The Halo Effect

43 | angel

The heat arrived overnight.

It was 70 degrees when I went to the dining hall for breakfast, and the temperature steadily increased into the low 80s by the afternoon. I'd hoped to feel a breeze when I emerged from the science building after Honors Physics, but only dead heat and Kelsey awaited me.

"Thank god we're wearing white today," Kelsey said as I met her at the bottom of the stone stairs. We both had a free period at the end of the day, and she'd agreed to meet me after her AP US History class so we could review one of our offensive plays. We anticipated Kelsey getting face-guarded during the game, but that didn't make working together impossible. We could outsmart it.

"Seriously," I replied, lifting a hand to shield my eyes from the rays of violent sunlight. Kelsey was both smart and trendy for wearing her black cat-eye sunglasses. "I keep having to check if I've sweat through Trip's jersey."

"I actually wouldn't mind sweating through Grayson Kirby's jersey." Kelsey laughed and glanced down to inspect the jersey. "Anyway, did you and Trip take cute couples photos?"

"This morning, before the heat could ruin my makeup," I answered as I re-tied my ponytail, desperate to keep it off the back of my neck.

"Thank god."

We'd just started down the walkway when someone fell into step beside Kelsey.

"Good luck today," Win said in that smooth and measured way of his. 

I personally found it downright annoying, but I kept my gaze forward, determined to limit my interactions with Win to in-class only. My ego also preferred to dodge any discussion of the Caroline Incident, which he undoubtedly knew about. Everyone with a pulse did.

Macallan and Kelsey had initially thought it was a joke because no way would Caroline Drake have the guts or justification to do what she did outside the dining hall (or at all, for that matter). I'd returned from Trip's dorm room later that night to them demanding how such an idiotic rumor started.

I had to shed a few frustrated tears for them to accept that it wasn't actually a rumor. Caroline had actually said those things to me. Not even the Cannondale gossip sharks could've made that crap up.

Following this unfortunate revelation, they'd demanded to know how they could've missed it, which we'd ruled as an unlucky case of them departing the dining hall before me.

"Thanks! Are you going to watch?" Kelsey's response snapped me out of my internal monologue.

"I am," Win confirmed, "but don't worry, I won't do any obnoxious campaigning on the bleachers."

I couldn't resist side-eyeing him. "How considerate of you."

"I aim to please," he replied and nodded to the approaching fork in the sidewalk. "Well, I've gotta go to AP Lang. I might track you down after the game for the Cannondale Weekly article...Anyway, good luck."

"Okay, see you later!" Kelsey called out after him.

My gaze followed Win as he maintained a fast clip down the sidewalk. He dragged a hand through his hair, and I swore I heard him give a disgruntled sigh.

I'd noticed during class on Monday that his hair wasn't as moppy as it was the previous week—he could arch his eyebrows without them disappearing behind his midnight hair. It made me realize that I'd probably failed to notice how often he would do that to me.

I gritted my teeth and returned my attention to Kelsey. As I did, she slowly slid her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose and regarded me with narrowed eyes.