08 - One Less Thing To Worry About

Kassidy's POV

Five days since Nova arrived, and I had gotten very good at disappearing. I timed my mornings around Eli's schedule, which I had figured out by the third day. He was out of the kitchen by seven fifteen, so I came down at seven thirty. If I heard Nova's voice anywhere on the ground floor, I went back upstairs and waited. It was exhausting and slightly pathetic, but it was working for me.

I had been eating once a day, buying the cheapest takeout I could find every other day, and quietly taking whatever nobody would notice was gone from the kitchen. A handful of crackers. A banana nobody was going to eat. I told myself it was temporary. Just until the part-time job came through.

Unfortunately, I’d also run out of tampons. I sat on the edge of my mattress and stared at my empty bag for a long moment.

Then, with the taste of shame in my mouth, I got up, walked down the hallway, and stood in front of the door that Eli shared with Nova. I knocked and stood there, praying with everything I had that it would be Nova and not Eli who opened the door.

When the door opened, Nova was standing in front of me in a silk robe with her black hair wrapped up, looking like she had been getting ready to go out.

I nearly went limp with relief.

"Kassidy! Hey, what's up?"

"Hi, sorry to bother you," I said, giving an apologetic smile. "I just realized I completely forgot to buy tampons when I went out the other day, and I'm in a bit of an emergency situation right now. Do you by any chance have a spare one?"

"Oh God, of course!" She stepped back immediately. "Come in, let me grab them."

"I just need one to wear while I run out to Target," I added quickly.

She was already rummaging through her bathroom cabinet. She came back out with an entire box and held it out to me. "Here, just take the whole thing."

"Nova, I only need one."

"Oh, come on, Kassidy. I have another one." She tilted her head slightly as her eyes dropped to my collarbone for just a second. “Besides, you look like you could use one less thing to worry about. Are you eating okay? You look a little thin,”

She said it with such a genuine warmth that I didn’t know what to think about her words. Was that concern or mockery?

"Thank you," I said gratefully.

"Anytime, love."

I went back to my room, closed the door, and put the tampon in. I was washing my hands in the bathroom sink when I paused to look at my reflection in the mirror. 

I looked terrible! Nova was right. 

My cheeks were slightly sunken, my collarbones pressing against my skin in a way that was visible even through my t-shirt. I turned slightly, and my eyes went to my chest. I had always had a great rack; it was genuinely one of the few things I felt completely confident about, but even that had deflated slightly. It was like my body was cannibalizing itself from the inside out.

I had done this to myself in one week.

"Fuck it," I said to my reflection. I couldn't continue to live like this.

I pulled on a large grey tee, some shorts, shoved my feet into my Crocs, grabbed my wallet with its tragic contents, and left the house.

Target was a twelve-minute walk. I made the walk while gathering a list on my phone of the absolute bare minimum I could buy with at least $50. Then at least, I would get to keep $100 for absolute emergencies.

I was in the cereal aisle, standing in front of two boxes and doing embarrassingly long math when someone appeared beside me.

He was tall, with a mane of dirty blonde hair, and eyebrows so bushy they were practically their own ecosystem. He was smacking on a piece of chewing gum and staring at me with a crooked smile.

"Take the yellow one," he said, pointing at the more expensive box. "Never go for that blue Rice Krispies, it's a common rookie mistake."

I peered at him, trying to figure out why his face looked so familiar. Eventually, it came to me.

"You're the guy from the party!" I gasped.

"Luca Reynolds." He nodded enthusiastically. "And you're Kassidy. See, I remembered."

He said it while angling his body toward me in a way that immediately invaded my personal space. I took a small step to the side, and he didn't seem to notice, or maybe he noticed and didn't care.

"The yellow one is more expensive," I told him.

"It's like forty cents more."

"I know."

He looked at me, then at the two boxes in my hands, and seemed to realise what I meant. "Okay, what about this one?" He reached past me and pulled a third red box from the shelf. It was cheaper than the better one but more expensive than the bad one, which made it the middle option I hadn't even considered. "Tastes almost exactly the same as the yellow one. I eat it every week."

I took it from him and looked at the back. "I don't like this brand."

"You've had it before?" he asked.

"No."

He spread his hands. "Then how do you know you don't like it?"

I looked at the box again, considered my $50 budget, then sighed in defeat. I put it in my cart. "Fine."

He looked extremely pleased with himself about this, which was kind of funny to watch.

We drifted down the aisle together naturally. He asked me questions, which I answered just to pass the time. He was also excited that I was a prelaw student, not because he was one, though. Somewhere in the middle of our conversation, I mentioned, not really meaning to make a big deal of it, that I was looking for part-time work.

He stopped the cart. "On campus?"

"On or off, it doesn't matter," I answered.

"Okay. Well, there's a pizza place called Sal's, right on the east side of campus. They're hiring, I saw the sign two days ago. You should go tomorrow."

I looked at him. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, why not? The hours work around classes, and from what I heard, the pay is decent. A few people I know have worked there." 

He pulled out his phone. "What's your number? I'll text you the address."

There was absolutely no reason why he should need my number; I could easily get to the pizza shop with the description he already gave me. But I knew exactly what he was doing. It was transparent and slightly amusing. I thought briefly about Eli and his dramatic speech about older guys and fresh faces, and almost laughed. As if I needed Eli Deering to tell me how to read a room.

I gave Luca my number.

He typed it in, nodded, and said, "Cool." Then, before I had processed what was happening, he leaned in and wrapped both arms around me in a full hug. It lasted about three seconds.

Then he let go, grabbed his cart, and walked away down the aisle like he hadn't just ambushed a TOTAL stranger in the cereal section.

I stood there holding my cart and gawked. "Okay then," I said to the space that he had left behind.

When I looked up, Eli and Nova were at the far end of the aisle. Nova was reading the back of something, completely unaware, but Eli, on the other hand, was staring directly at me. 

His eyes were fixed on me as his hand gripped the cart a little harder than necessary. For a few seconds, something unreadable flashed across his eyes. 

My heart dropped straight into my stomach and sat there.