Awakening (Covenant College #1) (4 page)

“What?” I turned to Paris confused.

“I said that
Brittany
seems to have gotten over her panic about meeting guys.”

I turned my attention in the direction Paris was looking only to find
Brittany
drinking from a red plastic cup and hanging on every word as one of Mike’s roommates talked to her. She looked tipsy – and easy. I hoped that wasn’t her way of flirting. Paris and I were going to have to give her lessons.

“We’re going to have to watch her,” I said.

Paris agreed, nodding silently, and slipping a lock of her long brown hair behind her ear.

“She’s one of those girls
that’s
going to lose her virginity finally and go nuts and sleep with everyone to make up for what she’s been missing.”

Paris nodded again.

“Who is that guy?”

“I have no idea.”

“He looks like Pee Wee Herman.”

“Just be glad we’re not in an adult movie theater.” Paris was still eyeing
Brittany
and her new friend warily.

I nodded my silent assent as I took another drink of beer.
The one good thing about
Brittany
’s antics?
I’d forgotten all about Rafael.

What? I totally had.

F
our

Hangovers are a funny thing. When you wake up with them in high school, you try to hide them. When you wake up with them in college, though, there’s no need.

Luckily for me, I hadn’t over imbibed the night before. From the groans I could hear from
Brittany
’s bed the next morning, though, it didn’t sound like she was so lucky.

While still lying in my bunk and contemplating how badly I wanted to get something to drink to ease my cotton mouth, I heard
Brittany
vault out of her bunk and rush out of the room. Two seconds later you could hear the door to the bathroom slam shut.

I could hear – and feel – Paris start laughing in the bunk below me.

“We should have kept a better eye on her,” I finally said to no one in particular.

“She learned a valuable lesson,” I heard Tara say sagely from her bunk – which was the first inclination I had that she was awake, too.

Paris stirred and climbed out of her bed. When she stood up and met my eyes I could see she had a fantastic case of bedhead. I smiled to myself – but Paris caught me trying to hide it.

“Your hair doesn’t look any better,” she said.

I could believe that.

Tara, Paris and I struggled out to the living area where we met
Brittany
as she stumbled out of the bathroom. “I hate you people,” she mumbled.

“You’ll feel better after breakfast,” I informed her.

Brittany
was looking a little green again.

“Yeah.
Eggs and sausage, tons of grease, hangover food extraordinaire.”
I couldn’t decide if Paris was trying to help or hurt the situation. Sausage did sound good, though.

An hour later, we’d all showered and changed. We went down for breakfast – well, brunch actually – and discussed the evening before. For my part, I decided not to mention Rafael – at least not to everyone. I didn’t know what I’d say anyway. He hadn’t actually done anything.

“Anyone up for going and getting our books now?”

Paris looked at me in surprise. “I thought you wanted to put it off like I did?”

“I do, but I figure we’re not going to do anything else for the next couple of hours anyways so we might as well get it out of the way,” I sipped my pop and looked at
Brittany
contemplatively for a second. “Plus,
Brittany
looks like
she’s been reincarnated as dirty sponge so she’s probably not going to be up for doing anything tonight and will enjoy the company of her textbooks.”

Everyone agreed and we decided to make the walk to the University Center, or UC, to get our shopping done. We’d all returned to the room long enough to get our class lists. We compared them as we walked.

“Ooh, we have astronomy together,” Paris actually seemed excited.

I didn’t know how excited I was. I just wanted something that wasn’t too gross to complete my science requirement. I had a feeling that’s why Paris signed up, too. She was an art major. Cutting open a frog didn’t seem like something that was going to be in her wheelhouse.

When we got to the UC, we were happy to discover that the bookstore wasn’t too crowded. The good news is
,
three of my five textbooks were available for Kindle so that meant less heavy lifting. Unfortunately, I had to buy textbooks for my math and astronomy classes. Still, it was better than it could have been.

Paris only had to buy the astronomy class book.
Brittany
, however, bought textbooks for all her classes. When we saw her carrying two large bags full of books over to us, Paris and I exchanged a curious glance.

“They’re not available on Kindle?” I asked.

“I don’t like Kindle books.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why? I like a real textbook where I can underline stuff.”

“You can underline stuff with a Kindle, too.”

“Not with a colored highlighter.”

Well, you can’t argue with that logic.
Brittany
found herself distracted by the sweatshirts. For my part, I decided I needed a Coke to drive away the remnants of my hangover.

I made my way over to the refrigerated section and found what I was looking for. I slid the door shut after I made my selection and turned around only to find myself running into a wall that was apparently some guy’s chest. I actually wasn’t sure at first. It was far too big to belong to a normal guy.

“Sorry,” I sputtered trying to take a step back and banging my head against the refrigerator.

The chest belonged to an extremely tall man – like 6’3” tall – who took a step back to give me a chance to recover myself. As I regained my senses I realized – even though he’d moved back slightly – he was still a little too close for my comfort.

“Are you alright?” The voice that came from the behemoth couldn’t possibly be human – or normal. It sounded like it belonged to a giant or something – like
Fezzik
in ‘The Princess Bride’ without that weird lisp thing he had.

