Ice Cold

40

I couldn't go too far or do anything that would let Cooper trace this back to Landon. He would probably end up messing with Landon even more if he suspected that this had anything to do with him, so I had to keep it completely impersonal even though I wanted to warn him off of Landon. At least he would have to suffer a little.

I went to where my bag was and took the first bag out.

After class and while Landon was at therapy, I went to the pet store and bought bags of all the different kinds of bugs they sold to feed reptiles. I had crickets, roaches, worms, and flies.

The first bag I picked out had crickets, so I let those loose in Cooper's closet. I pulled out more bags and let the insects loose in various areas of the room. I tried to keep to Cooper's side of the room, but it probably wouldn't matter. Oh well.

Finally, I let loose some roaches and worms on his bed and that was the last of the bags I had. I didn't stay too long after that. I had to get out of there to keep from getting caught. Not that I wanted to stay long with all those creatures in there anyway. That room probably already had bugs before I let mine loose.

When my work was done, I went to the library back on my campus and started working on things for my finals. Only a couple of my classes had actual exams while the others had essays and projects. I was pretty much done with everything except for the exams.

And then it was time to pick Landon up from practice. I parked outside the facility and waited as other members of his team walked out. I tapped on the steering wheel as I waited until he eventually came out, looking freshly showered, his hair damp and his cheeks flushed.

I unlocked the door as he walked up to the car. After he put his bag in the back seat, he got in the passenger's seat with a tired sigh.

"They don't have hair dryers in there?" I asked, turning in my seat to face him.

He shot me a quizzical look.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"You're always coming out of there with damp hair," I said. "It's not good to do that when it's cold."

It was December now. The air was frigid.

Landon looked at me with disbelief like he couldn't tell if I was kidding or not. I clearly wasn't. It was freezing outside. The ends of his hair were a little frozen from his short walk from the building to the car, and they only began to thaw when he got inside.

"No, Wren, they don't have a hair dryer in there," he said slowly.

"Hm," I hummed. "Well, they should."

Just as I looked away from him, I saw Cooper walking out of the building with two other guys. I couldn't help the grin that creeped on my face at the thought of him going back to his dorm to the mess I created.

"That's Cooper, right?" I asked Landon, motioning toward him.

Landon nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"No reason," I said. "Are you buckled, sweetheart?"

Landon shook his head at me and buckled his seatbelt.

As soon as he was buckled, I started driving. I was sure to drive slowly by Cooper, watching him as we went by. He looked at me, his face filled with confusion, and I waved before leaving the parking lot.

"What the hell was that?" Landon snapped. "Don't do that shit."

"I was just being friendly."

"No, you weren't. You just want to start shit."