My Notes Aren't Yours Alone Anymore novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Say It to My Face

In the hallway Marlo makes Ellis admit it, with phones out. The professor posts the scholarship finalists and Keeley's name is beside hers.

Ellis didn't answer me.

"Nobody," he said. "Forget I said it."

"No," I said. "I won't."

The hall was emptying around us, but not fast enough.

A few people had stopped at the door with their coffees, because Ellis Forbes blocking someone's aisle was worth watching.

Dani didn't move from my elbow.

"Did you ask me for my notes because of the thread?" I asked. "Because you want to get into Southern?"

His jaw tightened.

"It's not what that post says."

"Then tell me what it is."

He looked at the people in the doorway, then at me.

"At first it was for me," he said. "I was failing."

"And after that?"

"After that it was for somebody else."

"Say her name."

He said nothing.

Somebody near the door lifted a phone.

I saw the little red dot, and I did not care.

"Two years," I said. "I thought the kicks were how you said thank you."

"I did say thank you."

"You said, 'Armitage, notebook.'"

Somebody laughed and was shushed.

Ellis's face went tight, and he looked at the floor.

"I never called you a mule," he said.

"You never called me anything," I said. "That was the whole arrangement."

I stepped around his arm and he let me.

Dani walked next to me down the hall, and halfway to the stairs she started to shake with something between fury and delight.

"Armitage, notebook," she said. "I want that on a mug."

"Don't."

"A big one, with a lid."

I laughed, and then I put my hand over my mouth because the laugh turned into something else.

She walked me into the stairwell, and we sat on the third step.

"You okay?"

"No," I said. "Ask me again after the midterm."

I studied at the library desk that night while Dani stamped returns beside me.

I didn't need to open the notebook.

Every page in it was already in my head, because I had written each one to learn it, never to lend it.

I had written each one to learn it first, and lending it had come second.

At midnight I went to bed with my highlighters lined up on the desk.

The midterm was at nine on Thursday morning.

I got to the hall forty minutes early, and the professor was already pinning something to the door.

It was a single printed sheet with a college crest at the top.

"Harlow Transfer Scholarship," it read. "Finalists."

One seat at Southern University, full tuition, awarded by an open interview in the main hall in three weeks.

Under that were four names.

The first was mine.

I had applied in September and told no one but Dani.

The second name made me stop reading.

"Keeley Chauncy."

I stood there with my bag strap in both fists.

"Morning, Marlo!"

She came up the corridor with a bag of bagels and her hair pinned back.

"Did you see? We're both on it!" She hugged me before I could stop her, and she smelled like vanilla.

"I'm so glad it's you," she said. "If it has to be someone, I'm so glad it's you."

"Thank you," I said, because I couldn't think of a reason not to.

She held out the bagel bag, and I took one.

Behind her, at the far end of the corridor, Ellis had come in.

He saw the list, then me, then her.

For a second his whole face went blank, the way it did when he lost a problem, and then he turned around and walked straight back out.

Keeley watched him go.

"Poor Ellis," she said gently. "He really is having a hard week."

I looked from the list to the empty end of the corridor.

Ellis wanted Southern, Keeley wanted Southern, and I had applied for the only seat.

"Take your seats, please," the professor called, and held the door open.

Keeley squeezed my arm and went in ahead of me.

I followed her and took my place in the third row.

For the first time in two years, nobody sat behind me.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend