Me and you till the end

Chapter 7: olivia

By the time I finally made it back to the dorm, the hallway was dead quiet — that kind of eerie, late-night stillness that only happens when everyone's either asleep or doing something they shouldn't be.

I was exhausted. My brain felt fried from trying to sound intellectual about Plato's idea of love when all I could think about was Jacob sitting across from me, his sleeves rolled up, that stupidly focused look on his face.

It shouldn't have been distracting.
It was.

I reached my door, already half-ready to collapse onto my bed — and then I saw it.

A sock.

A single, bright pink sock hanging off the doorknob.

I stopped dead. "You've got to be kidding me."

I didn't even have to hear anything to know what was happening behind that door. Charlotte's laughter had a very distinct frequency, and if a sock was out here, it meant I was not going in there unless I wanted a front-row seat to something deeply traumatic.

"Unbelievable," I muttered under my breath. "I leave for three hours and suddenly my dorm turns into a rom-com."

For a second, I just stood there, bag slipping off my shoulder, debating whether sleeping in the hallway would be the most pathetic thing I'd ever done. Probably.

Then I sighed and turned on my heel. There was only one place to go when my own room betrayed me.

Violet and Mary's dorm.

Their door was cracked open just a little, light spilling out into the hall. I knocked once and poked my head in. "Hey, uh — please tell me you're both decent."

Mary looked up from her desk, blinking behind her glasses. "Depends what you mean by decent. Violet's wearing pajama shorts the size of a napkin."

"Shut up," Violet said from the bed, where she was painting her nails. "It's called comfort, Mary."

I stepped inside, letting the door close behind me. "You two are saints. My room is currently... off-limits."

Violet raised an eyebrow. "Charlotte again?"

"Sock on the doorknob," I confirmed.

Mary groaned. "Classic Charlotte. She's like a walking Tinder success story."

Violet snorted. "At least someone's getting some philosophical experience around here."

I rolled my eyes, dropping onto Violet's bed with a heavy sigh. "Can we not make everything about sex for one night? I've been debating the metaphysics of love for three hours straight."

Mary turned in her chair, smirking. "With Jacob, right?"

"Don't," I warned, pointing a finger at her.

Violet grinned like a cat that smelled gossip. "Oh, it's definitely with Jacob."

"God, you sound like Charlotte."

"Charlotte's right," Mary said, leaning back in her chair. "You've been spending an awful lot of time with him lately."

"Because of the project."

"Sure," Violet said, stretching out on the bed. "And I hang out with my exes for educational purposes too."

I groaned, pressing a pillow over my face. "Why is everyone in my life like this?"

"Because we care," Mary said sweetly.

"Because we're bored," Violet corrected.

I laughed despite myself and let the pillow drop. "Fine. Yes, we've been working together. And yes, it's been... surprisingly okay."