The Double-Tap Accident

Chapter Thirty-Two: At the Door.

Chapter Thirty-Two: "At the Door."

DECEMBER CALLED FOR more snow and freezing nights. Yet I wasn't irritated by the change. Even now as Mariam and I walked out of the lecture hall, bundled in jackets as a strong breeze whipped through the air and the clouds darkened with no rain or snow in sight. And I was content.

Mariam was speaking into her scarf, but my mind was going to places beyond the topic of winter break plans. Beyond the moment. I was convinced I was on some kind of contact high that hasn't left my system for a while. Or from a few days ago. Or from whenever our, as in Aven and I's, schedules had time for each other.

I think we got too carried away. We did the other night after going out to eat and we were in the parking garage of his building, lost in each other before we remembered he shared the car with three other people. Last week when he had come over briefly before practice. Over and over and--

"Hey!" Mariam nudged me. "Are you even listening to me?"

"I'm listening, I'm listening," I assured her as we climbed down the steps of the class and made sure I had sent my notes to Iman who had missed class today because he woke up at 1:30 PM.

At a distance, I heard a laugh, and my heart picked up speed when I recognized it instantly. It's amazing how easy it was to know someone just by their laugh.

Aven was leaning against one of the lampposts along the walkway as students continued by, in a circle with three other people. One of the girls in the group I vaguely recognized. I didn't know her name but she looked so familiar, a million names started to run through my head.

The realization of who she was made me stop in my tracks and Mariam followed suit, glancing at me before observing the group a good distance away. She was the one that Aven had rejected when we had been at the library.

Her pretty face was lit up as she spoke to everyone in the group with such enthusiasm it made me want to know whatever the hell she was saying. Yet I couldn't make out any of the words she spoke. But I was able to make out when her hand fell to his arm.

Her hand was on his arm a moment longer than it should have been.

"Woah, Jaime."

I blinked, diverting my attention to my friend, "What? What?"

"Relax," Mariam said with a light smile. I was even a little stunned, reeling it all back in. Relax. "He's with you."

"I don't know about that," I admitted cautiously, flashes of his words and sensations fleeting across my mind. "We haven't talked about that because every time we see each other we go at it."

"Go at it?"

"Sex. It's..." I shook my head out of the sudden rise of images from a few nights ago that drift through my thoughts without permission. It's been days since I felt his hands link with my own and run down my body and his mouth slip from my own due to bright laughter that made my chest feel so full. A deep exhale escaped my body, leaving as a white cloud as I brought myself back to the present. "Let's just say I was late for a Piano Society meeting the other day. Laurence almost killed me."

"Wow." Mariam mused as my gaze went over to Aven once again. She wasn't touching him anymore, but he was still listening to her, their pair engaged in a conversation as the other two people in their circle spoke to each other. A second later, she started to part ways from the group and I watched as she reached out again and squeezed Aven's arm in goodbye.

I was going to pretend that never happened.

That never happened.

"Jaime." Mariam let out a tiny laugh just as my sudden annoyance passed through me. "Oh, you have it bad."