Chapter 45

KATHERINE.

The look Blake had on his face was that of a parent disappointed in what a child had done and the girl pouted when she faced him.

“I was drenched, Blake.”

“‘Was’. She’s the only one drenched now. And it was an accident, you shouldn’t have done that,” he replied and she crossed her arms over her chest, a petulant expression on her face, before she glanced at me.

“I guess it was… Watch where you’re going next time,” she hissed, venom in every word.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated as the cold began to set in and I wrapped my arms around myself while she gave me a once-over.

“Whatever.” With that, she and her friends swept off on a wave of indignation, and I felt myself wilt. So much for not drawing negative attention to myself. Thankfully, this had been resolved immediately so I didn’t think what was currently happening to Poppy would happen to me.

Chelsea placed a hand on my shoulder, asking me if I was okay, while my attention moved to Blake. That could have gone badly if he didn’t show up, so I gave him a smile. “Thank you,” I said as he walked over to us and he gave me an apologetic look.

“Sorry about her.”

“Why are you apologizing for her?”

“She’s a member of my pack.”

“Oh… Still.” I shivered as a cold gust of wind blew past and Blake’s gaze dropped to my drenched clothes before he clicked his tongue.

“Here,” he said, taking off his jacket and holding it out to me.

“Thank you.” A smile crept onto my face after I put it on because it was warm and it had his heady and delicious scent. I then realized I was sniffing his jacket right in front of him and Chelsea, and my face warmed up before I cleared my throat. “Thank you,” I repeated and he nodded.

“Come on. I’ll walk you to your dorm.”

“Chelsea,” I said as I turned to face her and saw that she was staring at Blake, comically lost in him while her cheeks were pink. It was adorable and it wasn’t surprising that he had that effect on her, but I nudged her to snap her out of it. Her gaze immediately darted from Blake to me before she blinked repeatedly.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll see you on Monday.” We didn’t stay in the same dorm and her dorm wasn’t close to mine, so she couldn’t walk with us to Stavenger Hall.

“Oh, yeah. See you on Monday.”

She waved at me and her mouth twitched with a smile when her gaze drifted to Blake once more before she walked away.

“Well then,” Blake said a couple of seconds later and gestured down the path. “After you.” We began to walk down the path and after a while passed with neither of us saying anything, I decided to break the silence.

“How did you find the dinner yesterday?” Apart from when we mouthed ‘hey’ to each other in the ballroom last night, I hadn’t been able to talk to him because he’d disappeared immediately after the event ended. I’d been able to talk to Hunter when Lenore’s mom called him because she wanted to take pictures of their friend group and she had been kind enough to include me in some of them.

Blake groaned. “It was so fucking boring. I don’t even remember half of what was talked about,” he said and I laughed because neither did I.

“You left immediately after. Mrs Sutton took pictures of everyone and she seemed a bit sad that you weren’t in them.”

“Ah… Damn.” He pressed his lips together before glancing at me. “What about you? How was the dinner for you?”

“The food was good,” I stated and the corner of his mouth turned up. He didn’t say anything after that and I didn’t either because even though sported a bright smile, he didn’t seem to be in his usual cheerful mood.

Less than a minute later, we got to my dorm and after we came to a stop at the stairs that led up to the entrance, I said, “Thank you for stepping in back there.”

“It was nothing.” His gaze slid to his jacket and I glanced at it before taking it off. It was quite damp though and I decided to offer to return it after cleaning it so I could see him again because he was elusive. When he wasn’t, I couldn’t approach him because he was surrounded by people or I couldn’t talk to him properly because we were in class. And I didn’t want to just come out and ask for his phone number because though he might have given me a nickname and called me his friend, we barely knew each other so he might find it weird.

I needed to find a way to get closer to him first.

“It’s damp. I can–

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, flashing me a smile that told me it wasn’t my fault.

“Okay. Thanks.” I handed him the jacket and while he folded it over his arm, Lenore walked out of the dorm. We locked gazes and smiled at each other, but the moment her gaze landed on Blake, her smile faltered and she paused. Her gaze bounced between the two of us for a moment while I slightly raised my brows before she walked down the stairs, sticking to its end so she wouldn’t walk right past us after she got off it.

I returned my attention to Blake to find him staring at her as she walked off and I remembered when Josie told me that things were kind of weird between Blake and the rest of their friend group. That coupled with the fact that I kinda believed he was the person that made Lenore cry the night of the CMES test deadline made me blurt out, “What happened between you guys?”

Blake turned to face me once more and when a line appeared between his brows, I expected him to say ‘Nosy Katya’, but instead he said, “I have to go. I have soccer practice.”

He smiled at me as he began to walk backward and I plastered a small smile on my face, not liking that he’s been refusing to tell me anything. It felt like he was keeping me at arm’s length… Honestly, it felt like all the friends I’d made here, except for Chelsea and Josie, were keeping me at arm's length, but I hadn’t been trying to get ‘close’ to them as I’d been trying with him.

“Wanna come watch me kick a ball around a field?”

I raised a brow at that. “Are you inviting me to be a member of your fan club?”

“Fan club?” he replied, looking like he didn’t know he had one. I had seen them a couple of times when I walked past the soccer field and they were always cheering for him so yes, he had a fan club.

“Yes, fan club.”

“Huh…” He tipped his head to the side, thinking, before his bright smile made an appearance again. “Well, do you want to?”

“Maybe when I’m not sopping wet,” I replied and his smile widened before I asked, “Will you be at the CMES clubhouse this evening?”

We had a club meeting by five pm and since he had skipped the orientation and all the scavenger hunt club meetings, I wanted to know if I should be expecting to see him.

“Yeah, the meeting,” he said and finally, I returned his smile.

“Okay. See you there.”