Page 70 of Make Me Mean It

“Con.”

Fingers snap directly in front of my face, startling me, my chair scraping against the floor.

“Don’t do that,” I bite out.

Marcus shrugs, his attention already drifting past me, towards the doorway I was staring at. His brows draw together before his eyes slide slowly back to me.

“You seeing ghosts now or something?” he asks.

His voice is light, but his eyes stay on my face too long before he turns towards the coffee machine.

I exhale slowly, forcing my shoulders to loosen.

“Something like that,” I mutter.

My textbook is already in my bag, which is irritating because now leaving would look like I’m leaving because Theo left, and I absolutely refuse to let Marcus make that connection.

Even if it only exists in my own head.

I yank the book back out of my bag and drop it onto the table with a heavy thud.

I flip back to the page I was on and start from the top, making it through the first paragraph before realising I haven’t absorbed a single word. I try again, slower this time.

It makes absolutely no difference.

Theo’s hand is still there, warm and heavy against my shoulder, his fingers pressing through my t-shirt as clearly as if he never moved them.

Marcus drops into the chair beside me with his coffee, kicking his feet up onto the table and nudging my textbook sideways.

I look at his shoes, my skin prickling at the dirt caught in the grooves of the soles barely inches from my book.

Then at him.

He takes a drink.

“Seriously?”

“What?”

“Your feet.”

Marcus glances down at them as if he’s only just realised they exist, and I shove his ankle away from my book.

He lets me, completely unconcerned.

“What is going on with everyone?” he mutters, rubbing a hand over his face before reaching for his coffee again. “I swear, between you and Theo I’m gonna have a nervous breakdown.”

My pen stops, ink pooling beneath the tip.

“What?”

My head snaps up.

You and Theo.

The lake comes rushing back, Theo’s mouth beneath mine, the feel of his body when I dragged him against me.

Marcus can’t know.