Chapter 14 - Waylon

I trained my ears to what Wakely and her friend, Cora, were saying. I silently prayed that Wakely would turn around again so that I could see her face. But she didn’t, not until she brought her tray to the cleaning station.

“What’s going on today?” I asked the group, ignoring the conversation that they were having. I didn’t pay attention to anything they were saying after I told Zoey to shut up.

They weren’t important anymore; the only thing that was important to me was graduating early and Wakely.

Wakely and Cora were talking about getting ready for something. I didn’t see the schedule for the week. I was sure that Whitt or Wynn would tell me if something was important. But no, I hadn’t heard anything. And I knew that Wakely must be going to something scheduled.

“Oh God, it’s that lame Meet and Greet thing that the university does for each class. Today is the Junior class one.” Zoey whined as she stared at her nails.

“What time?” I clenched my jaw, I wanted to snap at her and tell her to back the fuck off. But I kept that to myself.

“I think it’s at one,” Scarlett said with a smile.

“Thanks, Scar,” I said as I grabbed my tray and walked away from them without another word. I normally didn’t go to gatherings like that. But if it allowed me to see my girl again, I would.

I ran to my room. I wanted to know the details of this event, and I had my folder from registration on my desk. I never looked at it, though. I never had a need to. Not until now.

I pulled the folder from the shelf and shuffled through it. There was a schedule for what was happening this week. Yesterday was move-in day. My finger ran through the list of things and landed on today.

The meet and greet was in the garden behind the Larson building. Business casual attire. I shuffled through my closet, I wanted to look good for Wakely.

Black on black always looked good on me. I pulled out my black button-down and a pair of black jeans.

I ran my hand through my curls and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked good. From everyone else's perspective, I always looked good.

I glanced at the clock. It was one hour before the thing started. I couldn’t show up this early. I would look too eager. That wasn’t my style, I knew that it would raise questions.

I sat down at my laptop and pulled up Wakely’s profile. This was what I succumbed to, stalking a girl I liked. There had to be something wrong with me because I didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t feel guilty, I didn’t feel anything except the desperate need to know everything about Wakely.

Picture after picture flashed on my screen, and I inspected each one like I had done so many times before.

In each photo there was something in her eyes, concern. Like she shouldn’t be there or wasn’t sure if she was going to get into trouble.

No matter what picture I looked at, they all had that same concerned look in her eye, even though she had a smile on her face.

All the pictures except the one where she was reading. She looked so happy, without a care in the world.

I wanted her to look like that when she was around me. I wanted her to feel comfortable and be able to be herself. She was mine, and nothing was going to change that.

I looked at the clock again, impatient for the damn thing to tell me I could go to this event without looking like a loser.

I still had thirty minutes before I would allow myself to go. Losers were the only ones who arrived early or on time for school events.

I closed out of her profile and pulled up the school website. I needed to know what classes she was taking. I’ve hacked into their system before I could easily do it again.

Within minutes, I was logged in and searching for Wakely Gilford. But nothing came up. I searched only her last name; maybe she had a different first name, and she only went by Wakely.

Nothing.

“Where are you?” I asked the computer.

I changed my search to just her first name, and something popped up. Wakely Moore. “Why are you going by that last name?”

I clicked on her schedule and was shocked that she was in every engineering class I was in. She had a couple of extracurriculars, but other than that, it was the same as my course load.

I leaned back in my chair and stared at our very similar schedule. The only difference was that she took an art class and a Latin class.

“I guess we will be seeing a lot of each other,” I said as I smiled at her schedule.

Before I was nervous to start all of my classes, but I felt a little better about having someone taking the same amount of classes that I was.

If I were honest with myself, I was excited to start classes next week to see Wakely in every single one. I wasn’t prone to skipping classes, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to skip a class this semester.

I searched around on the admin website, I saw the classes she took at her previous school. I squinted at the screen. She went to a university in Seoul? Why in the hell would she transfer to a school that was lower in standing?

That was something I needed to look into. I accessed the school’s website and clicked around. Unlike our school, that school had great firewalls and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get into the system.

I slammed my laptop closed and stared at it in frustration. Why had Wakely changed schools? Did something happen on campus that made her change?

My door swung open and slammed into the wall. “Whatcha doing?” Wynn asked as he walked into my room without knocking.

I needed to be better at locking my damn door.

Wynn whistled as he took me in. “You look spiffy. What’s the occasion?” He eyed me suspiciously.

Whittaker stood behind him with his arms crossed over his chest. I wondered where their parasitic girlfriends went. Even though I didn’t really care.

“None of your damn business,” I growled at them. I didn’t want them to know what I was doing.

They didn’t need to know about my new obsession with Wakely. If they did, they would either try to help me out, which would in the end fail. Or they would try to make it more difficult for me because they were assholes.

Whittaker cocked an eyebrow at me. “You’ve been acting strange lately.” It wasn’t a question, just an observation.

“And?” There was no reason to deny it. If I could help my obsession, I would. But no matter what I did, my thoughts of Wakely were all-consuming.

Wynn narrowed his eyes at me. “What’s going on?”

“As I have mentioned before, it’s none of your damn business,” I said through clenched teeth. I clenched and unclenched my hands on my desk.

Whittaker maneuvered around Wynn, I knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to intimidate me but it wasn’t going to work. Not this time.

Whitt thought he was the older brother, he acted like it. Even though he was only a few minutes older than me. He was the eldest triplet, Wynn was the youngest, and I was the middle child.

Even as kids I didn’t need as much attention as the others. Whitt always was domineering while Wynn was reckless.

And I?

I wanted to be left alone.

My parents were grateful that I didn’t need that much attention. They weren’t planning on having triplets. They just wanted one. But when we three came along they were happy but stressed.

Money was always tight, but they did their best. And I always felt loved.

I glanced at the digital clock on my dresser. It was time for me to go. I stood and stared at my brothers.

They acted as a wall between me and my girl. And I wasn’t about to let them separate me from her.

No one would.

“Move,” I growled at them.

For a second, they both just stared at me. Unwavering. In the way. But eventually, Whittaker’s face dropped, and concern filled his eyes.

“We just worry about you.” He finally said after a few moments.

“You’d tell us if something was up…wouldn’t you?” Wynn asked. The same concern was in his eyes as was in Whittaker’s.

I didn’t answer. I wanted them to move. To get out of my room and never return. But I knew that I couldn’t ask or expect that. They wouldn’t. We were triplets. We were connected, even though I despised that connection.

They both gave me one last look before filing out of my room. I turned and locked the door as soon as we were out. I didn’t want to risk having them break in while I was out.

“Where are you going?” Wynn asked before I turned to go down the stairs.

I paused a second but didn’t answer. Instead, I climbed down the stairs. My heart was pounding in my chest, and excitement coursed through my veins. I was going to see my girl.

I wished that I could have looked at myself in the mirror one last time before leaving, but I couldn’t do that in front of my brothers.

They already knew something was up, and I didn’t want to give them more fuel to suspect. It didn’t help that I growled at him and didn’t give them a single answer. And I wasn’t going to.

They would ruin everything for me. And I couldn’t allow that.