Unwritten Desires-Chapter 51

Eleanor

"So...what are you going to do now?" Adrian’s question sounded like a dull hum to me as we all made our way out of the school building.

The second I had spotted the guy’s face on the screen, my brain had kicked into full overdrive, scrambling for the exact place where I had seen his face.

It wasn’t until Adrian called for my attention again that I realized he was actually speaking to me. "Huh?" I shook off my thoughts, suddenly very aware of the soft noises drifting from the on-campus dorms just a few miles away.

"What’s your plan?"

My brows dipped, my eyes flicking to Liam who was still a few feet behind us and walking in complete silence, as usual. "What do you mean, what’s my plan? I’m going to question him, obviously." I said, rolling my eyes even though he was too focused on our surroundings to notice.

"Question him?" He sounded genuinely puzzled. "I thought the reason you were going through all of this was to know the culprit so you could get back at him, and now you say you want to question him?"

It was only after I had processed Adrian’s words that I remembered that I had lied to him about the contents of the note, so he just thought I was pranked.

Crap.

"Uh...well I’m not like you." I said, trying to cover up. "I do my things... rationally."

That earned me an eyeroll from Adrian though he stayed silent.

The sound of gravel beneath our feet sounded eerily loud in the quiet night. It was understandable though. Even if most of the students in their dorms were still awake by this time, this part of the school only had classrooms—so it’d be unusual for anyone to be here.

According to Adrian, Liam said that one of the night-duty guards caught the flu so he couldn’t come in—and as for the other one... well, he was sleeping at his post just a few blocks away.

Honestly, I’m genuinely curious to know how Liam even gets his hands on this information. I mean I would have asked him if he wasn’t being such a buzz kill right now and not speaking to me.

"So...where am I dropping you off at?" Adrian asked as we finally got to the car. He pulled out his keys from his pocket and the soft beep of the car unlocking followed a second later.

"Well you can just drop me off at..." the words died on my lips as I slid into the front seat, the realization dawning on me.

I forgot to tell Sofia that I’d be sleeping at her place tonight.

I let out a low groan, pressing down the urge to drag my hand down my face as I closed the car door. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

Fuck. What was I going to do now?

"Um Earth to Thea," Adrian’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts as he started the car. "If you don’t say something quickly, someone might get cranky..." he whispered, his eyes flicking to the back seat where Liam sat and I followed his gaze to find him on his phone as usual trying his best to act indifferent, even though his impatience and annoyance was literally written all over him.

"Um..." I scoured through my mind for what I would say.

Adrian probably picked up on my hesitation because the next thing I knew he was sizing me up and furrowing his brows at me. "Don’t tell me you don’t know where you’re gonna sleep?"

I avoided his gaze searching for something appropriate to say in this situation. I found none but the truth. "I...I didn’t exactly think that through." My voice grew quieter with every word.

My gaze instinctively darted to Liam only to find him staring at me with furrowed brows and a sort of irritated look on his face, kind of like he couldn’t understand what I was saying—I felt my cheeks heat up with embarrassment as that was like the first reaction he had directed towards me all night.

Adrian then let out a half-laugh, half-scoff, like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. "What do you mean you didn’t think this through?"

I then explained to him how I had told my parents that I’d be sleeping at Sofia’s house and how I had totally forgotten to tell her about it.

I actually felt so stupid saying it out loud but who could actually blame me. I was so focused and pumped about the fact that I was finally going to find out who dropped the note.

And even if I did tell Sofia, she had a very, very, strict mum so I don’t even think I could get into her house by this time.

I mean it was already past midnight.

Midnight.

Adrian blinked, clearly thrown off by my whole explanation. He stuttered a few times not knowing what to say or how to deal with the situation before he then turned to Liam who had been quiet the whole time.

Seeing that we were both waiting for him to say something, Liam let out an annoyed sigh before rubbing his brows like we were giving him a migraine. "Just drive the damn car Adrian." He gestured towards the road, not sparing either of us a glance.

And I sat there frozen as I tried to process what had just happened.

Did... did Liam just imply that I could spend the night at their place?

Adrian was probably thinking the same thing because we exchanged glances immediately and Adrian just shrugged with that typical smug look before starting the car again as he had turned it off earlier to avoid drawing attention to ourselves.

I slowly reached for my seatbelt, fighting the urge not to glance at Liam just to get an idea of his thoughts.

Spending the night at Liam and Adrian’s house wasn’t such a big deal...but the fact that the idea was suggested by Liam was completely absurd.

I wrapped my fingers tightly around the seatbelt as I stared out the window, the buildings and flashy lampposts blurring past in soft streaks of light. The car was quiet—well, except for the low hum of some indie-sounding song playing through the speakers. Something mellow and slow, the kind of song that filled in silences rather than broke them.

I took a slow breath as I did a quick mental check to make sure I had all my things with me since I had initially planned to spend the night at Sofia’s place, and thankfully I did.

So what the hell was I getting anxious about?

It wasn’t like I didn’t know their house or I hadn’t been there before.

I knew they had a guest room and I had slept there before...well sort of. I quickly added that thought when I recalled that I was actually kind of unconscious and not sleeping.

I’d be fine. I knew I’d be fine.

But certainly that didn’t stop the tight feeling from crawling up my throat or stop the way my leg kept bouncing like it had a mind of its own. Because no matter how many times I told myself it wasn’t a big deal...

...my body clearly didn’t get the memo.

New n𝙤vel chapters are published on fre(e)webnov(l).com