to be their friend, too, and took up most of their time with plans that she stopped inviting me to a while ago.
But despite the rocky start we’ve had, any company is better than sulking on my own. That’s when anxiety tightens itself around every organ until it squeezes me half to death.
When we all meet up at Birdseye Diner, I fall into conversation with the girls where I can but find myself tuning out and glancing out the large window that faces Main Street when they start talking about some band I don’t recognize.
All the buildings are similar to the ones on campus—brick, old, but renovated to attract students with their modern interiors. Lindon U is basically built in the center of the town of Lindon. It’s one big community. In a way, its small size and easily walkable location is what drew me to the campus in the first place. It feels homier than my parents’ house in Beverly Hills.
My attention is quickly drawn to a group of guys walking down the sidewalk opposite of the diner. They’re all tall, big, and loud. A few of them are laughing, one is shoving another until he almost gets pushed into the road where a car honks as it passes them and gets a few more laughs from the men built like mountains.
I lock up when I notice the one toward the back. He’s nudging the person next to him, and looks…familiar? The feeling doesn’t settle right in my stomach, and I have to force myself to look back at the girls, so I don’t investigate it.
“Didn’t think you’d be the type to drool over the jocks,” Becca muses, her smile smug as she notices the same group disappearing into a building with a Bea’s Bakery sign hanging above the door. “But I guess I shouldn’t be shocked since you were having a really good time at their party.”
Every muscle of mine freezes, ice slowly coating my bones as I slowly meet my roommate’s dark brown eyes. One of her eyebrows is quirked up in a challenging way, the same side of her lips tilting up like she knows exactly what happened that night.
But she doesn’t know.
Not really.
Because neither do I.
My nostrils flare as I meet her gaze straight on. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I tell her with false bravado.
Ali looks around me and frowns at the glass, missing the stare down between me and the ringleader of our little group. “I missed them! Where’d they go?”
“Bakery,” Dee says, pointing at the building in question. “We should stop there after we’re done. I hear their coffee is really good and they make their baked goods fresh every morning.”
That does sound good, but I don’t know how I feel about going in there if they’re all inside. I could make an excuse. Say I need to head back because I’ve got plans. Tell them I’m not feeling well. But considering I’ve used that excuse at least three other times in the past two weeks, I don’t think they’d buy it. It was hard enough hiding the antibiotics and taking them at a time Becca wasn’t around to witness my humiliation. She’d ask questions if she knew I asked Olive to take me to the clinic, and pry until she knew what I was taking and what it was for.
And the truth is, I didn’t trust her with that information.
My attempt at deterring them is weak at best, but I still try. “I thought you wanted to watch your carbs? Going there would derail all the progress you’ve made at the gym.”
They all look at me, my roommate’s eyes narrowing. My statement isn’t meant in offense, but it seems that’s how they all take it.
“We’re definitely going,” Becca decides, to spite me if nothing else. I’ve poked the bear, so I have no doubt she’s going to hold it against me if her attitude in the past is a clue.