𝐈𝐧𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝

Chapter Two: The Asteroid

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," Raine mumbled as she dragged me over to the common room door. I laughed at her determination to beat Sam there and watched as she burst through the door.

"Let's go!" she exclaimed, fist-pumping and turning around to meet my eyes with an excited expression. They weren't here yet.

"Just go get your board game or whatever, I'm going to read," I said, walking over to the couch and tossing myself onto it. My muscles were still sore even though the hot shower loosened some of the stress. I lifted my knees to my chest and opened my book. Before I dove in, I glanced at Raine who was picking up the Connect Four box.

"Sam's gonna be pissed," I said, turning back to my book and smirking. Raine just scoffed.

"The rule was, if you get to the room first, you pick the game," she pointed out. "And it doesn't matter if we played it last time. It's a great game. And I always win." Raine winked at me and started setting up the board game. I laughed and turned back to my book, feeling more than excited to read about the end of Jay Gatsby's epic story.

I had reached the last few pages of the book and felt completely wrapped in the moment until the sound of a door opening made me flinch in surprise.

"The party has arrived," Charlie said, running a hand through his damp hair as Sam ran over to Raine and started whining about the game. Charlie plopped down on the other end of the sofa in front of me. Without moving my head, my eyes flitted to just above the top of my book to see him lean forward, but then lean back and groan when he saw the cover of my book.

"Seriously? The Great Gatsby again? You've read that like five times this month."

I closed the book and looked back at him.

"You know it's actually a good book. I think you could learn a lot from it, even if it's just how to spell simple compound words," I teased, smirking back at Charlie who rolled his eyes. "And besides, I'm almost done with it. You'll be happy to know that I'm reading--," I was cut off by Charlie leaning over and snatching the book next to me.

"Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Wow, Nora. I can't tell which one I'd rather read more. A book that requires learning or a book written when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth."

"You learn things from both books, dumbass," I countered, snatching the book out of Charlie's hands who snickered.

"But why learn when you can spend time with yours truly." Charlie opened his arms to gesture to himself.

"I spend enough time with you already, Charlie. And I've got a chapter about the event horizon that is calling my name, so if you don't mind," I gestured to the Great Gatsby in my hands that I was about to finish.

"Only someone obsessed with astronomy would say that. Now, put the book down and talk to me," Charlie replied.

I huffed and rested my book on my stomach, showing that I was complying, but I made sure to flash him a sarcastic smile so he knew how displeased I was about having my reading time interrupted, especially when I was so close to a brilliant ending. Charlie grinned in triumph.

"So, Charlie, what do you want to talk about, hm? You want to talk about Mia?" I wiggled my eyebrows at the mention of Mia while Charlie groaned. He leaned back and dropped his head off the edge of the couch. "What, do you not want to talk anymore?"

Charlie grumbled at my attempt to tease him about Mia. "It's getting weird now. She asked if I wanted to go to get ice cream and watch a movie with her."

I picked up on the seriousness of his tone so I decided to tone down the sarcasm. "Well, do you want to?" I asked.

"Want to what?"