The Singles

Giving me a withering stare, my suitemate clambers to her feet, clutches her laptop close to her chest and stomps into our suite. I hear three rapid taps on wood and then her shout, “Keep that shit down!” before she slams her bedroom door.

Lara gives me an apologetic look. “Ugh ... sorry, Evie. She’s just in a bad mood about that paper, and then now with Cori

Who the hell is Elliot? Suddenly, all thoughts about Rhys Delane fly out the window as my eyebrows jerk together in confusion. Lara flushes and stares down at her screen to avoid making eye contact.

“Daniel Hanson’s roommate? You know him, right?” I rack my brain for a second until a vague memory of the short, dark-haired guy I played beer pong against once pops into my head. Since then, I’ve seen him with Daniel, and I’ve seen him around my suite a couple times, but never with Cori

She stands up and peers into our suite at my closed door before shaking her head, the tail of her loose French braid swinging against her back. “Guess that’s over. Night, Evie.”

***

To my relief, and disappointment, Rhys is distant the next day and during our next lesson on Monday, so I’m not left thinking too hard on him. I’m grateful for this because, though I swore up and down to myself I wouldn’t let anything like this happen to me this year, I find myself caught in the middle of a rift between Cori

I’ve been avoiding saying anything directly to Cori

It’s not until a week later on Friday, when Cori

“What’s up?”

“What do I do about Ha

I trace my fingertip along the cold rim of my Coke can. “Do you think you were wrong?”

“They weren’t dating,” she quickly assures me, which I already know. Lowering her green eyes to her hands, she shrugs. “I know what she’s saying about me. She won’t say it to my face because I’m guessing she’s afraid I’ll go off on her or something, but I know she’s telling anyone who’ll listen that I’m a slut.”

Even when it’s not being directed at me, I hate that word. Hate it with a passion. I stab my plastic fork into my untouched hamburger and shake my head. “She hasn’t called you that to me.”

Cori

Daniel. Learning that Cori

I want to tell her that all of this has happened to me, and I don’t want her to screw herself up like I did.

But before I can say anything, she sucks in a deep breath and when I lift my eyes from my tray, I realize that her expression has fallen. “You know what? Never mind.” Grabbing her bag, she jumps up from the table. “Forget I asked. I’ll figure it out on my own.”

“Wait.” I come to my feet ready to go after her, but she continues to walk quickly, nearly knocking over Nathan as he walks toward my table.

“Shit,” I grind out, slamming back into my seat. I massage each of my index fingers over either side of my nose and shoot a look over at him, meeting his questioning blue eyes. “It’s not you, it’s just—”

“Trouble in paradise?”

I groan. “Even worse. Fight between her and one of our suitemates.”

“That bad?”

Rubbing my hands over my face, I nod. “So much that I’m actually foaming at the mouth for fall break to come in a few weeks,” I admit, hating that my words are actually true. Since returning to Richmond after Labor Day a couple weeks ago, I’ve talked to my parents a total of two times. Still, I’ll take their love-stoned, let’s-pretend-nothing-ever-happened and my father pointing out how lucky I am he picked up the tab after my music scholarship was cancelled any day over living in my hostile suite.

At least at home, there are two other floors I can exile myself to if things get out of hand.

Cringing, Nathan takes a bite of his steak wrap. “Fun times. Sadly—and I guess, luckily—I’ve seen my suitemates maybe once, and my roommate is always gone.”

I swirl one of my fries around in ketchup and then wipe my hands on a napkin. “I’d go with luckily.”

We finish lunch together in silence, before I head to my last class of the afternoon—English. I’m distracted the entire time, mostly because of Cori

I’m in my own world as I leave Stanfield Hall and cut through the student union to get to my lesson on time, so I don’t hear my name being called until strong fingers touch my shoulder. I jerk around in surprise, relaxing just a little when my eyes skim over Daniel’s face.

“Seriously. That is the quickest way to get pepper-sprayed, Hollister,” I inform him hotly, spi

“Hollister?”

Dodging his question, I point up ahead to McGregor Hall, the music building. “I’ve got a voice lesson and my instructor is a real bitch if I’m late, so what’s up?”

“Cori

“Can you let her know she doesn’t have to avoid my texts?” he finally asks.

My lips part in surprise, but I quickly blurt out, “Sure. I mean, of course. I’ll tell her when I see her tonight.”

I start to tell him that my undecided opinion of him just went up ten notches, but then he flashes me a straight white grin, his eyes dipping to give me a swift once-over, from the brown suede toes of my flats to the hat on my head, taking in every inch of my olive skin that’s visible along the way, and I scale that back to five notches.

He starts to say something else, but then he shakes his head. “I appreciate it, Evie,” he says before taking off in the opposite direction.

But I’m smiling when I enter the practice room a few minutes later with thirty seconds to spare. After five minutes of sitting at the piano bench, waiting alone, though, that smile begins to fade.