New Novel
Chapter 8: The Sophomore

Chapter 8: The Sophomore

She closed the distance in a few easy steps, no hurry in it.

Red hair which gave off a sweet hair wash scent as she stepped closer. Denim shorts, white crop top under a light jacket. Nothing about her tried very hard to be noticed. It got noticed anyway.

How long had she been standing there.

The thought landed before he could stop it, and right behind it came the worse one.

How much had she actually seen?

The whole thing, probably. The stammering, the "thanks again" that didn’t need to exist.

Something in his chest tightened as their eyes met for half a second before she flicked him square in the forehead.

"Ow. The fuck." He rubbed the spot on reflex. "What was that for?"

She folded her arms, entirely unbothered by his suffering. "For chickening out."

"Chickening out?" He repeated. "What exactly did I chicken out of?"

"You called her back." A finger went up, like she’d rehearsed the count on the walk over. "She turned around. You just stood there. Then you thanked her. Again. For something you already thanked her for."

Each point landed like she was reading it off a receipt.

Great. His heart sank the more. She heard everything.

"I didn’t..." He stopped. Started over. "I was being polite."

"Sure." She wasn’t buying a word of it, and didn’t bother hiding that she wasn’t. "Polite guys don’t stare at nothing for a full five seconds after she leaves."

He hadn’t realized he’d done that. Wonderful. New information, worst possible source.

He opened his mouth to argue and came up with nothing. She wasn’t wrong. That was somehow worse than if she’d been rude about it.

She laughed. Quite pleased with herself, the specific laugh of someone who’d already won and was just letting him catch up to that fact.

He let it go. Mostly because there wasn’t anywhere left to take it.

"Relax." Her arms loosened, teasing edge dropping out of her voice as easily as it had arrived. "I was messing with you."

Her eyes dropped to the bag in his hand. A beat.

"I don’t mean to pry... but, didn’t you just move in today?" She tilted her head, actually puzzled now instead of amused. "And you’re cloth shopping already?"

"Needed them."

Her gaze flicked over the bag, colors that weren’t the color he apparently defaulted to.

"For what?" Her interest peaked. "Some special occasion?"

If asking strangers out to dinner counted as special occasion then that probably would be right. He glanced down at it like it might answer for him.

"...Well." He paused. "Something like that."

She studied him a second, like she was deciding whether to let him off easy.

"Hmm. Do we have ourselves a party boy." A small shrug, not unkind. "Not bad."

Not bad. That sounded almost like a compliment. He filed it away without knowing what to do with it, the way you pocket a coin you’re not sure is real.

She shifted the bags in her hand, glancing back toward the racks like she was already halfway gone. "Anyway. I’ve still got a couple things to grab before I head out."

Right. That was his cue. Say bye, get out while he was ahead, go home and not think about how badly that whole "chicken" thing had gone.

But then it hit him.

She was a female. A stranger, and his neighbor who was already talking to him without him having to try.

Besides. The system had called her an Investment Candidate, which he wasn’t exactly sure what he was to do with that.

Walking away right now would be stupid, and he wasn’t exactly dumb.

"...Mind if I tag along?"

The words were out before he’d fully signed off on them. She blinked, caught off guard for exactly one second. The first time since the dumpster he’d actually managed to surprise her instead of the other way around.

Then the surprise folded into something closer to amused.

"Sure." She turned, already walking. "Just don’t complain if I take forever."

He paused for a moment. How did I even end up like this? He followed behind.

She moved through the racks like she was grading them.

Not grabbing the first thing that caught her eye. Checking the tag first, running a thumb along a seam, holding fabric up to the light like she was inspecting evidence. A shirt would catch his attention in half a second flat and she’d already moved past it by the time he opened his mouth to say something.

"You’re thorough," he said, mostly just to say something.

"Clothes outlast excitement." She didn’t look up from the seam she was checking. "If I’m spending money on it, I want to still like it in six months. Not just today."

Surprisingly sensible, coming from someone who’d flicked him in the forehead ten minutes ago for no functional reason.

He kept that thought to himself. Wasn’t sure it’d land the way he meant it.

She held a jacket up against herself in the mirror, turned it one way, then the other, then put it back with a small shake of her head like it had personally disappointed her.

"Rejected already?"

"Cheap zipper." She said it the way other people might diagnose a medical condition. "It’ll be gone in a few weeks."

He had no idea how she knew that from looking at it. Decided not to ask. He was too busy trying to figure out how the hell he was supposed to start a conversation with her. And then she just started one herself.

"How’s the move going?" she asked, still scanning racks without breaking stride.

"Almost done." A pause. "Mostly just groceries and a system mission I apparently haven’t cleared yet."

"System mission?" She glanced at him sideways. "What’s that?"

Adrian froze.

"Oh." A beat too long. "Just, um. A game I’m playing."

She looked at him for a second. Didn’t push. Good. He’d dodged a bullet, barely, and he was fairly sure she knew it too.

"Bold timing, though." She said it half to herself. "Moving in right before the semester starts. If it were me I’d have waited till break."

He caught himself checking the price tag on a dress two racks over and immediately regretted it.

"Mm. I don’t think my first university semester’s going to be that overwhelming." A beat. "It’s just regular school. Right?"

She stopped walking. Looked at him properly for the first time since the jacket.

"...Wait." A beat. "You’re a freshman?"

He nodded, not sure what about that warranted a full stop in foot traffic.

She blinked, actually recalculating something behind her eyes. "I genuinely thought you were older than me."

"I mean..." A beat. "Aren’t I?"

"Do I look eighteen to you?"

He studied her for a second, actually studied, not just glanced, and regretted it almost instantly, because there wasn’t a version of that answer that didn’t get him in trouble.

"...A little."

She paused for a moment. Then she grinned, like she’d just won something she hadn’t even been trying to win. "Ohh." A small hair-flip, purely for effect. "Is that so."

She started walking again, tossing the next line back over her shoulder like it barely mattered.

"I’m a sophomore." A beat. "Which makes me your elder. Respect your upperclassmen."

He gave that a slow, unbothered nod. "Duly noted. I’ll bow next time."

"You’d better."

Something in his chest tugged anyway, small and unhelpful, and he had no idea what to do with it. Great. The one girl he’d almost worked up the nerve to ask out turned out to be his senior.

Maybe he should’ve just lied about his age.

~~~

If you’re enjoying the book, please consider adding it to your library and leaving a comment to let me know what you think of the Chapter..

Also...

50 powerstones= 2 bonus Chapters.

100 powerstones= 5 bonus Chapters.

150 powerstones= 8 bonus Chapters.

200 powerstones = 10+ bonus Chapters.

I’ll be hoping to hear from you!

Thank you for your support!