“I’m fine,” I grumbled. I didn’t like feeling penned in.

“Here, let me see,” the guy reached his extremely large hands towards my head.

Without thinking, I slapped them away. “I said I was fine.”

I finally got a glimpse at the head attached to the wall of chest and sucked in a quick breath. It was pretty impressive – well, as far as heads go. No dimples and dark skin, but a full head of wavy black hair and some really intense brown eyes.

Did Covenant grow these guys on trees or something? This is just ridiculous.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” the guy rumbled.

I felt a little ridiculous for overreacting – especially since I realized he was hot – so I tried to offer him a friendly smile as an apology.

“No, you just took me by surprise,” I said quietly. Internally I was adding that he also almost knocked me senseless – but I doubted that would be a good topic of conversation to open with.

The wall of muscles with the great hair smiled down at me. I couldn’t help but notice that, even though he didn’t have dimples, his eyes crinkled at the corner when he smiled and it made him all the more appealing. Cripes, I must be in heat or something.

“I’m
Aric
, with an A,” he said, pushing his hand out to me in greeting.

What is it with people shaking hands? That whole process annoyed me. Still, I didn’t want to offend him. I placed my hand – which seemed dainty – into it and couldn’t help but smile back. I felt a little goofy for some reason.

“I’m Zoe.”

“Nice to meet you, Zoe.
Where are you from?”

Now, here’s the thing, I’m not a shut-in or anything. I don’t go around volunteering personal information about myself either, though.

“Oh, a small town up north.
About an hour from Traverse City.”
I was purposely vague.

Aric
narrowed his eyes. I sensed he wanted to ask more but wisely took a step back.

“I’m from Alpena.”

I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t unleash the sentence that had come to mind when he mentioned Alpena. “That’s nice.” What I really wanted to say amounted to “who cares,” but I fought the urge to be mean. It was a hard battle.

“Are you a freshman?”

“Umm, yeah.”

“I’m a sophomore.”

“Really?
You look older.”

“Is that a compliment?”

I shrugged. It was really just a statement.

“I’m 22. I took some time off before coming to school,” he explained. This guy was a major over-sharer. For all he knew I could be some crazy stalker – yet here he was telling me his life story.

“Good for you.” Really, what else do you say to that?

“Are you here alone?” I noticed his dark eyes dart around the store. I could tell he was trying to get a look at what kind of people I hung out with. It made me sort of nervous.

“I’m here with my roommates.”

“Oh, have you known them a long time?”

Now why did that matter? Luckily I was saved from answering. Paris had picked that moment to come up and join us.

“
Brittany
is buying out the school spirit supplies.” She didn’t sound happy.

“She’s not decorating with that stuff,” I warned. Covenant’s colors were red and gold. I hated both colors.

“You tell her that.”

Paris finally noticed I wasn’t alone. She wasn’t very observant. She smiled at
Aric
, though. It was hard not to.

“I’m Paris.”

Aric
introduced himself, greeting Paris warmly. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was a little disappointed we’d been interrupted. Or maybe that was wishful thinking on my part.

“So, did you guys go to high school together?” More questions. I tried to give Paris a silent signal not to answer him, but she was oblivious.

“No, we just met two days ago,” she answered.

“It’s good that you like each other.”

“Yeah, it would suck if I was stuck in a room with three
Brittany
s
.”

Well, that mental image was going to give me nightmares. I shuddered as I shook it off.

“So, what dorm do you live in?”

I mentally sent Paris the universal “don’t answer that” vibe. She didn’t get it. She happily told
Aric
where we lived. I wanted to strangle her.

“Good to know,”
Aric
smiled. The smile wasn’t directed at Paris, though. It was directed at me.
Great.
How was I going to explain to Will about the new guy following me everywhere?

“Is it just the two of you?”
Aric
asked. He really had no end to his questions.

“No, our other two roommates are here, too,” Paris said. She pointed silently to
Brittany
.
Aric
followed her finger and I could tell he was fighting the urge to laugh out loud at the pile of sweatshirts in front of her.

“Who else?”

Paris looked around quizzically. “I don’t know where Tara went.”

I found myself looking around for Tara, too. It was like she had just disappeared. “She wouldn’t have left without us . . .
“ I
broke off. Actually, I had no idea what Tara would do. I didn’t really know her at all.

Paris looked dubious, too. “No, she would have at least said something.”

Aric
looked at us. “Bonded a lot have you?”

“Just with each other,” Paris admitted.

I tried to peer around
Aric
. It was a monumental task, though. He was big. For a second I couldn’t help but wonder what he looked like without his sweatshirt on. I’d run into him so I knew that wasn’t flab under there. He was hard as a rock – and built like a truck, I was almost certain.

“There she is,” I finally caught sight of her red hair.

Tara was outside. I could just get a glimpse of her through the window. She was gesturing wildly – and she didn’t look happy. I couldn’t see who she was talking to. She stopped long enough to point – and her finger was aimed directly at me. She seemed to notice that we were all looking at her because she quickly tried to disguise her motions.

Whoever she was talking with walked away from her quickly. All I could make out is that it was a boy and he had close-cut blonde hair. He was gone too quickly to see anything else.