Kevin shot Claudia a look. “That wasn’t known?”
“Nope.” She made a grumbling sound in her throat. “Thanks for that.”
“Oops.” He sent me an apologetic look. “Did you know?”
“I—” was so fucking busted. I felt Avery’s attention at the same time Claudia looked at me. I had one second to cover my ass, and Avery’s. I feigned surprise and shook my head. “I shouldn’t be surprised, but I had no idea.”
Avery muttered next to me, “Seriously?”
Claudia snorted. “Don’t ever do theatre, Summer. You suck at it.” She gave Avery a scorching look before heading to the door. “Thanks for sharing that private information, which I told you not to tell anyone.”
Avery jumped to her feet. “You didn’t like her in the beginning. I thought it would help smooth the way.”
“It did.” Claudia yanked my door open. “It smoothed the way for me to not hang out with you again.” She left, letting the door slam shut behind her.
Kevin smiled, looking relaxed and cheerful. “I just had an epiphany.”
“What?” the second friend asked.
“This is why I like girls so much. You guys are way more entertaining than guys.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “Guys are all about sports, sex, or beer. Girls are about everything else. That kind of dramatic exit would never happen with guys. If it did, there’d be a beat down involved, but nothing like this. No wonder I date so much. I gravitate more toward girls in general. I’m a straight guy, with this face.” He gestured to himself. “No wonder I have girlfriends all the time.”
He stood, smoothing out his jeans and shirt. “Thank you, Summer. I’d been thinking I was messed up, but I’m not. I just like girls, a lot.”
“So are you coming this weekend?” The question came from Avery.
“Nah.” Kevin glanced at me. “I think it’d just cause problems for this one.” He bent and collected his bag, putting his notebooks and textbooks back into it. “You take off tomorrow, don’t you?”
I nodded.
He threw his bag over his shoulder. “Let’s catch up when you come back. I want to hear how it went.”
Avery groaned, collapsing on the bed. “Claudia is going to be so pissed at me.”
The first friend laughed. “She already is.”
Avery gave her a dark look. “I mean for a long time. She’s going to be pissed for a loooong time. What am I going to do?”
“She’ll get over it. Claudia’s just mad because now we all know she should’ve been honest with us in the first place.”
The second friend chimed in. “Yeah. Shell had no idea about Claudia’s past with Kevin. She should’ve been upfront about it, unless it happened afterward. If that happened…” She fell silent as her eyes widened. “Shit.”
The first friend shared a look with her. “Claudia broke the girl code.”
“Now, we don’t know—” Avery paled. “She didn’t know Shell that well when it happened.”
The first friend frowned in fierce disapproval. “Shit’s going to hit the fan when Shell finds out. You don’t have to worry about Claudia. She’s going to be clamoring for your support in no time. She’s got some damn explaining to do.”
The two left, leaving Avery behind, and a tear fell down her cheek. “They’re wrong. Claudia will just leave the group. What do I do, Summer?”
I shook my head. I could pat her arm, give her a hug, utter some soothing words, but I was supposed to be traveling with Caden tomorrow. I’d been avoiding him for too long. I was in a doghouse of my own.
“I have no idea.”
It was after midnight when someone knocked softly on my door.
I was still up, doing last-minute packing, and I opened the door to find a girl I didn’t know. She wore an oversized North River University sweatshirt over black leggings, her hair in a messy bun with a pencil stuck through the middle of it.
“Hi.” She held up a hand. “You don’t know me, but I work the front desk, and a guy is downstairs asking to talk to you.”
“Oh.” I frowned. “Do you know who it is?”
She shrugged. “No clue. I asked him, but I already forgot. I’m studying. Finals and all. Do you want me to tell him to take a hike?”
“Uh.” It could be Caden. “No. I’ll come down.”
She started back, but said over her shoulder, “Guys can be in the downstairs lobby all the time, but he can’t come up here.”
“I know.”
“I’m just letting you know because I don’t want to have to report you and deal with all that paperwork. I have a final in two days. I’ll be pissed if you take away from my studying.”
“Well, okay then.” After grabbing my room key and phone, I shut the door behind me and headed down after her. “Note to self, the midnight desk clerk is kind of a bitch.”
When I got down there and saw her back behind the desk, she had her head buried in a psychopharmacology book. I changed my mind. Just the name of her class stressed me out.
No guy waited next to the desk, and I checked the other front lobby across from her desk. No one was there either, so I went downstairs.
Someone was studying a world map, but I didn’t see anyone else around the downstairs lobby that could be Caden. “Hello?”