Three days ago I’d held her in my arms as she fell asleep telling me about all the things she’d packed. I had teased her about packing too much and not being able to fit it all in her dorm room. She had promised me she would wear those pick high heels on our first official college date. Everything had been perfect. Pagan had loved me.
Now, she didn’t even know me.
“Here it is,” Miranda announced as she opened the dorm room that I knew connected to Gee’s room. I’d made sure of that. I also knew this room was the biggest one available. I wanted Pagan to have the best. I wanted every experience she had to be perfect. She’d been through so much with me already. This was supposed to be the beginning of our happily-ever-after.
“Oh wow. It’s huge! I wonder if this is the right one? We’re just freshman. ” The excitement in Miranda’s voice as she spun around and took in her surroundings reminded me that Miranda had forgotten it all too. My existence in the human world over the past year had been altered. Pagan wouldn’t remember. They’d taken that from her. Every memory—gone.
“You can put that box down over there on that side of the room. Pagan will want to be further from the bathroom. It takes me longer to get ready and she can sleep later in the mornings. ” Miranda was right. Pagan wouldn’t spend much time getting ready in the mornings. It also reminded me that I wouldn’t be here to hold her and kiss the sleepy look on her face. I placed the box beside her closet. Agony at the separation was slicing through me. Then there was the fear. What if Pagan didn’t choose me? What if I never held her again? What if she never looked at me again with love in her eyes? Could I exist without that?
No. I couldn’t.
“We’re gonna be late,” Gee grumbled from the doorway. It was past time we headed out to collect souls. It was just so hard to leave her now that I had her close again. Being unable to touch her or allow her to see me was torture.
“Oh, do you have practice?” Miranda asked batting her eyelashes my way. I’d forgotten she was a Cold Soul fan. I’d been Pagan’s boyfriend to her for a while now. The fact she was a fan had faded away. This was going to be annoying.
“No he has a gig. ” Gee explained in an amused drawl.
“Wow, where? Is it sold out? I’d love to go. I’ve never seen you perform live. ”
Yeah, she had. Several times. But that was also forgotten. Before I could come up with a suitable reply Gee interrupted me.
“Pagan is outside talking to a boy. One with a Cajun-talking Daddy, if you know what I mean. ”
Shit.
I stalked past Miranda and shoved Gee aside as I made my way down to the parking lot in the closest thing to human speed as I could manage. But because I knew Leif was near Pagan and she didn’t know who he was or what he had done, I felt justified a slightly more efficient mode of travel.
I didn’t want to scare Pagan by appearing out of thin air. So I came up behind her. Leif felt my presence because his entire body tensed.
“Can I help you carry your things inside?’ Leif asked Pagain, looking over her shoulder in an attempt to find me.
I started to take a step forward when Gee grabbed my arm and pulled me back with a hard tug. “Stop it. Remember, he isn’t her type. Calm down. Let her handle this. You’re going to fuck everything up if you act like some crazed guy with an infatuation. This is not the guy she fell in love with. She fell in love with dark mysterious Dank Walker. She fell in love with Death. Be that guy. Stop being this broken, pitiful, obsessed stalker dude. That won’t get her back. And believe it or not, I want Pagan back too. ”
She was right. I clenched my fists tightly and waited.
“No thanks. I’ve got this. It was nice to meet you. ” Pagan informed him in a slightly annoyed tone that eased my anxiety. Gee was right. Leif wasn’t Pagan’s type. He never had been. I knew the boy wasn’t stupid enough to try to take her again. His father wouldn’t allow it. He was testing the waters to see if she really had forgotten.
“See? She’s got this. Now let’s go. You act mysterious and sexy. Go get your ass on that motorcycle and drive away without a word. ”
Leaving Pagan was hard. I didn’t want her to have to carry all those things inside. I wanted to do that for her. I was supposed to be the one doing that. She had been going to pay me in sexual favors. We’d joked about it for weeks. But now… she was here. Alone.
