Life After Life

•C h a p t e r T h i r t y•

The sun had already set by the time I began making my way to my professor's office. The halls were mostly empty, aside from the occasional student running to catch the bus or to a late class. At least this time, the lights were still turned on in the halls.

Part of me still couldn't believe that it hadn't been Liam who'd sold me out two hundred years ago. I'd believed it for so long that I didn't know what to do now that I knew it wasn't true. It was comforting in a way to know that Liam wouldn't do that to me. I could have always trusted him.

I entered the office, glancing around. Immediately, my eyes landed on Liam, leaning against the professor's desk. The professor was nowhere to be seen.

The office was quite mediocre, with one bookshelf leaning against the wall, with a few textbooks on it, while the rest sat on the desk. His desk was a mess, with files, papers and books scattered all around.

My nose crinkled. It seemed completely preposterous that a professor could be so disorganized.

"You're late," Liam pushed himself off the desk, approaching me. He held a mischievous smirk on his face, his eyes never leaving mine.

"You're early," I shot back, shrugging as he stopped in front of me. "You'll take the bookshelf and I'll take the cabinets?"

"I think I have a better idea on how to spend this time," he grinned, his eyes trailing down to my lips.

I bit down on my lip, preventing a smile from creeping onto my face, "We should get started on the organizing."

I brushed past him to get to the desk, my arm grazing over his shoulder. I began sifting through the files and textbooks, trying to find a common theme to sort them by.

"Or, we could... not," Liam said, tucking a few strands of my hair over my shoulder. His touch sent shivers running up my spine.

His presence was strong as he stood directly behind me, his cologne drifting up my nose. I swallowed hard and picked up the first file in my hand.

"I don't even know anything about you," I turned around to face him, my lips curled up and my eyebrows raised. His dark eyes seemed glazed over as they watched me. They darted quickly between my eyes and my lips and my cheeks began to grow warm.

"Please, we've known each other for like two centuries," Liam rolled his eyes, reaching behind me to grab one of the files on the desk, his arm skimming over mine.

"And we were dead for most of it," I pointed out, turning back around as I picked up more of the files, filling my arms. "Besides, everything is different now."

"Well, at least we got tons of time," he gave me a crooked smile as he followed my lead, grabbing a box as he began stuffing textbooks into it.

"Yes we do," I chuckled under my breath.

I looked through the files, sorting them by date into the boxes. Liam and I worked in silence for a few minutes, the ruffling of paper were the only sounds that echoed through the room.

"Anything interesting?" Liam asked from beside me, as he scribbled something down onto a box with a sharpie. He grinned mischievously, "Say... some answer keys?"

"No, we wish. All old lesson plans and case studies," I snorted. Then, my brows shot up in surprise. "You'd actually cheat?"

"Unfortunately, I doubt the professor is dumb enough to leave answer keys lying around with us here," Liam glanced over at me, with an amused expression, biting back his laugh.

I nodded in agreement, turning back to shove more files into the cardboard box.

"Ah shit," Liam cursed under his breath. Immediately, I snapped my head over in his direction. He studied his hand intently, his jaw clenched.