05 - That Was The Problem

Kassidy's POV

The rain started at four forty-seven in the evening. I had no umbrella, and I had no rain jacket. All I brought was a tote bag with a notebook in it that I absolutely could not afford to replace. The bus stop was a seven-minute walk from the campus gates. I was already having the worst day of my life, and I didn't want to add to that by walking in the rain. 

So I sat by the window and watched the rain come down in sheets.

I used the waiting time productively, or tried to. I applied for three jobs; one on campus and two off campus, in the hope that I'll get a positive response from them. 

My phone rang. I fished it out of my pocket, feeling both dread and relief upon seeing Piper's name. Has her brother told her anything? 

"Hey." I tried to sound normal as I picked up the call.

"You don't sound okay," Piper said immediately.

"I'm fine."

"Kas, did something happen?"

"Piper, I'm fine, it's just been a long day." I sighed. "I just want to get home and take a long bath."

"How long a day?"

I looked out at the rain. "Very long."

She was quiet for a second. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," I said honestly. "I really don't."

"Okay." She didn't push me to talk, which was one of the many reasons I loved her. "Where are you right now?"

"I'm in the campus library and I'm stuck. It's raining, and I didn't bring an umbrella because I am apparently a person with no survival instincts."

Piper laughed softly. "Okay. I'll get Eli to come pick you up."

"WHAT? Piper, no! Absolutely not! I can take the bus..."

"The buses are going to be packed in this rain, and you'll be waiting forever. He'll come get you, it's fine."

"It is not fine, I don't want him to come!"

"Okay, love you, bye!"

The call ended. I pulled the phone from my ear and looked at it. "Piper," I growled at the screen. "Piper, don't you dare!"

Twenty minutes later, a car pulled up outside the library entrance. I recognised it immediately, a clean and expensive black car. For a minute, I tried to ignore it, but a weird message from a strange number changed my mind. 

It reads: Piper says you're at the library. I'm outside. 

Then another message after that: I'll be gone in two minutes. 

I pulled my bag over my head as a pathetic shield against the rain and ran for it.

The moment I got in, I slammed the door and sat dripping in the passenger seat.

Eli glared at me. "You're getting water on my leather seat."

"Thank you for that observation." I pushed my wet hair out of my face. "I didn't ask you to come."

"I know."

"I was going to take the bus, I told Piper."

"Take the bus in this." It wasn't a question but a statement on how stupid I sounded. He pulled out of the parking lot without looking at me again.

I kept quiet and stared straight ahead. Outside, the rain hammered the windshield, and the wipers worked furiously. Eli turned on the heater, and soon, the inside of the car was toasty. I was grateful for that.

"You didn't have to do this, by the way," I told him. "I didn't beg for it."

"I know. Piper asked me to."

"So you did it for Piper. Not for me."

"That is correct." He maneuvered the vehicle around a bend.

I turned to look at his profile. "You know you're a genuinely unpleasant person to be around. Minus what... what we did yesterday, you have been so hostile to me. If Piper has forgiven me, so should you."

"My sister might have forgiven you out of some misguided sense of friendship, but I will never forgive you for that, Townsend," Eli murmured. "Not to mention you're dripping on my seat and criticising my personality. You're welcome, by the way."

I turned back to face the windshield and said nothing. There was nothing to say to that.

"I didn't say thank you."

"I know." He changed lanes smoothly. "That's my point."

"Fine. Thank you. Happy?"

"Ecstatic."

"Also, I'm not a charity case," I added. "I want you to know that I can do things myself. I have money for the bus, I have legs that work, and I don't need you driving across campus in the rain to collect me like I'm a lost parcel."

"Noted." Eli said. "And yet here we are."

"Here we are," I repeated, mostly to myself.

The rest of the drive passed in short, brittle exchanges that went nowhere, him saying something insulting and me firing something back, neither of us saying anything close to what was actually between us. By the time he pulled up in front of the house, I was both physically and mentally tired.

I reached for the door handle and stepped out of the car, spotting a woman in front of our apartment.

She was standing on the front porch with a suitcase beside her feet. An expensive-looking black coat was slung over her shoulder. She was tall and effortlessly pretty, with warm eyes and dark hair which she gathered over one shoulder, and she was smiling at the car.

Not at the car... at Eli in particular.

Speaking of Eli, I turned to him and watched his whole body tense up, then suddenly ease up in the next second.

All the stiffness he had used around me in the car, it all loosened as he smiled at her. He crossed the small distance to the porch and kissed her on the cheek, and she laughed and touched his arm.

What the fuck was happening right now?

"How was the journey?" he asked her.

"It was long, but worth it." She squeezed his arm. "I told you I'd make it for the start of term."

I stood on the wet pavement with my soaked tote bag and watched this with a growing feeling of shock.

The lady noticed me then, and she redirected her smile towards me.

"Hi! You must be one of the housemates." She walked towards me and extended her hand. "I'm Nova. Eli's girlfriend."

Eli's WHAT?

"Oh!" She glanced at my wet hair with a sympathetic wince. "Rough evening? Don't worry, you'll love it here." Then, without waiting, she unlooped the scarf from around her neck. It was an expensive cashmere, the kind of thing I would never own, and held it out to me. "Here, your neck must be freezing."

I stared at it for a second. I didn't want to take it. I took it anyway, because I was cold and because refusing would have looked strange.

"I'm moving in, so we're basically going to be roommates!" She smiled warmly again at me.

It would have been so much easier if she were someone I could immediately dislike.

She wasn't and that was the problem.