In My Skin

CH 48 || Hypocrite

Suz jumped up and down, clapping her hands. "Yes! After tonight, Tay will be mine!" she shouted over the thumping music, twirled in place, and gave me a mischievous look. "That means we can finally finish The K2 and then we can start watching Crash Landing on You. I've been dying to see that."

"We don't know for sure it was him," the familiar voice sounded from behind me.

A hand stroked my back, and I relaxed as it lingered before Killian stepped to the side. He stayed close. He always did. So close, that his body heat radiated onto my skin, and I had to consciously focus not to move closer. He had to be doing this on purpose...

"Please," Suz scoffed. "There was legit no other suspect. You just want to keep her."

"I still don't like it," Killian remarked with a frown.

My eyes slid to his already waiting ones. "Did you talk to your dad?"

"Yeah. The doctors put him in an artificial coma, due to the extent of his injuries. They didn't really get anything out of him before that. So, you're not going back until the cameras are installed."

I had gotten the call that Michael Zipler, the asylum escapee, had been found close to campus two weeks ago. After he was recognized, he ran into an intersection during rush hour and an incoming car stopped his escape. The car didn't drive too fast but he'd appeared out of nowhere, giving the driver barely a chance to react. Still, Killian had insisted I stay with him just to be sure, and I hadn't protested much. Or at all.

Suz's eyes narrowed on Killian. "There haven't been any more letters ever since, and she's not going back. She's going to my place."

I promised to spend the last week of our trial month at her place. After moving out, the absence of further letters made sense as the guy responsible had been apprehended shortly after. But even with that man's history, it was still odd to think that a random person would do such a thing.

"Maybe whoever it was, wanted to get her out of the apartment in the first place," Killian said.

"You're just being overprotective," Suz said with a scoff. "It's time for some girl time, mister. I've been waiting for this ever since you two snatched her up when I wasn't looking. One moment of negligence and my best friend gets stolen from right under my grasp..."

"You could just hang at our place," he pointed out.

"We already did that and I remember that you carried her off before the episode was even finished!" she countered.

Killian shrugged and answered in a nonchalant tone, "Not my fault your shows are boring."

Suz sucked in a breath. "Boring?" she bristled, drawing to her full height. "You were distracting her!"

They entered a staring match, which looked hilarious since she was nearly two heads shorter. His arms twitched, and he shifted so that my side was pressed against him. I shivered as small tingles raced over my skin from our point of contact.

"I think it's good if I stay with Suz for a few days," I said inching closer to him. Yeah, I really had this figured out.

"Alright then," he sighed. "If that's what you want."

"See? I'm her favorite," Suz stated proudly.

"In your dreams maybe," Killian retorted.

His fingers trailed down my spine, and it was all I could do not to wrap my arms around him. I grabbed my cup more tightly, reminding myself that we agreed on testing this for a month. A month that had only one week left. Maybe it was a good idea that I would spend the last days at Suz's place because it was getting increasingly harder to resist the urge to jump his bones.