Torment - Lauren Kate [114]
Just then, her phone buzzed. A text from Mr. Cole:
Everything’s taken care of.
So Mr. Cole had passed on the news that Luce wasn’t coming home. But he’d conveniently left out of his text whether or not her parents were still speaking to her. She hadn’t heard from them in days.
It was a no-win situation: If they wrote to her, she felt guilty about not writing them back. If they didn’t write to her, she felt responsible for being the reason they couldn’t reach out. She still hadn’t figured out what to do about Callie.
She thumped up the stairs of the empty dorm. Each step echoed hollowly in the cavernous building. No one was around.
When she made it to her room, she expected to find Shelby already gone—or at least, to see her suitcase packed and waiting by the door.
Shelby wasn’t there, but her clothes were still strewn all over her side of the room. Her puffy red vest was still on its peg, and her yoga gear was still stacked in the corner. Maybe she wasn’t leaving until tomorrow morning.
Before Luce had even fully closed the door behind her, someone knocked on the other side. She stuck her head into the hallway.
Miles.
Her palms grew damp and she could feel her heartbeat pick up. She wondered what her hair looked like, whether she’d remembered to make her bed this morning, and how long he’d been walking behind her. Whether he’d seen her dodge the caravan of Thanksgiving farewells, or seen the pained look on her face when she’d checked her text messages.
“Hi,” she said softly.
“Hi.”
Miles had on a thick brown sweater over a collared white shirt. He was wearing those jeans with the hole in the knee, the ones that always made Dawn jump up to follow him so she and Jasmine could swoon from behind him.
Miles’s mouth twitched into a nervous smile. “Wanna do something?”
His thumbs were tucked under the straps of his navy blue backpack and his voice echoed off the wood walls. It crossed Luce’s mind that she and Miles might be the only two people in the entire building. The thought was both thrilling and nerve-wracking.
“I’m grounded for eternity, remember?”
“That’s why I brought the fun to you.”
At first Luce thought Miles was referring to himself, but then he slid his backpack off one shoulder and unzipped the main compartment. Inside was a treasure trove of board games: Boggle. Connect Four. Parcheesi. The High School Musical game. Even travel Scrabble. It was so nice, and so not awkward, Luce thought she might cry.
“I figured you were going home today,” she said. “Everyone else is leaving.”
Miles shrugged. “My parents said it was cool if I stayed. I’ll be home again in a couple of weeks, and besides, we have different opinions on the perfect vacation. Theirs is anything worthy of a write-up in the New York Times Styles section.”
Luce laughed. “And yours?”
Miles dug a little deeper into his bag, pulling out two packets of instant apple cider, a box of microwave popcorn, and a DVD of the Woody Allen movie Hannah and Her Sisters. “Pretty humble, but you’re looking at it.” He smiled. “I asked you to spend Thanksgiving with me, Luce. Just because we’re changing venues doesn’t mean we have to change our plans.”
She felt a grin spread across her face, and held open the door for Miles to come in. His shoulder brushed hers when he passed, and they locked eyes for a moment. She felt Miles almost sway on his heels, as if he was going to double back and kiss her. She tensed up, waiting.
But he just smiled, dropped his backpack in the middle of the floor, and started to unload Thanksgiving.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, waving a packet of popcorn.
Luce winced. “I am really bad at making popcorn.”
She was thinking of the time she and Callie nearly burned down their dorm at Dover. She couldn