Lavender

Chapter Thirty-Two

We all came here after classes to cram study for tests tomorrow, on Friday of all days. I'd rather be given a test earlier in the week, not the day before the weekend started. But it doesn't bother too much. We've studied hard for two hours straight, but now everyone is starting to take breaks and order yet another round of soft drinks and food. After Jay understands the prompt, he orders another round of Coke's for us and orders himself yet another junior cheeseburger. I think we're gonna have to change out study spot unless we want to haul extra Christmas sweaters to hide our extra weight. But I don't comment on it and order myself a chicken sandwich and continue studying while they talk over their sodas and make plans for the weekend. Speaking of which, I return Wyatt's text about going to the boardwalk tonight for a lazy date night. He replies with hundreds of heart emojis which makes me smile; I send him back a single smiling emoji.

Since unofficially ending things with Holden, my life has been easier but filled with a void. I no longer have to worry if he's going to show up at my door and start kissing me out of nowhere because he's seemingly over me. He hasn't reached out to me and I'm relieved; now I can finally move on with Wyatt. But I can't ignore the part of me that keeps glancing at my phone for a text or missed call or something. Which is not fair, like he said, but I can't help it. He isn't the one who wants his cake and eat it too, it's me.

As if sensing my thoughts about him, Holden appears at the booth. My eyes move from my spiral notebook to him, and I hear my own horrified gasp. His cheeks are bruised into a nasty purple color and blood drips down his nose. Was he beaten up and mugged on the way here? Or maybe fell down a pair of stairs, all adding up to one-hundred stairs?

"What happened to you?" I ask as he roughly sits down beside Daphne, while Cammie chuckles and teases, "Who the hell fucked you up? Did you try to steal someone's girl again?"

Again?

My heart squeezes. Has he really gone for a girl with a boyfriend before? I'm not sure if I should feel sad or not...

We all stare at Cammie, who nervously pulls at her tank top and splutters, "Oh, um, I meant you. But that—that's not funny, I realize that now..." She starts whistling and avoids my now humored eyes. I return my attention to Holden, who still hasn't said a word.

"Did you get into a fight?" I ask him.

"No, I bumped into a door." I know he's being sarcastic, but his tone is so nonchalant I almost think he's serious, but no door could do this much damage. Unless it was made of reinforced steel and two fists intent on murdering him.

"You don't have to have an attitude; I'm just worried about you," I say.

"Oh, so you care about me now? When did the hell did that start?" he scoffs.

I want to throw a sarcastic comment right back at his face, but I can tell he won't tell me anything useful. Not now anyway. Wait... aren't I not supposed to care about him anymore? But that doesn't mean I can't be concerned about him, especially when it's obvious he got into a fist fight with someone, or some people. I keep quiet and go back to studying. My curiosity is burning to know more, but he obviously isn't going to tell me anything.

The entirety of the study session, I keep glancing at Holden, wondering who he could have gotten into a fight with, but come up empty. He doesn't have any enemies. Well, none that I know of anyway. He looks unfazed, but his jaw ticks every time I look over at him. Why did he even come here? He doesn't have any books with him and he doesn't order any food. Did he come here just to get under my skin? Because it's working.

When we're all walking outside, Holden calls, "Lavender you're riding with me."

I almost fall down the stairs hearing this from him. "You want to drive me back to campus?" I ask in disbelief. A short while ago he was holding himself back from snapping my face and driving off to who knows where, probably getting into another bar fight, and now he wants to drive me back home. He is so moody, it drives me insane.