Chapter 56: Fifty Six

As time was called, I set my pen down and leaned back in my chair, exhaling hard.

Jacob had turned in his paper ahead of me and was waiting by the door, tapping his fingers against the frame. When I joined him, he gave me a lopsided grin. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I just got hit by a truck full of equations,” I muttered. “You?”

“I was expecting worse. But hey, if we both passed, we celebrate after finals?”

“Celebrate how?” I asked, adjusting my backpack as we stepped outside into the bright afternoon sun.

Jacob shrugged. “Food, drinks, maybe we can go dancing. Something to forget all this academic trauma.” He groaned, “I wanna feel young again.”

I laughed, the tension beginning to ease from my shoulders. “Sounds tempting.”

We walked down the steps of the lecture hall together, our steps in sync.

“I’m glad we studied together that night,” he said, nudging my shoulder gently. “It helped. You helped.”

“I’m glad too,” I replied, though a part of me still felt the weight of that late night phone call with Declan. And he hadn’t really spoken to me since. He was mad. And I understood why.

“You going home to crash?” he asked.

“Tempting, but I need to start reviewing for the next exam. It never ends.”

“Still. A break might do you good.”

Just in time with his question, I yawned. He chuckled. “See,” he ruffled my hair, “Get some sleep, Wills.”

I nodded. “I guess I should.”

“Hey,” he said, “want to study together again tomorrow? I was thinking… maybe that café near the bookstore? The one you love?”

I turned to him, surprised. “The one with the almond croissants?”

He grinned. “Exactly. I figured you could use a reward for surviving midterms.”

I laughed, the tension finally loosening in my chest. “You remembered.”

“Of course I did. You gave a whole speech about them last week.”

“I did not,” I said, bumping his shoulder with mine.

He laughed. “You absolutely did. You even closed your eyes when describing the flakiness.”

I groaned, embarrassed. “God, you make me sound insane.”

“No,” he said softly. “I like it. I like… the way you get excited over small things. It’s nice.”

I slowed down, turning toward him. “That’s not usually what people say about me.”

He met my eyes, a little more serious now. “Well, then people haven’t really seen you.”

There was something in his voice that made me pause. The wind tugged at the loose strands of my hair and I tucked them behind my ear, suddenly very aware of how close he was.

I took a step back. He took a step forward. We were tucked in an empty hallway, and the silence around us was making things worse. Jacob was looking down at me like he wanted me, like he wanted to touch me, how he had looked at me that time he had kissed me. It made me panic.

His head dipped, and his lips lightly caressed mine. I froze, and then I felt his hand on my jaw, lightly tilting my face up to his, capturing my mouth in a kiss.

Before I could process what had just happened, I felt a sharp gust of wind as someone rushed toward us.

“Get your hands off her.”

I blinked, startled. Shaken awake, I took a step back.

Declan.

In a second, he was between us, shoving Jacob back with a force that made my breath hitch. Jacob stumbled, stunned.

Oh, fuck.

“What the hell - ” Jacob started, but before he could finish, Declan’s fist connected with his jaw.

“Declan!” I shouted, trying to pull him back, but he was already stepping forward again, jaw clenched, eyes wild.

Jacob staggered, his hand on his face, looking between the two of us like he’d just been shoved into a nightmare.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Jacob shouted, voice rising.

Declan’s chest was heaving. “Stay away from her. Do you hear me? You don’t fucking touch her.”

Jacob’s gaze flicked to me, confused, hurt, and then slowly, slowly, I saw it settle in.

The realization.

His eyes flicked between us. Me, gasping with my hand on my mouth. Declan, seething, his jaw set, his fist still clenched.

His lips parted slightly, the redness blooming on his cheek where Declan had hit him. “No…” he muttered. “No way.”

I didn’t speak. I couldn’t. My mouth opened, but nothing came out.

His eyes widened, horrified. “You and him?”

“Jacob…” I tried again, my voice thin and strangled.

“You’ve been sleeping with him,” he said, taking a few steps back like he needed to physically create distance between us. “Jesus Christ, Willow.”

“I…It’s not like that…”

“Really? Because it sure as hell looks like it.”

He looked at Declan, then back at me. The betrayal was written all over his face. His chest rose and fell rapidly.

“I cared about you,” he said, voice low. “I thought you were different.”

“Jacob, please,” My voice was hoarse. I started toward him, even as I felt Declan’s hand try to grab me.

“Mara was right.” Jacob sounded. That made me stop right in my tracks. “God, Willow. I feel like I never knew you at all.”

Then he turned, jaw tight, fists clenched at his sides, and walked away without looking back.

Declan stood there beside me, silent.

But all I felt was cold.