Wildfire

Chapter 7

7. Avoid

I spent the entirety of Tuesday holding my breath, my senses on high alert as I traipsed across the snow-covered pathway between the lecture halls and the Wilson Library. Every time I saw a flash of dark hair or caught the scent of outside, my heart would start to pound at a ridiculous pace in my chest.

They were all false alarms, of course; the guy was probably taking the day off. I figured getting shot had to rank high on a list of reasons to pull a sick day. By the time evening rolled around, I had started to relax somewhat, although I was starting to doubt the veracity of Lexie's stories now that I'd experienced, first-hand, the aftermath of a one-night-stand.

She'd never acted this stressed out about potentially bumping into the guy next day. Actually, I'd seen her bump into them in person, and apart from the occasional wave, she acted like she didn't even know them. I tried to imagine bumping into Diego outside the lecture hall and waving absently at him, but the image didn't quite... fit. It was more likely that I'd turn into a babbling, nervous wreck with a heart problem. Was it just something you learned to deal with after a lot of practice?

If that was the case, I was definitely going to pass on that one. This was the kind of stress I reserved for exam time cramming; I doubted I could handle walking around like a heart-disease-time-bomb, just waiting to bump into one of the nameless guys that I'd slept with.

Maybe I'm so nervous because I haven't slept with him, I thought. I guess that made sense, a little. If I had slept with him, I would have seen him naked. And getting naked with someone meant you gained a certain level of comfort with them, right?

Or maybe you'd be freaking out even more than you already are, I pointed out as my cheeks flushed, the image of Diego's toned stomach flitting through my brain.

It was close to seven when I finally left the library. I hadn't seen Lexie all day, but that was hardly a surprise – she rarely showed up to class, and the only time we usually had to hang out was when she text me with dinner plans. Since I hadn't heard from her, I dialled the number of one of the local pizza delivery services and ordered dinner for Charlie and myself. Charlie hadn't been eating over the last few days, so I had a feeling she hadn't thought of dinner.

She was asleep when I got inside, her head buried under her pillow, but when the delivery guy arrived outside with our pizza, the smell woke her up. She smiled gratefully at me when I dropped the box on her bed, budging up a little as I climbed onto the duvet beside her.

"Logan's ignoring me," she croaked as she reached for a slice.

I swallowed my mouthful carefully. "Why?"

She grimaced. "He's been hanging out with some new guys lately, and – I don't know, I guess I just get a bad vibe off them. Logan thought I was trying to tell him who he could or couldn't be friends with now, and we got into a huge fight over it, and then he just stormed off. That was Saturday night."

It wasn't unusual for Logan and Charlie to be fighting – it was unusual, however, for Logan to be the one to call things off. Logan and I had never clicked, but that didn't mean I couldn't see how close he was to Charlie. He always answered the phone when she called to apologize, and he never gave her a hard time about her irrational tendencies.

"What kind of new guys?" I asked warily.

Charlie shot me an uneasy look. "Lexie's type."

"Witches and drug dealers, then," I concluded. "Brilliant."

"I just warned him to be careful, that's all." She shrugged, reaching for another slice of pizza. "This is amazing, by the way."

"I thought you might be hungry," I told her. "You haven't eaten anything since Sunday, have you?"