With a huff, I tried to push thoughts of him out of my mind and pulled my laptop onto my crossed legs, determined to finish this stupid paper. Twenty minutes later, I had written the word the and was staring blankly at the screen . . . only seeing a pair of honey-gold eyes, a too-perfect smile, and black, messy hair.

“Misha,” I whispered. Why I was whispering, I had no clue.

“Hmm?” She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head in my direction but didn’t look up from her laptop.

“Misha,” I repeated, this time harder.

She looked up at me this time. “Yeah?”

“What do you know about Kier?”

Both eyebrows shot up, but she didn’t say anything.

“Kier—neighbor, Kier—lives with Darryn. Really quiet, doesn’t ever talk.”

“I know who he is. He’s actually really nice. I’m just surprised you know him.”

I sat back against the couch and made a face. “Why?”

“Because—well, because like you said. He doesn’t talk.”

“But you just said he’s really nice. Which means you’ve talked to him.”

She shrugged and looked back at her laptop. “Only a couple times, and it was just a few words. I think I only heard him talk because I was sitting there with Darryn.” Her dark eyes flickered over to me. “Why are you asking about him?”

“He drove me to class today. Apparently we have a class together and I had no idea. And he didn’t talk a lot, but he talked. It was weird. Nice, but weird.” When I looked up, Misha was just staring at me. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re looking at me weird. It’s not nothing. Is there something about him I should know? Is he a creeper or something?”

Misha laughed softly. “I doubt he would be living with the guys if he were. From what Darryn says, he just doesn’t talk a lot.”

“Do you know why? Because he doesn’t seem shy.” And why was I so interested in knowing about Kier all of a sudden?

She shook her head and looked back down at her laptop. “Not shy. Just isn’t one for talking, that’s what I know.” Her fingers began moving over the keys again, and my shoulders sagged in defeat.

I wanted to know why he was so cryptic, and why I felt like I knew him and could trust him when I hadn’t said more than five words to him before this afternoon. I wanted to know why he gave me little, knowing smiles like I was missing some private joke that I was supposed to be in on.

None of it made sense. He didn’t make sense. But for the life of me I wanted to make sense out of what was pulling me to him.

* * *

My feet pounded rhythmically against the concrete, and my breath came out in puffs of little clouds in front of me as I pushed to finish the last bit of my run the next morning. I’d barely slept last night as I went over every detail of every word that had passed Kier’s lips, and I was paying for it this morning. Even cutting half a mile off my normal distance, I felt like I had tried to run double what I normally did.

Three more blocks . . . three more blocks, I chanted to myself. Two more. Even the music blaring through my earbuds couldn’t pump me up enough to finish hard. I didn’t even know what song was playing as I tried not to collapse. Just then, my eyes caught the paper tucked under my windshield wipers, and I stopped running.

Looking around the empty street as I walked over to my car, I had one of those flashes. Like I was about to be in a bad horror movie, and people were screaming, “Don’t go over there! Run away!”

I rolled my eyes and ripped the paper away from the windshield. Unfolding it, I read the words twice, my heart pounding harder than it had been during my run.

We tried jumping it, still wouldn’t start. Went and got you a new battery, she’s running great now.

My lower legs had been a weird, stinging mix of cool and hot as the freezing air blew around me, and I knew my ears, nose, and cheeks had been bright red from the cold and my run—but now I didn’t feel the cold. I didn’t feel the shakiness from pushing myself even though I’d been too exhausted for my run this morning. My cheeks were now filled with heat as I just stood there staring at the paper, my breathing too fast as I thought about what he’d done for me.

Embarrassment and wonder coursed through my body and I slowly turned my head to look up at the house next to ours. People didn’t take care of me. Not anymore. Dean had been there for me when I broke and fell too far when it felt like my entire world was crashing down on me—but it’d been a lie. And this? This was different. This was . . . too much.

I walked up to their house on shaky legs, the note clenched tightly in my fist as I stood at the front door for a few seconds before knocking. When there was no answer, I knocked again, harder this time. Less than a minute later, Kier answered the door.

“You . . . ,” I whispered, and pointed behind me in the direction of my car.

