جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

WRENLEYThe eviction notice is taped to my door, so I take it down again for the third one this month.I fold it into quarters and shove it into my pocket with the other two. At this point, I should probably start a collection."Fuck," I cursed silently as the alarm for practice goes off. Swimming has always been something I was good at, but winning the Olympics was a newfound dream, one that was way better than the mate I was promised to before I could even walk.Despite Coach Diaz's ongoing campaign to turn me into a cyclist, I still prefer walking. It requires less coordination and fewer opportunities for public humiliation.I manage to make it with four minutes to spare, which means I walk onto the deck still pulling my cap on, and Coach Diaz looks at the clock instead of at me. Apparently being four minutes early still counts as late in his personal religion."Vale. Lane four. We're doing two hundreds on the three.""Got it." I tug at the tape wrapped around my ankle, over the ma

WRENLEYHis name is Jerry.That's all I got at the party before Tess dragged me to the snack table and started narrating the social standing of everyone in the room like I'd asked.I remember leaving there feeling things I never thought was possible. Meanwhile, Aurel has been trying to talk to me all week but I avoid him.The thought of Jerry fills my head until I can't think of anything else which is a problem, because I have several actual problems that deserve the attention more."How do you get a guy to like you?" I blurt out to Tess one afternoon. The second the words leave my mouth, I consider throwing myself through the nearest window."Oh my, look at you having your first crush," she teased, bringing her chair closer to mine."I regret asking already." I muttered with a hand over my face. We had just finished class for today. "Who is he? Is it Aurel?" She gave me a light shove. "I saw the way he looked at you at that party.""Ewww, no. I'd rather be married to a dog than him.

WrenlyThe campus gym at four in the afternoon is the probably the worst possible place to be having a crisis about Aurel Castell's arms, but here I am doing just that.The place is loud; from the clanking of the metal plates, somebody's bad playlist leaking out of the corner speaker, two guys near the dumbbells arguing about a game, a cluster of girls by the mats who are very obviously here to watch the hockey team train and not to work out. The whole room smells like testosterone, sweat and someone's too-strong body spray. And in the middle of it, at the rack against the mirrors, is Aurel, pushing a loaded bar up over his chest in a cutoff shirt with his hair pulled back, and I am sitting at a machine I'm supposed to be using, pretending to scroll my phone, occasionally stealing glances at the way his biceps bulges like it's my job.“Pull yourself together,” I coaxed myself because I hate this. I came here to train and mind my business, instead I'm thinking about the fact that this

WRENLEYLaundry day in a house full of boys is its own kind of warfare, and I've lost before I've started, because all four machines' worth of someone else's gym clothes are already piled on top of the dryer when I get down there.I'm standing in the basement laundry room glaring at a mountain of hockey jerseys that smell like a locker room died in them when Aurel comes down the stairs behind me with his own basket."You're in my spot," he says."There's no spot in here, dummy. It's called a laundry room for a reason.""There's absolutely a spot. I do laundry on Sundays. Everyone knows that.""I must have missed the memo when you practically dragged me here.” I scoff.“Dragged you? If I remember clearly, I saved your ass from being homeless.”He sets his basket down next to mine, way too close, and starts pulling the dead-locker-room jerseys out of the dryer. "Move over, I'll split the machines with you. Unless you'd rather wait two hours."I would rather wait two hours. I would rather

WRENLEYI corner Jerry on a Tuesday, armed with Aurel's advice and the one small thing I've noticed about him, and it takes me almost the whole conversation to figure out he's barely listening.Because of how much I'm into him, I spent the entire time after my conversation with Aurel, mapping and plotting out things only I noticed.“No, this is so common,” I groaned at the list I made. But after much brainstorming and careful observations, I found the perfect thing.Jerry gets the same coffee from the cart outside the science building every single morning, and he's on his phone the whole time. He never looks up, not even to thank the guy who hands it to him. So my plan, the Aurel-approved notice-the-detail-make-him-feel-seen plan, is to be at that cart at the right time and beat him to it.‘What if he thinks you're creepy?’ A part of me which I'm pretty sure is that voice says.But I ignore it, holding the cup, while my eyes scan for the particular 6’3, muscular, brown haired guy.Eve