Winter Has Come || Luke Hemmings

Chapter Two

     Last night, after Luke jolted out of the room, I was humiliated. I thought nobody would have seen him, or actually cared since they didn’t know him. However, I was wrong. Everyone noticed he bust out of there like lightning and the room had become so silent, nobody dared to whisper.

    I remember feeling the heat of the room rush straight to my cheeks, and my palms becoming clammy. Kyara Greco was not the girl you run away from, she is the girl you run to. I was not going to let a freshman get the best of me and ruin my night, though, so for the remainder of the party I sat with my friends and pretended like nothing happened.

     When we got back to our dorm, I was hoping Charlie would be wasted and tired, but she wasn’t. She sat propped up on her bed, and begged me for details.

     “Who was he?” she asked, pleading for answers.

     “His name is Luke, he’s new.”

     “Like, freshman new? Oh god, Kyara, you kissed a younger guy!” she screeched.

     That’s when I snapped. “What the fuck is wrong with that? At least I’m not hooking up with my best friend’s best friend!”

      The look on her face was indescribable. “I’m sorry… I, I didn’t mean it like that.”

     I shook it off, it was my fault actually. “No, I’m sorry; I know that’s not what you meant. I just don’t really feel like talking about it, you know?”

      “Okay,” she smiled, “I guess that’s fair. Are we going to sleep?”

     I turned off the nightlight that was flickering beside me, and I think that gave her the indicator that I was exhausted. Tomorrow was the first day of classes and as ridiculous as it sounds, I actually planned on graduating from this school, so I don’t want to be on my teacher’s bad sides from the first day.

     The next morning, we commenced our daily routine. We made a fresh pot of coffee and ate a muffin, and compared schedules for the day. Charlie and I had done this every single day of freshman year, and over the summer, we promised each other that the tradition wouldn’t stop. I’m happy that we carried through with that, because it was one of the only things that hadn’t changed.

      For my unfortunate first class of the day, I had liberal arts. The teacher was practically brain dead and from the moment I met her, I knew it would be easy to get an A in this class. Her first lecture about the syllabus she gave out was the biggest waste of time, and I spent the entirety of it texting Calum.

     After the class was over, I made my way to Psychology. I had to refrain myself from shoving all the slow walking, trash talking freshmen who had just come out of their first ever college class. I don’t know what is wrong with them, but half of them thought that this was an important milestone in life.

     I debated actually attending psychology since I would be receiving partial credit from the volunteer work I have lined up for the rest of the semester. I had to say I was very proud of myself for fighting against my better judgment and making my way into the class. Except the minute I stepped in there, I fought the urge to step right out.

   Third row, second seat sat the boy from last night’s party. In his hands were ‘Huckleberry Finn’ and he seemed deep in thought while reading it. Something about this moment infuriated me. There was a pang of rage that sent a wave throughout my system, and I felt it in my bones. I bit the inside of my left cheek furiously to control myself, as my eyes scanned the room for the seat farthest away from him.

     Then, I decided, if he was going to run away from me, I was not going to let him. I would purposely make his life miserable if he was that eager to leave mine. I decided on sitting right next to him, and to my dismay, he didn’t even notice. Unless, he pretended not to.