Dead Girl Walking ― Aaron Minyard

42. illicit affairs

take the words for what they are
a dwindling, mercurial high
a drug that only worked
the first few hundred times
― taylor swift

♦

LIFE RESUMED, AS IT SOMEHOW ALWAYS DID. Mara and Aaron had signed up for this semester's classes together, and though they shared none, the times and locations lined up to where they could walk together from Fox Tower to their ten-thirty classes after morning practice. 

Thankfully for them both, Andrew and Kevin had ten-thirty classes in the opposite direction, so Mara and Aaron could meet in front of Fox Tower and walk to their respective classes without having to worry about his brother causing problems.

 "Has Andrew said anything to you?" Aaron asked her. 

Mara shook her head. "He hasn't even looked at me since he got back," she said. "Probably a good thing, right?" 

Aaron's fingers tensed between hers, and he tightened his grip on her hand ever so slightly. "Maybe," he agreed. "Or maybe it's the calm before the storm." 

"I guess it is too much to hope he'll ignore me for the rest of college, right?" Mara said with a sigh. 

"If he says something, or does something, tell me," Aaron said, practically begging. "If he tries to hurt you—" 

"He won't," Mara said, but it was more hope than fact, and they both knew it.

"I'll do something," he insisted. "I won't let him hurt you." 

Mara didn't know what to say to that, what to do with the knowledge that another person was willing to step in-between her and danger. Her first instinct was to dispute it, to recognize it as a lie or an overestimation at least. 

But the steel in Aaron's eyes made her believe it, even if it could be her downfall. 

"I know," she murmured after a moment, trying not to be so surprised that she meant it. 

Before they parted for their classes, Mara kissed Aaron's cheek, trying not to worry about who might see. 

♦

Laurel was waiting next to an empty seat in the classroom when Mara arrived, and she grinned at the sight of her. 

"Fancy seeing you here," she joked, seeing as they'd consulted each other when picking their classes. "How was your winter break?"

Mara shrugged. "I went with some friends to New York City," she said. "It was... fun, I guess."

Laurel giggled. "You make it sound like you've never had fun in your life."

"It's something I'm still figuring out," she said, making it sound like she was joking when, in fact, fun was a rather new and frightening concept for her. "How was your break?"

Laurel launched into a detailed explanation of her break, from seeing her grandparents for the first time in two years to receiving a box of coal from her brother as revenge for her giving him the same to him the year before. Mara was happy to listen, happy to hear about a normal winter break in a normal person's life. Laurel's happy tone when talking about her parents was as unfamiliar to Mara as her stories of Christmas ham and chocolate pie, but she listened dutifully, wondering what it must have felt like to have a normal family holiday. 

Laurel took a breath as she finished ranting about her future brother-in-law's political views and how vocally he expressed them. She rested her head on her fist and reached out to pet the fabric of Mara's cardigan. "Oh, soft. Was this a Christmas present?"