Chapter 38. Divided

Ainsley

Moving back into my dorm temporarily over break feels wrong.

Regardless of it being for my safety, and with special permission from the dean again to break the campus’s usual mandatory rules for going home while classes were out, I feel more alone than I ever have.

Iris, unsurprisingly, isn’t in our dorm when I arrive the day after leaving our vacation early. Her side of the room is neat and picked up, sterile looking compared to how it used to be when we still lived together.

Her scent doesn’t linger here, nor does her incense, indicating she’s been gone a long time.

Perhaps even after we saw each other weeks ago, she’d still refused to move back in. Probably worrying I’d show up any minute and demand rights over what my scholarship was paying for.

If I were in her shoes, I’d run for the hills, too. Who wanted to be constantly stressed out waiting for someone you were terrified of to appear when you least expected it?

I h