Page 36 of Almost Ours

"Why has it been strange?" I ask. "Because of the swan?"

He lets out a breath that almost sounds like a laugh. "That didn't exactly help."

"Did anything help?"

"Yeah." A slow smile spreads across his face, and something flips low in my stomach.

I realise he's not going to elaborate. "Care to share what?"

"No."

I bump my shoulder against his. A jolt spreads through me at the contact. "You big old tease."

"I've no idea what you're talking about."

"Liar."

He glances down at me, fighting another smile, and we reach Hussey far too quickly for my liking, the building dark and quiet, the whole campus finally gone still around us.

"This is me," I wave towards the door.

"Right." He doesn't move.

“What? Do you need to walk me all the way to my bedroom? Is dropping me off at the block door not enough?”

“Well…” He rubs the back of his neck. “I don’t know. I was thinking I’d at least see you to your floor.”

“You want to walk me all the way to my actual door?”

“Kind of, yeah.”

“Could I not just text you when I’m in?”

He nods. “You could. So long as you actually do. I texted you earlier so you have my number.”

I narrow my eyes. “Are you usually like this?”

He frowns. “Like what?”

“I don’t know…” I gesture vaguely towards him. “Helpful? Chivalrous? Going out of your way to help others?”

He looks genuinely puzzled. “Is this not the normal thing to do?”

“I don’t know.”

With Ansel, everything was a test. Say the wrong thing and he'd go quiet. Laugh at another boy's joke and he'd spend the rest of the evening asking whether I fancied him instead. Take too long to reply and I'd be accused of ignoring him on purpose. Eventually, it became easier to keep my head down, apologise first and hope the mood passed.

"Well," I murmur, feeling a lot of things I’m not used to. "Thank you."

He gives a small shrug, like I'm thanking him for passing me the salt rather than walking me home after spending the last hour rescuing drunk strangers and risking his life against a homicidal swan. "You don't need to thank me."

“I still want to."

He holds my gaze for a moment before dipping his chin. "Just text me when you get upstairs."

"I will."

"Promise?"