By the time I got back to the dorms after seeing Skylar off, the night had settled in a heavy manner around me. My breath fogged in the cold air, and every step I took echoed in my head like a drumbeat but I had no option but to keep moving.
Skylar’s face kept flashing in my mind as I did so—the way she’d looked at me in the diner, skeptical but soft, like she wanted to believe me but didn’t know if she could. And when she smiled, even for that brief second, it had been like the ice cracked and I could breathe again.
But then, somehow Jasmine’s face followed, uninvited. Her laughter earlier at the rink as she spoke to me and the way she leaned into me like old times. And the look Skylar had given us—the one that felt like someone had punched me straight in the chest.
It was all jumbl
