I pointed back at Devon without looking in his direction. “You shut up.” I pointed at Sydney. “You get off of me.”
“No.” Sydney crossed her arms. “I’m not moving until you talk to me.”
“We don’t have anything to talk about. Move.” I tried to push her off of me, but for her small stature, Sydney was freakishly strong. She’d been on the track team in high school and spent a lot of time at the gym. It was to my detriment now. “Ugh! You’re like a brick wall!”
“A brick wall that is going to sit on you until you stop ignoring me.”
I looked up at her. “You have five minutes.”
Sydney looked at me with disbelief. “Come on, Nina, don’t be so—”
“Four minutes and fifty seconds.”
“Ugh! Okay. Look, I know you’re mad. I really thought I’d told you about rooming with Henry—”
“I’m not mad that you didn’t tell me,” I replied. “You never tell me what you’re up to! I’m used to that. I’m mad because I thought we were going to get to live together. You didn’t even pick Presper because of me. Just because of Henry.” Sydney went quiet, and I nodded. “Exactly. Now move.”
“Nina—”
“Uh, not to interrupt this—seriously, I’d really rather not—but I promised Nina I’d walk her around campus.” Both our heads swirled around toward Devon, and he was sitting up in the bed with the covers no longer hiding his shirtless torso.
“Really?” Sydney asked.
She eyed me, and I eyed Devon. He sighed. “Yes, really. I’m going to give her some advice on how to survive school here.”
Advice. He had to be talking about giving me advice on Kai. I looked up at Sydney. “Y-yes. We did make this arrangement, for…” I looked at the clock and noticed it was almost noon. “Noon.”
“Uh-huh,” Sydney said in a muted, non-believing tone. “This isn’t just an attempt to avoid talking to me.”
“Nope. Unlike some people, I’m here because I want to learn.”
“Fine.” Sydney finally climbed off of me. “Take some time to cool down. I’m not letting this go. Maybe I chose this school for Henry, but don’t think for a second that I’m not excited to be here with you.”
With a slam of the door as she walked out, Sydney was gone. I groaned. I was the one getting the raw end of the deal, so why did the conversation end with me feeling like the bad guy?
“You know, you should probably go easy on her,” Devon said.
I looked back at him, and he had thrown the blanket off and was sitting on the bed. He had shorts on, thankfully, but his bronzed and well-defined abs were now on full display. Despite wanting to continue looking, I held up a hand.
“Can you put a shirt on?” Devon immediately grabbed his shirt from the end table next to the bed and put it on. It was the first time in two days that someone had done something immediately when I asked. It was comforting to have someone finally listening to me. “Thank you.”
“No problem. I could tell you needed a little control over something.”
I furrowed my brow. What he’d gained, he gave away with that sentence. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“That’s why you’re so upset, right? You feel like no one’s listening to you?”
I didn’t want to admit he was right, so I settled for growling, “What are you, a psychologist?”
He laughed. “I am studying psychology.”
“Oh, well…” I nodded. “Good, then. You’re learning.”
He laughed. “Hey, thanks.” He stood up and walked over to the desk on the opposite wall from mine and sat down in the chair. “As I was saying, you should lay off Sydney.”
“I have every right to be angry,” I hissed back.
“You do,” he replied quickly, and there was sincerity on his face when he said it. “That doesn’t mean you have to be angry. She’s your best friend, and she’s clearly upset that she hurt you. You’re telling me that if you walked out that door right now to find Kai there, and he said,”—Devon threw his hand over his chest and pointed his head toward the sky in a dramatic display—“‘Oh, Nina. I’m in love with you. Run away with me,’ that you wouldn’t run away with him, Sydney be damned?”
“No,” I responded, but it was a flat out lie, and I could tell in Devon’s half-lidded gaze that he didn’t believe me. “Fine, maybe, but… I’d tell her, at least.”
Devon pointed. “I thought you weren’t mad because she didn’t tell you.”
I crossed my arms. “You know, I don’t think I like you very much.”
“Why? Because I’m right?” Devon asked with a laugh. He peeked at his phone screen. “I’m gonna run upstairs and change. Then we can leave.”
“What?” I asked.
Devon sighed. “God, I feel like you immediately forget everything you are told.”
My jaw dropped. “I didn’t forget anything! You didn’t say we’re going anywhere!”
“I did!” He pointed toward the bed as if to jog my memory to when he was sitting over there. “We’re going to walk around campus.”
“Oh,” I sat back in my chair. “I thought that was just a ruse to get Sydney out of the room.”
“I mean, it kind of was, but don’t you want to see the campus?”
I nodded. “I do.”
“Fine, then. I’ll go get changed, and then we can leave.” He stood up and looked down at me.
“Okay,” I replied. “Thanks.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
He left the room, and I turned my attention to packing an over-the-shoulder bag with a few things I thought I may need—money, my phone, some chapstick—and by the time I was ready to go, Devon was back at the door. He’d changed into a sleeveless hoodie and a pair of black jean shorts. A few girls passed by him in the hallway outside, and I could see them looking him up and down. One of them peeked in at me and tilted her head in confusion before continuing on her way.
I ignored their stares and stepped out into the hallway, shutting and locking the door behind me, and then we were off. Devon led us out of the East Tower and toward the north, where the humanities building was located, the one where I’d have most of my major-specific courses. Unlike my thinking that he was going to wander around, he seemed to be devoted to showing me any buildings that were necessary to my schedule.
At one point, he actually asked me to text him a picture of my schedule so that he had a list of where to take me. He pointed out the important buildings as we passed them, and any building that I had multiple courses in, he’d actually walk me inside and point the rooms out to me. It was really wonderful. If it had just been Sydney, we would have wandered around aimlessly. With Devon, it was a guided tour, and I had to admit that he wasn’t terrible company.
When we’d been around most of the campus and through all of the buildings of importance, we settled for a casual stroll down some of the school’s pathways with nice landscaping on either side.