Fourteen

Raven

The sky was pitch black, except for a few twinkling stars scattered across the sky. The only sounds were from the crunching of leaves beneath my feet as I headed toward the dorm, clutching my backpack with one hand and shivering as a gust of chilly wind blew by.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said to William as I opened the gates slowly, the hinges creaking in the quiet of the night.

"Are you sure we shouldn't have woken Vlad?" I asked him.

"Well, perhaps he wants to read," he replied with nonchalance.

Exhausted, I rubbed my eyes and felt fatigued in my body. Without warning, William hugged me, and with a smile on his face, he turned to leave.

Feeling a bitter tang in my mouth while fiddling with the rope on my joggers, I groaned, wondering if I had made a mistake agreeing to be William's fake girlfriend.

I crept inside, trying not to wake my sleeping dorm mates. One hugged a teddy bear tightly while another was snoring so loudly that the sound could make the floor beneath he