Chapter 37 CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 37
YAEL
I woke up with the sunlight stabbing my eyelids like it was personally offended I was still asleep, and the second I sat up, my neck ached.
I rubbed it lazily, then froze mid-touch.
Was that—
I scrambled to the mirror so fast I almost tripped over my slippers.
Hickeys.
On my neck.
On my collarbone.
Down toward my shoulder.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “Oh my actual—”
I slapped both hands over my face.
“I’m going to die. I’m actually going to die.”
My neck looked like a crime scene committed by someone with too much enthusiasm and too little self-control.
A.K.A. Knox.
Heat slammed into my face.
“Nope. Nope. Nope. We’re not thinking about this.”
I checked my phone, desperate for a distraction.
Debate moved to tomorrow — Prof. Alain
Great. One day less to recover my sanity.
Perfect. Love that for me.
Still, I rushed out of my dorm, because sitting there replaying last night would lead to mental death.
When I reached the debate hall and opened the door, I stopped breathing for a second.
Knox was at the front of the room.
Tight black top.
Gray joggers.
Arms folded.
Sweat-damp hair.
Looking like a man who walked out of an Olympic athlete casting call specifically to ruin my self-control.
His eyes flicked up the moment I entered, just one glance, but it hit me like a punch.
I walked in like nothing happened, ignoring his entire existence and the ghost of his mouth on my skin.
“Alright,” he said, voice perfectly normal (unlike my sanity), “Jordan and Rafiq are first. Then Sam and Lila. Then we run the combination rounds.”
Jordan winked at me as she walked by. I nearly threw my notebook at her.
They started.
Jordan annihilated her opponent.
Then Sam, then Lila.
Everyone was so into practice that Knox didn’t even look at me again—which somehow made everything worse.
When it was over, people started packing up.
I?
I ran.
“Yael!” someone called, but I pretended I didn’t hear them because I was in survival mode and survival mode means flee.
I made it halfway down the hallway only for Aaron to appear right in front of me like a final boss in a video game.
He frowned. “Hey. You okay?”
Crap.
I forced a smile. “Yeah, just… tired.”
He sighed and pulled me into a hug—tight, warm, familiar. I sank into it with a relief I didn’t know I needed.
“I’ve been busy,” he said, rubbing my back. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I whispered. “Really.”
Then he brightened suddenly. “Come on. Mom’s been asking about you.”
Before I could protest, he clicked the video call button.
Mom’s face filled the screen—smiling, glowing, scolding us immediately for not eating enough greens.
“Mom, we’re literally fine,” I groaned.
“You both look stressed,” she insisted.
“That’s just how we look,” Aaron muttered.
She laughed, blew kisses, and hung up.
Aaron slipped his phone back in his pocket.
“So,” he said sternly, “update me. How’s school? How’s your dorm? Are you safe? Any drama?”
Drama.
Ha.
If only he knew I got nearly strangled and saved by the one guy he hates most, then kissed senseless in the school pool.
I swallowed. “Everything’s fine.”
He squinted. “You’re lying.”
I straightened. “I’m not.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Okay—fine—I almost got kidnapped,” I blurted.
“WHAT?!”
“But I’m okay! I swear!”
“Yael! What the hell—who—how—when—why wasn’t I—”
“Calm DOWN,” I snapped. “I’m fine. Someone followed me. But I’m fine. Someone saved me.”
“Who?”
I opened my mouth.
Immediately regretted it.
Closed my mouth.
Opened it again.
“That’s… not important.”
“Yael.”
Before I could dig my grave any deeper, a professor stepped out of a classroom.
“Mr. Levi, please come.”
Aaron sighed, kissed my forehead like he used to when I was ten, and marched off. I exhaled like a dying balloon and dragged myself toward the cafeteria before my brain exploded.
Pizza.
I needed pizza.
Coping through carbs.
Self-care.
I grabbed a slice and a coke, humming in relief—until a shadow fell over me.
Knox.
Because of course.
Of course he’d be here, looking entirely too calm for someone who left me marked like a territorial wolf.
He didn’t smirk.
He didn’t tease.
He simply said, “Come on. You shouldn’t walk alone.”
And my entire brain turned into soft mashed potatoes.
We walked side by side, silent, awkward, both pretending we weren’t replaying last night in our heads.
“You okay?” he asked suddenly.
I nearly choked on air. “W-what?”
He stopped.
Looked at me.
At my neck.
His jaw clenched.
But he said nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Which somehow made it worse.
We reached the building steps at the exact same moment another professor passed by with—
Aaron.
Oh.
Fantastic.
Exactly what I needed.
My brother, the human lie detector.
He paused mid-sentence and stared at us.
At me and Knox standing a little too close.
Walking a little too naturally.
Breathing the same air.
His
brows shot up, and he said, loud enough to wake the ancestors:
“What the fuck is going on here?”
And that—of course—was exactly where the universe decided to end my peace.