“Indy?”

I ground my jaw when my eyes began to sting, and when no words could make it past the tightness in my throat, I launched myself at him—throwing my arms around his waist and burying my head in his chest. “Thank you,” I choked out.

He laughed awkwardly, and hesitantly wrapped one of his arms around my back. Pressing his closed fist under my chin, he leaned away from me and tilted my head back so he could look at me. “For what?”

Unwrapping the arm holding the note, I held my hand up between us. “My car. You fixed it. Thank you. You didn’t have to do that. Please tell me how much it cost. I’ll pay you back.”

Kier released me, and his lips tilted up in the corners. “As much as I love having a beautiful girl throw herself at me . . . I didn’t fix your car.”

I blinked quickly. “What?”

“I didn’t fix your car, Indy.” He shrugged. “That was Darryn and Misha. I saw them working on it when I came back from an early class this morning.”

My face fell, and I took a step back. Oh. My. God. I’d been so wrapped up in the enigma standing in front of me that I’d started making everything about him. “Oh my God,” I breathed. “I’m so sorry, I just—oh God.” I dropped my head to stare at the porch, my eyes wide with mortification.

“Indy, it’s fine. I’m glad your car’s running now.”

I nodded, not looking back up at him. “Uh, I’ll, uh . . . see you later.” Never. I never wanted him to see me again. The girl who didn’t even know he was in her class. The girl who launched herself at him for apparently no reason. The girl who couldn’t remember his name.

Turning, I jogged down the few steps and took off for our house. I slammed the door behind me, still running until I found Misha and her boyfriend at the table in the kitchen.

“Are you okay?” she asked, and stood, her expression worried.

“No—yes—I just, oh my God.” I pointed in the direction of the house next to ours and looked at Darryn. “I thought . . . I’m such an idiot,” I groaned, and sagged against the counter.

“Because none of that made sense,” Darryn said.

I laughed lamely and covered my face with my hands. “I know. I’m full of win this morning.” Looking back at them, I took a deep breath and hoped I could make them understand how grateful I was for what they had done. “Thank you both so much for fixing my car. Please tell me how much the battery cost and I’ll pay you back.”

They gave each other a look, and Darryn glanced at me before his eyes darted to the floor. “Uh, we—”

“Just think of it as a late birthday present,” Misha said, cutting him off before shooting Darryn a look.

“I can’t, that’s too much.”

“Well, you’re going to have to. Because I won’t be telling you how much it cost.”

“Misha,” I complained, but knew she wasn’t going to give on this. “If I wasn’t covered in sweat right now, I’d hug you both.” It hit me then that I’d just hugged Kier. Oh God, kill me now.

A small smile crossed her face. “No need, really.”

“Thank you guys, again.” Pushing away from the counter, I went upstairs to shower and try to forget how badly I’d just humiliated myself. I’d gotten halfway through my junior year without talking to Kier. It wouldn’t be that hard to go back to how it had been before yesterday.

And it hadn’t been hard. Well, it had, and it hadn’t. It’d been nine days since I thanked him for the battery he hadn’t even bought for me, but it’d been impossible to forget about the quiet guy next door. I looked for him during the party at their house a couple of days later, but before long I’d gotten lost in drinking games—not that I would have said anything if I had seen him. And even though I knew he was in the back left corner of the lecture hall in our class on Monday and Wednesday, I refused to look back there, even though everything in me was screaming to do so. I didn’t remember anything from those classes other than once they were over, I’d let out a relieved breath.

After looking for him for a few minutes at the neighbors’ party tonight, I’d given up. It was stupid to look for him. I’d never seen him at one of these parties anyway. For all I knew, he wasn’t even here tonight. He could be at work if he had a job; he could be out with his girlfriend—oh my God. He could have a girlfriend.

“He could have a girlfriend!” I said out loud, and the guy I was curled up against on the couch gave me a funny look.

“What?”

I threw my hands up in the air. “This whole time I’ve been— Where the fuck did this bread come from?”

The guy laughed loudly, and curled his arm around my waist. “Baby, you are wasted. You keep forgetting about it, but you’ve been holding it for an hour at least.”