Dissipate

A male voice had me successfully stepping back from Aiden’s touch and gathering myself. What had just happened? Shame coursed through me. Wait. That was my old life. It was fine to be closer to a guy here and express yourself. Wait. Had I been too forward? Wait. What did I think was right? Everything was confusing at this point and I wasn’t sure what I thought or believed. I needed some time to regroup.

“Kenzie?”

For a moment, I had completely checked out of the conversation. The guy I had met at the library my first day stood in front of me. What was his name?

Looking between us, Aiden asked, “You guys know each other?” His tone wasn’t as warm as it normally was and there was a hint of something else in it.

They looked similar with their darker hair. Aiden’s blue eyes and stronger build gave him an edge.

I answered. “We met at the library a couple of weeks ago.” I turned to the guy, trying to remember his name and hoping it was what I thought. “How’s it going? Trent, right?”

“Yeah, good memory. I told you we’d be seeing each other around. How do you know Aiden?” Trent ran his hands through his hair and his voice was tenser than I remembered, but he still had a half-smirk on his face

Aiden took a step closer to me which Trent noticed. A thick layer of awkwardness fell over the group. I wasn’t helping the situation since being around two guys so informally had me grasping at what to do. I felt the need to explain why I was alone with a boy even though I knew it wasn’t necessary. “I’m Brooklyn’s roommate and Aiden’s research assistant at the paper.”

Trent grabbed a pen and tore off a piece of paper from the pad on the nearby table. His voice eased as he kept addressing me, but there was something underneath his tone that made me feel like there were other reasons behind his actions. “Call me. I’ve been thinking about you, hoping we’d run into each other since the day at the library.”

With an extended hand, I took the piece of paper and felt Aiden stiffen beside me. “Thanks.” My voice was barely above a whisper as tension coursed through me, knowing Aiden was uncomfortable.

Giving me a wink, Trent gave me a huge smile that showcased his dimples. “I’ll be waiting for that call, Kenzie. We’ll have fun.”

There was an underlying tone he used that had me taking a step toward Aiden. Glancing up at Aiden, his jaw was set and his eyes were narrowed as he watched Trent’s retreating body. Aiden definitely had an issue with Trent for some reason.

Aiden turned to me, concern etching his eyes. “Are you going to call him?”

The protectiveness I felt from the question with maybe a hint of something else made me feel good. The feeling was foreign and different from how I’d felt about Matthew. I was still trying to understand why it was different.

“Something’s wrong? What is it?”

Aiden blew out a breath. His eyes pierced mine with desperation. “I don’t want you to call him. He’s a player, Kenzie.”

From the tone Aiden used, a player didn’t sound like a good thing. I filed it away to see what it meant later. I trusted Aiden and I believed he was looking out for me. So far, I’d been listening to my instincts and they hadn’t led me terribly astray.

Crumbling the piece of paper, I threw it in the garbage. “I won’t call him.”

He was relieved and gave me a gorgeous smile. That look did things to me, making me answer him with one of my own as tingles raced across my skin.

“Good. Let me walk you home before I have to get back to the house for a meeting.”

More and more I wanted Aiden around when he wasn’t. He made me feel safe like Matthew had.

IT WAS LATE September and the temperature was beginning to change. My new identity still seemed to be unknown to The Society, though the undercurrent of anxiety never completely left me. Last week, I had gotten a job at Iron Horse Coffee Shop that was three blocks from our apartment. I worked five days a week, from six until nine in the morning, making ten dollars an hour.

Between my two jobs I would be able to pay rent, buy the essentials and save a little bit for unexpected problems if I watched my money closely. My paycheck from the paper was going to be close to eight hundred dollars this month, as I had been working nearly twenty-five hours a week. Auto-deposit was a neat feature I had learned about.

Finishing my last class before the weekend, I headed home. With the student elections underway, work had been busy. Aiden had been assigned to report on all the different events that accompanied an election. As of yesterday, I had maxed out my allowed hours for the week and had the afternoon off. From all the research I had conducted, I felt like a walking encyclopedia of the history of student elections. Aiden and Tasha seemed pleased with my work and that meant a lot.

This was the first weekend I was giving myself off. All previous weekends, I had gone to the library from sunup to sundown to keep learning about my new society. Honestly, my mind needed a break from all the stress.

Coming from the other direction, Trent waved to me. “Hey, Kenzie. You were just the person I was looking for. How’s it been?”

Brooklyn had echoed Aiden’s warning. Internally, I cringed. After finding out what a player was, Trent was not someone I wanted to spend time with. My gut instinct had been wrong about him initially and that bothered me, not knowing what else I had been wrong about.

I still couldn’t be rude to Trent when we ran into each other from time to time. “Hey, Trent. Long hours studying and the paper has kept me busy. What’s up?”

Flashing a smile, that revealed two adorable dimples, he stepped closer. “We’re having a house party this weekend. I was hoping you’d come. I’m still waiting on that phone call, but this would make it up to me.”

A wink followed his flirty plea. Those gestures did nothing to me. Not like Aiden’s.