Chapter 17- How Big was his Coc—

Paige’s POV

Heat floods my face. I bolt, running down the hallway. I didn’t stop until I was outside, the cold air hitting my face like a slap back into reality, making me release the breath I never knew I was holding. 

What was that? My palms pressed against my eyes as I groaned quietly into them.

“Arghhhhh” What the hell had just happened?

I’d gone there to return Knox’s money

Instead…

I’d let Knox Tatum pin me against a wall. Why did some stupid, traitorous part of me want him to kiss me? 

And the worst part?

If he had, I’m not sure I would’ve wanted him to stop.

My stomach twisted at what would have happened if Enzo hadn’t walked in. 

“Get a grip, Paige,” I muttered to myself. 

“He’s an arrogant jerk.” 

Knox Tatum is a guy I hate. A bully. He doesn’t inflame any sensation from me other than resentment and irritation, so tell me why am I so turned on by just him touching my neck?

I shook my head and quickened my pace, hugging my jacket tighter around myself. I was so deep in my own head that I nearly collided with someone crossing my path.

“Oh—sorry, sorry, do you know where the admin building is?” I blinked, refocusing. A girl about my age, stunning. The kind of beauty that made you blink. 

She had big eyes, flawless skin, legs for days. Her dark hair pulled into a loose knot, tote bag sliding off one shoulder, wearing the particular expression of someone who’d already asked three other people and gotten three different answers.

“You’re new,” I said, before I could stop myself.

“That obvious?” she smiled, more to herself.

“Nobody looks that lost unless it’s their first week.”

She laughed — warm, easy, immediate. “Guilty. Just transferred. I’ve officially been walking in circles for twenty minutes.”

“Admin’s that way.” I pointed. “Ugly beige building, looks personally offended by everyone who walks in.”

“Extremely reassuring description, thank you.”

“I try.”

“I’m Sia, Sienna, but I prefer Sia.” She thrust her hands between us. She seems very friendly.

I take her hand and give it a firm shake. “Paige.” 

Sia fell into step beside me as we headed toward the admin building. “You looked like you were having a moment back there. Is everything okay?” She glanced sideways at me. 

“Rough morning,” I said, which wasn’t a lie, exactly—just not the whole truth.

“Say no more. I’ve had approximately four hundred rough mornings since I got here.” She grinned. “This campus is actively trying to defeat me.”

“It gets easier. Allegedly.”

“Allegedly,” she repeated, grinning wider. “I’m choosing to believe you.”

“So what’s your major? Or is that a rude question to ask someone who just saved you from wandering this campus forever?”

“Still deciding. I like to keep my options criminally open.” She glanced at me. “Yours?”

“Pre-law.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Okay, smart and good with directions. Terrifying combination.”

“I try.”

“You keep saying that like it’s a whole personality.”

“It might be.” She laughed and asked me something about the dining hall, then the weather, then whether the campus coffee shop was actually as bad as everyone online said it was — a string of small, harmless questions that somehow made the walk stretch longer than it needed to, neither of us in any rush to end it.

“Okay, but seriously,” Sia said at one point, gesturing broadly at the quad, “why is every building on this campus a different decade of ugly? Like, someone clearly gave up halfway through a master plan.”

“Architectural chaos. It’s part of the charm.”

“Is it, though?”

“No. Not even a little.”

She laughed hard enough that a couple of students glanced over, and I found myself smiling wider than I had all morning, the whole locker room disaster fading further into the background with every step.

By the time the admin building came into view, I almost didn’t want the walk to end.

“This was extremely helpful,” Sia said, slowing to a stop. “I’ll probably get lost again tomorrow. Fair warning.”

“I’ll be around. This is kind of my regular route.”

“Lucky me.” She smiled, genuine and warm, already turning toward the entrance. “See you around, Paige.”

“See you.”

I watched Sia disappear through the doors, smiling to myself.

With one last glance at the administration building, I turned and headed for my lecture.

…….

By the time my last class ended, my brain felt like it had been put through a blender.

Professor Henderson had spent nearly two hours talking about constitutional law, and somehow, despite sitting through every minute of it, I’d absorbed almost nothing.

Every time I tried to focus…

My mind drifted. To the way Knox had looked in the locker room. 

To how big his co—

I slammed my book shut.

“Get it together, Paige.”

My phone vibrated, and I didn’t even have to look to know who it was.

Mike.

He’d been texting me almost nonstop ever since the party.

Mike: Can we please talk? 

‘Just five minutes.’ 

‘Please stop ignoring me.’

I stared at the screen for a long second before locking it without replying, shoved it back inside my bag and slung it over my shoulder. 

Leah had texted earlier to say she’d be stuck in practicals until evening, so I’d be heading to the diner alone.

I had barely made it to the classroom door—

Pain exploded low in my stomach.

It ripped through me like a serrated blade and forced me to double over with a small gasp.

I grabbed the edge of the desk beside me before my knees could give out.

No. No, no, no.

My pulse roared in my ears.

It was too early. It wasn’t supposed to happen until next week. But when another spike of pain caused tears to form in my eyes, it was clear Mother Nature didn’t give a damn about my schedules.

It was happening now, and there was nothing I could do about it.