Page 45 of Trust Me

I looked at Dean. “Weird. Did you try unplugging it and plugging it back in?”

He pulled a face that made me feel dumb for asking. “Yeah, I tried that. I didn’t see any outage on the website, but I also can’t call them cause it’s not in my name.”

Navigating to the site, I logged in. It took me a few tries to remember my password, but once I did, I pulled up the account information. “Oh, that makes sense.”

“Is it an outage?”

“Nah, I didn’t pay it.”

“Do you . . . need help with it?”

I glanced sidelong at him. “No.”

“Are you sure?”

Ignoring the question, I logged into my bank account to make sure.

Damn. Why was my balance so low?

As I scrolled, I was aware of him watching, but I didn’t really care. We were college students living in Seattle where just existing cost a fraction of your soul. We were all broke.

When I found the issue, I snorted a laugh. “Forgot about that. Ultra Instinct Goku figure I pre-ordered.”

“Oh.”

“It’s cool. This is what credit cards are for, right?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Once it was paid, I slid my phone into my pocket. The look on Dean’s face was different than before, but he wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. I didn’t like the way he seemed to have gone into his head. Was it because of the Wi-Fi thing?

“Sorry it was off today,” I said, hoping to thaw the ice. “Sometimes, I forget.”

“You don’t have to explain.” He offered me a smile before he headed over to Tilian. They said some things to each other, too low for me to overhear.

Chewing on my lip, I couldn’t help but glance over at Dean every couple of minutes. The whole exchange was weird. He probably thought I was irresponsible. I sort of was, but I’d been working on it for a while. Trying, at least. Every time I tried, I just got stressed as hell, and generally, I’d divert to playing games online to distract myself.

When Brooks arrived, he looked as casual as ever. Looked being the keyword. I could practically smell the chaos on him. He was put together, but his hands were in his pockets to hide the tension. I wondered if Tilian had noticed it yet or if they were still trying to figure each other out.

Just get together already, I wanted to scream. They were obviously miserable with this distance.

Tilian’s entire demeanor shifted as soon as he saw him. He was just dying to run and leap into the guy’s arms. It would be freaking movie-worthy.

Brooks smiled, showing his canines in a way that looked dangerous. “I’d love to answer some questions about mental health. Lay it on me.”

The ice in Dean’s expression was back again. “Nice of you to show up.”

Brooks showed him the time on his phone. “As usual, I’m absolutely perfect.” Finally, he looked at Tilian. His eyes softened so much, I wanted to shake the both of them.

“Hey,” I said. “I haven’t seen you all week. You okay?”

He turned toward me. “I’m great. Just got this stomach bug that tried to kill me, but I’m better now.”

“That’s good to hear. If you need notes from class, I can share.”

“Actually, yeah. Thanks, man.”

“Of course.”