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THERE WAS SOMETHING bothering me and Dakota knew it. I knew she couldn't have known what her brother and I were doing—
I didn't know what her brother and I were doing.
Actually, it was apparent that we weren't doing anything. Sure, Jordan had ran his dirty mouth around me once or twice, and maybe I had encouraged it on one occasion while I'd had alcohol in my system. But I hadn't seen him since he'd pushed me up against the wall yesterday. And I hadn't received a text from Alek since then either.
The latter was my main concern.
A little more than twenty-four hours had passed since Alek and I had talked last and the message I'd sent him, apologizing for cutting him off on accident, still read delivered.
"Zoë, do you wanna talk about it?" Dakota asked me, spinning on her heel after she'd turned the heat off under the chili she and I had cooked for dinner that night. "Is it . . . what's his name?"
"Alek."
"Alek." She nodded, leaning over the kitchen island and looking up at me expectantly to talk.
"I'm just really hoping he's super busy with his internship or something." I pursed my lips. "He hasn't texted me in an entire day."
"Don't worry, Zo. It's only been a day– maybe his wifi got shitty or something in Poland. Or, yeah, maybe he's just busy. I mean, what else could it be?"
It could perhaps be that he knew I was lying to him about something. Particularly about the half-naked guy he'd talked to over FaceTime that I was living with.
He isn't giving you any trouble is he?
No.
God, I hadn't sounded convincing at all.
Seeing Jordan again after the phone call incident put me even more on edge. He'd decided to come down from his room and join us for dinner that night and took the seat across from me which I just knew was going to make things difficult for me.
Interestingly, Jordan never once looked my way.
"How's your class going, Zoë?" Nik asked me as part of casual dinner-talk as we began eating.
"I've only had it for two days, so it's been easy. I'm sure it'll pick up speed starting Monday, though."
"She's already made a friend in the class, so I'm sure she'll make it through just fine." Dakota added.
"Oh, is this friend studying nursing like you are?" Nik raised his eyebrows, looking impressed.