“You stay here. Stay near her. Help her move in. Most importantly, keep the voodoo prince away from her. I’ll be back as soon as inhumanly possible. ”
Surprisingly, Gee didn’t argue.
Pagan
“Smart move. He looked like a creep. ”
The blond with the pink tipped hair was suddenly beside me. I hadn’t heard her walk up but I’d been busy trying to get rid of the overly-friendly guy who had met me at Miranda’s car and wouldn’t take a hint.
“He was nice enough. I’m just not crazy about giving directions to my room to every guy on campus. ” I explained. And I didn’t want them to feel as if I owed them something for their help.
The girl reached into the car and pulled out my suitcase. I wasn’t sure what to think about that. The roar of the motorcycle’s engine startled me and I spun around too see Dank Walker drive away without so much as a glance my way. Not that I expected it, really. I mean he had been very nice and seemed somewhat interested, but I didn’t exactly encourage him.
“Weren’t you going with him?” I asked as the girl walked around me with a suitcase handle in one hand and one of my boxes tucked in her other arm. She was really going to help me unload? Why? I’d done nothing to win her favor. She didn’t appear to be someone who made friends easily.
“Changed my mind. He’s in a bit of a funk today,” she said without looking back at me. I watched as she made her way to the entrance of the dorm then I turned around and grabbed a box myself. She wouldn’t know which room to go to and even if she found the room on her own, it would terrify Miranda if emo girl walked into the room when she was there alone
Five hours later we were completely unpacked. Even our very large room was set up. We’d taken he empty boxes to the dumpster, packed the fridge with water bottles, and I’d given half my closet space to Miranda. She’d brought too many clothes to fit in hers. This was not surprising in the least. I figured that it would be easier to live with a jam-packed closet than listening to Miranda whine for the next nine months because her closet wasn’t big enough. Besides, with the size of this room we could easily fit one of those portable closets in the corner.
“I still can’t believe she is in the room connected to ours and she doesn’t have to share with anyone. What is she? A rock star’s kid? THAT’S IT! She is some famous rocker’s kid. She looks the part. She is obviously on a first name basis with Dank Walker and she has the money and power to have her very own dorm room. And she has that weird name. Who calls their kid ‘Gee” but some famous person?”
Most times, I waved Miranda’s ridiculous ideas away, but this time she just might be right. No one else in the dorm had her own room, everyone else had a room-mate. Granted, our room was huge. It was even bigger than Gees, but we were sharing it. I plopped down on my black polka dotted comforter that Miranda had insisted I get. She wanted us to match. Hers was black with white polka dots and mine was white with black polka dots. I didn’t really care for the pattern but honestly I’d have been fine with a quilt from home as my cover. Miranda had thrown a hissy fit when I’d suggested that. So, we had polka dots. Everything else was black and white too. Black and white was her current decorating color scheme obsession. She had even bought us matching pin boards with black and white ribbon on them to hang above our desks, right beside the black and white dry erase boards.
“It looks good doesn’t it?” She asked smugly as she sat down beside me. She was happy with the way everything had fit into place. I was just glad she’d left the One Direction po
sters at her house. I don’t like boy bands and I sure don’t want to them plastered over the walls of my room all year.
“You did a good job,” I agreed and she beamed at me. It didn’t take much to make her smile. She’d gone through a rough patch there for a while after her boyfriend, Wyatt, had passed away. It had been the three of us growing up. Losing him had hurt me too, but not as badly as it had her. They had a connection I didn’t share. Shopping for our room had kept her busy over the past month and she’d slowly started to heal.
“What should we do now? Want to go check out the campus? Or go find something to eat? The campus food court doesn’t open until tomorrow. We’ll have to leave campus to find dinner. ”
I started to answer when Gee walked into the room through the bathroom that adjoined our rooms. “I know the perfect place to go eat and have a little fun. Let’s go, bitches. ”