“Does this have anything to do with that guy over there eye-fucking you?” I noticed it during our first class. He stares at her every chance he gets.

“Who? Kyle Simmons?” She pretends to not notice him as she digs through her supplies bag.

I playfully scowl at her. “I don’t know his name! But it’s apparent you do.”

“We might’ve had a couple classes together last semester.”

“And?” I prompt, knowing there’s so much more to the story.

“And…” She lingers. “We might’ve hooked up at a party.”

“So you came to class early to what? Have a staring contest?”

She wrinkles her nose at me. “No…I don’t know. It’s just once class starts, the easel will block my view.”

“So…go sit next to him. Wouldn’t that solve your problem?”

“Oh, bless your heart, Aspen.” I furrow my brows, confused. “He should come sit next to me. It’d be the gentlemanly thing to do.” She crosses her legs and folds her hands in her lap.

“Ah…” I say, it finally clicking. “So what you really want is to eye-fuck him and play hard to get until he makes the initiative to come talk to you?”

“Is that too much to ask?”

I laugh at her sharp-witted southern accent. “Oh, so you were ready to jump on the professor in a heartbeat, but Kyle needs to be a southern gentleman and come to you?”

“That’s exactly right,” she answers sharply. I shake my head and smile at her.

Soon, class begins, and I watch Professor Hampton walk around the front of the room and discuss our assignment. I should be listening, but my mind wanders to the abstract I painted earlier. The one that portrays her inner demons…

It’d been raining all night long, and eventually, the storm woke me up. A flash of lighting temporarily blinded me as I squinted, trying to see if Ari was awake. Her bed was empty and the light in the hallway peeked under our bedroom door.

I threw the covers off and opened the door, deciding to tiptoe down the hallway to see where she had gone. “Ariel?” I whispered. I stood in front of the bathroom door that was closed, but I knew she had to be in there. “Ariel, you in here?” I knocked lightly.

Silence.

I slowly opened the door, hoping I wasn’t interrupting her, but when I stepped in, my entire world stopped.  “Oh my God, Ariel!” I ran to her where she lay on the cold bathroom floor, blood running down her hand and fingers. “Ariel, wake up!” I screamed, pulling her into my lap.

I grabbed a towel from the hook and wrapped it around her wrist. A razor blade lay next to her, covered in dried blood. Tears fell down my cheeks faster than I could wipe them off. I couldn’t understand what was happening…why had she done it?

Why hadn’t I known she was hurting?

The sound of chairs sliding on the floor knocks me out of my past nightmare. Everyone’s hustling to grab their easels and spread out their supplies. I grab my project that we started last class after our memory exercise and drown in my thoughts as I keep my eyes down and to the canvas in front of me. Professor Hampton continues walking around, but I don’t need to glance up to know he’s studying me from the front of the room.

Before we’re dismissed, he reminds us to keep an eye out for his email about our first blog assignment.

I have a feeling Professor Hampton is going to take up much more of my time than I suspected.

CHAPTER FOUR

ASPEN

The sound of my alarm wakes me up and before I can even manage to open my eyes, I reach for my phone and tap on the screen until the noise stops. It’s Saturday, and I have to be at work in less than an hour, but the heavy weight lying next to me reminds me that I’m not alone.

Jake, or maybe it was John, is a guy I met during happy hour, and when two drinks turned into four and six, I invited him back to my place.

But I don’t have time to casually escort him out and exchange numbers—not that I’d give him mine anyway. That’s not how this works. I avoid any kind of attachment, friendship, or even a fuck buddy. I don’t feel that compassion toward relationships that most women do. I can’t be open, discuss my feelings, or have ‘talks’ about my past. It’s the exact reason I avoid it all in the first place. One-night stands and casual hookups are all I’m emotionally capable of giving.

I need to shower and leave before I’m late to work again. So I slide out of bed¸ grab my towel hanging on the back of the door, and walk to the bathroom.

He has exactly forty-two minutes to leave before I kick him out.

I wash my body and hair, trying to remember the events of last night.

Kendall and Zoe met me at Happy Joe’s for the two-for-one happy hour special.

It was only meant to be a quick, fun girls’ night out, but it soon turned into a party of six after Kendall invited her boyfriend, Kellan.

Jake, or John, was there with a friend from work—some name that I can’t remember either—and I can only assume Zoe took him home after Kendall and I left.

As soon as I’m out of the shower, I dry off and head back to my room to search for some clothes. What’s his face is still lying face flat on my bed.

Fucking hell.

I open one of my drawers to grab some jeans and purposely slam it shut, hoping it’ll startle him enough to wake up.

No such luck.

On to Plan B.

I walk over to the other side of the bed and start shaking his shoulder. “Wake up!” He barely flinches. I grab the covers and rip them off of him, only to realize he’s completely naked.

I tilt my head and admire his firm ass for a quick second, but then shake my head away from the distraction. “You need to leave!” I say loud and insultingly slow.

He finally starts stirring and mumbles something but doesn’t open his eyes.

“I’m going to pour a bucket of cold water on you if you don’t get the hell out of my bed,” I threaten. “You have three seconds.”

“Jesus,” he mutters, slowly shifting around, searching for the covers with one hand.

“I have to get to work.” I walk back around my bed and start searching for a shirt in my closet. “Which means you have to leave.” I spell it out for him.

“Where the hell do you work that you have to be up this damn early?” He finally sits up and starts searching for his clothes that are scattered on the floor.

“I work at an art gallery.”

“Sounds…boring.”

I pull my shirt on and grimace. “Out,” I say firmly.

“What?”

He’s pulling his jeans up when I turn around and glare at him. “You can get out now.”

“I’m working on it. Gees. You weren’t this bitchy last night.”

My lips form into an oh-hell-no-he-didn’t scowl, and I bend down to grab one of my heels and throw it directly at him.

“Ow! What the hell?”

“First, you diss where I work, which by the way, is one of my favorite places to be in the whole world. And second, you call me a bitch!”

I’m ready to throw the other heel at him, but he finally uses his brain cells to get the hell out.

“BYE, Jake,” I yell at him as he walks down the hallway.

“Bye, Satan,” he yells back, and I can’t help but burst into laughter.

Sadly, this isn’t the worst morning-after I’ve had to deal with before.

The door opens and closes with a slam. A few seconds later, I hear it opening and closing again, this time much quieter.

“Do I even want to know what that was all about?” I hear Kendall shout from the hallway. “He looked like a scared cat after a cold bath.” She walks to my room with a knowing grin on her face.

“He couldn’t handle my classic morning wake up call,” I explain, brushing the knots out of my hair. “Amateur.”

She snorts and then says with a doe-eyed look in her eyes, “Kellan woke me up in a way that made me never want to leave the bedroom.” She flips her hair over her shoulder with a smirk.