CHAPTER 17

ZANDER’s POV

The dorm feels eerily quiet as I step out. The click of the door echoing down the hallway as I adjusted the strap of my bag and shoved my hands into my pockets needing to leave the room before Jayden crawls under my skin this morning.

“So much for thinking way ahead of myself.” I muttered. “I’d actually thought he’d remember the whole thing.”

I didn’t need him to remember every embarrassing detail from last night….God knew neither of us needed that, but at least… something.

“The apology...” I whisper under my breath.

Instead, all I’d gotten was a confused stare and a mumbled question about why there was tea on his bedside table. Like I was some inhumane person incapable of being nice.

I huffed a dry laugh under my breath. “Figures.”

    Senior year was ending faster than I’d expected and it was getting on every working nerve in my body. Every class seemed to revolve around graduation, final projects, university plans, and endless reminders that real life was waiting outside the school gates.

Today’s mission was simple: collect the requirements for our final project and survive another lecture about “preparing for adulthood.” They kept saying this to us like it was all of us attending the school that were fed with a golden spoon.

“Easy enough.” I reassured myself.

If only my head wasn’t somewhere else and I desperately needed to complain to someone. Normally, Tristan would’ve been the unlucky victim of my rant, but the idiot had practically disappeared off the face of the earth.

It had been almost a week and the last thing he’d posted on his socials was a picture of himself wearing looe short and no shirt, standing on some ridiculously fancy terrace in freaking Paris with the silhouette of an anonymous guy covering him from behind, leaving me wondering who had managed to tame my wild best friend.

“Must be nice.” I sulked.

Meanwhile, I was stuck here trying to understand why my roommate had decided to become emotionally available for only one night since we’ve been sharing dorms. By the time classes ended, I was exhausted from sitting and not being able to comprehend whatever it was that was being taught.

The dorm room was unlocked when I got back. I step in to see Jayden sitting on MY bed like he's some sort of crowned prince, elbows resting on his knees as he scrolled through his phone.

I opened my mouth, ready to yell at him to get himself off my bed because I needed to close my eyes and sleep like a sleep deprived puppy.

“You don’t have to keep staring at me like that, Princess.” My eyebrows lifted till I’m sure they touched my head.

“Did he just call me…..Princess?” I thought to myself.

“I remember.”

Everything inside me stilled and I waited for him to continue.

“I remember apologizing.”

I didn’t interrupt.

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck before meeting my eyes.

“I meant that part.” Then his expression hardened. “But I don’t regret what I said.”

The tiny flicker of hope I’d been holding onto dimmed.

He continued with a shrug. “Maybe I shouldn’t have handled it the way I did, but I’m not taking it back.”

Silence settled between us.

“Fine….” I finally exhaled after keeping us in silence for about two minutes. 

His shoulders visibly relaxed just enough for me to notice.

“So…?” He asked, waiting for my response to his lame ass apology.

“Apology accepted.” I said.

“That’s it?” He blinked at me like I was some alien.

“What were you expecting? A dramatic speech? Or me licking your feet for apologizing for something that was your fault?” I rolled my eyes at him.

A corner of his mouth twitched into a quick smile before he said, “We’re still roommates.”

“Roommates,” I agreed.

“Not friends.”

“Yeah, sure. Not friends.” I rolled my eyes again.

It was probably the weirdest truce in human history, but at the end of day, t was something. An awkward silence settled over the room and me wanting to fill it, I spoke before thinking.

“So… your parents—” Jayden’s smile disappeared and his body went rigid.

He stood up so fast I barely had time to draw my next breath before he crossed the distance between us in two quick but deliberate steps, stopping close enough that I had to tilt my head slightly to meet his eyes.

“Don’t.”

Silence.

“Don’t ever bring up my parents again or we’ll have a problem again.”

The air suddenly felt heavier and for a moment, neither of us moved.

Then the darkness and anger in his expression disappeared and returned to normal, then he stepped back and looked away.

“It’s private, so no more.” He said in a pleading but threatening tone.

He climbed onto his bed, turning his back to me as if the conversation had never happened but me on the other hand? I stood where I was, still trying to process whatever the hell that had been.

Then, annoyingly…the only thing my stupid brain decided to focus on was his faint scent lingering in the room.

The was his cologne smelled so warm but ridiculously sweet….

“Seriously?!” I mentally slapped myself.

He had practically threatened me, and there I was, breathing in the lingering scent of his cologne as it clouded my senses.

“What the hell was wrong with me?” I silently groaned as I began to run my hands through my hair, trying to make sense of whatever the hell had just happened.