started with a lie ➳ raura revised

Chapter Fifty-Five

Fifteen minutes later, I am sitting in a purple bean bag and drinking hot chocolate. As the front door blasts cold air inside, I look up. "There's Tanner and Daniel."

The two idiots are both hatless and gloveless. At least Tanner has enough brain to wear a scarf. Daniel's nose and ears are bright red as he enters, just a coat keeping him warm. They leak water from the melting snow o  of their clothes as they walk over.

"Nice place," Tanner comments, taking a seat next to Giselle on the loveseat directly in front of the fireplace. I shoot Giselle a flirty look and she rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, warm too," Daniel says, clearing the fog o  of his glasses and then putting them on. There's no more seats as there is only a sofa and a beanbag in this section. He places his bag down and sits himself down near my legs, taking a seat on the beautiful carpet in our little area.

I glare at Daniel. "Well, you would be much warmer if you wore a hat and gloves. Even a scarf, Daniel!" He turns and looks at me, flashing me his signature grin. It's hard to be mad at this idiot. "I'm immune."

"Yeah, right!" I press his ear with my fingers. They're insanely cold. "Your ears are nearly falling o  from the frostbite you will probably get in this weather."

"It's fine, I'm fine," he says, waving me o . "Where's Jess the Mess and Suzy Woozy?" They got their names from their behavior at the frequent parties on 7C, the hub of partying at our residential hall.

"Unfortunately, our dynamic duo said they had a date before they both head in separate directions for break, so, they won't be joining us," Giselle answers. She wiggles her eyebrows. "They said not to call or text for the next few hours."

The boys "oooooooh" and Giselle and I laugh and roll our eyes.

Tanner and Giselle start talking about how their finals went together, heads leaned in towards each other. The atmosphere has changed around them. It's suddenly tense and—yeah, they're definitely going to be a thing by next semester.

I turn to Daniel, finally glad to get some down time with him. Though he's been very prominent in my life, always helping me to not forget meals or classwork during my mother's hospitalization, this is the first time I've really seen him since the hibernation to study for finals. The only place I'd been recently had been the library and the secret dining room that nobody knows of on the sixth floor of our residence hall.

"Hey," I say, taking a sip of my milky brown hot chocolate and then staring at Daniel's eyes, which seem to appear the same color at the moment.

"Hi," he says, head touching my knees. He wraps an arm around my leg, rubbing my knee softly as he speaks. It's strangely endearing and makes my heart warm. "How have you been?"

I could tell him it's been hell. But I end up replying, "Good. Fine. How were finals?"

"Good. Fine," he responds, the corner of his lip quirking up. He rests his cheek on my knee, looking up through his long lashes. "How are you really?" he whispers.

I sigh. Keeping up an appearance is harder than being honest. "Tired." "Everything okay?"

I take my hand and run it through Daniel's hair. His hair is dark and soft and wet from the snow. Running my fingers through it calms me. "My mom.... She's not going to get better."

Daniel reaches for the hand in his hair and takes it in his own, rubbing his thumb back and forth across my fingers. He kisses my hand briefly. "You are going to be all right."

Because I know where this talk leads and the unnecessary emotion that I do not have to deal with, I decide to change the topic. "You want some of my hot chocolate? It's still warm."