Page 54 of All That Glitters

I quote The Princess Bride. “As you wish.”

She looks down, failing to hide her smile.

“I should probably head up.”

I know she’s pulling back again, but that’s okay. I’ll keep building momentum and trust.

“And I should start back to my place.” I take a step back. “Good night, Goldie. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She glances up, her smile soft but present. The urge to press a kiss to the corner of her mouth hits me like a puck to the helmet. Maybe a walk in the cold will be good for me. Clear my head so that thoughts other than “kiss her!” can fit inside of it.

“Good night.” She whispers her reply.

I watch her walk to the elevators, carrying my heart with her, though she doesn’t know it yet. Once she’s out of sight, I push open the door and draw in a deep breath of frigid night air.

The walk back to my dorm is done on autopilot. When I reach my door, I can’t recall anything I saw on the way there. All I can remember is the way Marigold felt pressed against me and the smile she wore as she said good night.

The living room is dark when I walk in. Nash must be asleep. I head to my room and straight to the journal at my bedside. Pen in hand, I date the page, and then I write down everything I wanted to say but couldn’t.

Chapter twenty-six

Glitter Pen

Marigold Belmore

Jasmine blinks at me over the rim of her coffee cup.

“I’m sorry, did you just say you went to an underground fight club last night?” she asks, then looks at Saylor who’s staring at me wide-eyed from her favorite floor spot. “Did you hear her say that, or am I hallucinating?”

“There’s such a thing as collective hallucination,” Saylor supplies.

Jasmine’s mouth drops open. I press my lips together to keep from laughing. She shakes her head.

“I’m not going to ask why you know that, because I’m afraid it’s going to have nothing to do with being premed,” Jasmine says, and Saylor smiles in a way that reveals Jasmine’s theory is correct.

Aurora walks out of her bedroom, squinting at the light coming through the living room window. Her pale-pink sleep shirt is at least three sizes too big, as are her sweatpants. I learned when we first moved in together that she prefers to wear baggy clothes while relaxing, since she’s in form-fitting leotards and tights so often for dance.

“Marigold snuck out to an underground fight club without telling anyone,” Jasmine informs her.

Aurora rubs her eyes. “Okay?”

“No, not okay.” Jasmine gives me the kind of look I’d expect a mother to give a misbehaving child. “You should have told us. What if something would have gone wrong?”

“I didn’t go alone,” I say in defense, though I know I’ll regret doing so once she asks who came with me.

“Who went with you?” Saylor asks. There’s a gleam in her eye that I don’t like.

“Jameson,” I mumble.

Jasmine sucks in a breath. Saylor giggles. Aurora is thankfully without reaction, though that could be because she’s mixing up her iced coffee in the kitchen.

“When I told Paisley, she said I needed to bring a bodyguard and basically forced us to go together,” I say, though judging by the looks on my friends’ faces, my words are of no use anymore. They’re jumping to conclusions like a game of hopscotch.

“Did someone try to hurt you and then Jameson knocked them out like how Shepherd did for Jasmine last year?” Saylor asks excitedly.

I shake my head. “No, but we did get kicked out. And banned.” I pout when I recall the last part.

“How do you get banned from an illegal fighting ring?” Jasmine asks, incredulous.