Nineteen

Chapter Sixteen

My alarm wakes me up right at 7 o'clock. I roll over and to my surprise, I see Jade laying on her bed.

"Hey, that same guy came here looking for you about an hour ago. I told him you we're still asleep. It was six in the morning, I don't know why he was even up."

She takes a drink of her coffee and gets up to get dressed.

I wonder who keeps coming here?

"Did he leave his name this time?" I say before sitting up.

"Yeah, he said Collin. I started attacking him with questions on why he was here and then he eventually said he would just see you later."

She throws some clothes on and puts her hair in a bun, "I gotta go, my first class is in an hour and I'm starving."

She leaves and closes the door behind her.

I get up and put on a pair of shorts with a tight tank top. Feeling a little uncomfortable with the skin I'm showing, I put a blue flannel over it. 

By this time its 7:30 and my first class isn't until 9, so I gather my things and walk to find some where to eat.

As soon as I shut my door behind me, I see Bailey at the top of the stairs. He's talking to a girl with her hand in his, and I'm slightly taken back when I see that it's Jade.

He drops her hand and walks over to me whenever his eyes catch mine.

She waves to me and walks down the stairs.

"You know Jade?" I ask, annoyance in my voice.

"Yeah-we're friends. Now, who's the boy I've heard you have been running around with?"

He bends down to my level and is in my face. What is he doing?

"What are you doing?" I say to him, anger boiling beneath the surface.

"What am I doing?" He point to himself, "I'm wondering why MY girlfriend is hanging out with other boys!" He is yelling now.

I step back from him enough to see that his eyes are red. 

"Talk to me when you're not yelling," I say as I begin to walk away.

He grabs my arm hard enough to hurt a little, "Emory, just tell me who it is." He tries to calm his voice a little.

I jerk away and walk down the stairs, past a few people making their way up them.

I have never seen him angry with me. He's been mad, but not mad enough to yell at me in public.

I walk out the building and through the grass to my first class.

I sit through the hour long lecture and decide to go back to my dorm before my next class at 2.

I walk out the building and the heat hits me right in the face, reminding me that I'm definitely in Florida. I get to my dorm building and see Collin sitting outside.

When he sees me, he stands up and brushes his hands off on his jeans.

"Hey," he says as I get to him.

"Hey."

"Where are you off to?" He says as he puts a hand out offering to carry my bag. I wave him off.

"My dorm. My next class isn't until 2."

We begin walking to the door when I say, "Did you come by this morning?"

His cheeks turn red and he says, "Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to go get breakfast."

"Oh, well. maybe another day?" I question, and he responds with a smile.

"I'm gonna hang out in my room for a few hours, you can stay if you want to." My own cheeks get red at the offer, hoping he doesn't take it as the wrong offer.

"Yeah, that sounds good."

Just as we make it into my room, he sees the black bruise that has formed on my arm.