Halfway There | COMPLETE ✔ + Sequel

Chapter 09 - A Warning

Before I even made it back to the dorm I made a conscious decision not tell Bella and Kendall about Nova. I wasn't in the mood to listen to their disbelief at the fact that I had coffee with the man.

"Hey! I didn't expect to see you guys here yet." I smiled as walked into the room. Alison was laying on her stomach with her feet in the air on Kendall's bed as she scrolled through her phone. She looked up at me and rolled her eyes. Okaayy...

"Yeah, I've already studied the lecture my professor was giving. I figured I'd leave early and hang out down at the lounge and work on a project that's due in a couple of weeks." Kendall said from the vanity as she applied more makeup on top of the makeup already on her face. I crossed the room to take a seat on my bed.

"You need to put on makeup to study?" I asked as I sat down.

"I'm just touching up." She grimaced. I winked at her.

Bella was sprawled out on her bed surrounded in textbooks, pieces of paper and note cards. She must have something coming up that requires her to cram like this. When Kendall and Bella were not looking, I watched as Alison looked over at me and glared. I gently shook my head to make sure I saw what I thought I saw but the angry expression was gone by the time I looked again.

"You're back kind of late." She noticed. I'm not sure why but in that moment I felt as if she was about to say something that really wasn't going to go well. "Were you with someone?" She asked.

"Uh..." I didn't know how to answer without lying. Lying to Alison was one thing but I could tell that Bella was kind of paying attention now and I didn't like the idea of lying to her. "I mean I was with a classmate having coffee for a bit." I tried to seem nonchalant by shrugging.

"Oh, that's right. I almost forgot you had a class with Ryder. Did you guys have a nice time together?" She said completely out of the blue.

It was almost as if you could hear a pin drop in that room the moment she said those words. Bella and Kendall both stared at Alison and then back to me to get the confirmation they were looking for. I tried to keep my face as neutral as possible but the bright color on my cheeks might have given me away.

"You hung out with Ryder today?!" Bella nearly shouted.

"No!" I quickly lied. I hated to lie and only partly because I was a terrible liar. Anyone would be able to tell when I was lying if I didn't try hard enough.

"Then why did I see you guys get coffee together?" Alison slowly sat up and dared me with her eyes to lie again.

I looked away from her, "I wasn't hanging out. I mean, I just... We just... We just had coffee! It's seriously not that big of a deal. I wish you guys would stop making it seem like it is!" This is exactly the reason I didn't want to tell them about this. I didn't want them to react this way. I was so tired of listening to them tell me how much of an impossible gesture it was for him to even look in my direction. He is a person. A mysterious and moody person with terrible rumors following behind him everywhere he went but a person nonetheless.

"You need to stay away from him, Dani." Alison said as she got up from the bed.

"Excuse me?" I had to make sure I heard her correctly.

"He's not a good person. You can even ask Bella. We're your friends, you have to believe us." I could almost laugh at her for using the word friends. Bella is my friend. Kendall is my friend. Allison is not my friend. She had made it adamantly clear that she was not a fan of mine since almost the beginning. How could she stand there and call me a friend when she didn't even believe it herself?

"Thanks for the advice but I think I can handle myself." I snapped back.

"Can you? Because from here you look like a little lost puppy dog following him around everywhere."