Touch Me Not(73)

But somehow she didn’t think she was going to.





Chapter Sixteen





The next morning, Lily woke up to someone pounding on her door. She groaned and cracked an eye. 5:30 a.m. Who in God’s name was pounding on her door this early? Sighing, she threw back the covers and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She’d gone to sleep less than an hour ago. Nikoli’s damn game kept her up till all hours, engrossed in it.#p#分页标题#e#

Another round of loud knocking earned the poor door a glare. “I’m coming! Give me a minute!” She grumbled, standing up. She dragged herself to the door and nearly ripped it off the hinges. Adam stood there, his eyes bloodshot, and he smelled like a brewery.

“Hey, Lils.” He grinned down at her. “Can I come in?”

A door cracked down the hall and Lily stepped back, not wanting any of the very gossipy girls on this floor to see him. “Hurry up,” she said as he took his sweet time stumbling inside. How did he even get in here? Guys weren’t allowed in the girls’ dorms past eleven at night.

“You’re drunk, Adam,” she said, a glare that would torch even Satan himself on her face.

“Just a little,” he agreed, his eyes drooping.

“What are you doing here?” She frowned when he tried to sit on her bed and missed, his butt landing on the floor with a loud thump.

“I don’t know,” he said, the confusion in his voice as puzzling to him as it was to her. Or it could have been the slight slur when he talked. “I just started walking and ended up here. I’m sleepy.”

Lily sighed. She couldn’t boot him out when he was drunk. She locked her door, and then threw him one of her pillows and grabbed a blanket out of the closet. “Here. You can sleep on the floor.”

He gave her a crooked grin and lay down, pulling the blanket close. He was always a blanket hog, even when they were kids. She climbed back in her bed and tried to ignore his shuffling. She needed sleep too.

Just as her eyes were closing, she heard, “Lily?”

“Yeah?” Go to sleep dammit.

“I’m sorry.”

He sounded pitiful and lonely.

“I need you to forgive me, Lils…I miss you. What I did, it was unforgivable, but I need my best friend back. Please.”

There was that heartbroken little boy she’d loved so much. The same one who’d stuck by her through everything. She missed Adam too. He’d hurt her deeply, yes, but he’d suffered enough. She’d forgiven him a while ago; she’d just been teaching him a lesson.

“Okay.”

“Thank God,” he whispered. “You remember that summer we went to Myrtle Beach, and I ignored you because I was flirting with what’s-her-name?”

Lily laughed. Yes, she remembered it. It was the summer she realized he didn’t love her like she wanted him to. It wasn’t until he’d started liking other girls she’d understood he didn’t feel that way about her. It used to hurt a lot, but not so much anymore.

“You were so mad at me ’cause I left you out of everything. I didn’t understand why you were so mad until now, until you stopped talking to me. Now I know what it feels like to have your best friend ignore you. I’m so sorry, Lils.”

He must really be drunk to be going down memory lane.

“It’s okay, Adam. Let’s go to sleep, okay? I’m tired.”

“Okay.”

Lily breathed a sigh of relief when he stopped talking. She was damn tired and needed sleep.

“Why are you dating Kincaid?”

“You know why,” she said, groaning. Why? Why tonight? Why did he have to start talking about this when he was drunk and she was dead tired?

“No, not that bullshit reason you told everyone. Why him, Lily?”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because he is…”

“None of your business,” Lily interrupted before he could start in on Nikoli’s character. Yeah, he might be a manwhore, but he was also a decent person at heart. And she loved him. She still couldn’t figure out how she’d let it happen, but there was the cold truth of it. Scared, she should be scared, but she wasn’t. Even if he broke her heart, and he would, she didn’t regret it. She thought she might once she started to really think about it, but she didn’t. Nikoli had given her more in a few months than anyone else had in her entire life.#p#分页标题#e#

“He’s gonna hurt you, Lils,” Adam told her, the slur back in his voice.

“I know,” I whispered.

“Then why?” Adam asked, confused.

“Because I love him,” she replied softly.