Chapter 12

                                    

                                          
I jolted awake, immediately aware that some time had passed since I was knocked out.  
                          
I expected to wake up in Allegra's office, possibly surrounded by a few guards. She would show me the three-strike system list and cheerily cross out that I had indeed, gained three strikes. One from attacking someone on my first day, two from attacking someone in the pool, and three for sneaking out of my room at night and breaking into someone else's room from the outside window.  
                          
Instead, I woke up to see the most relieving sight I had ever seen. Dane stood above me, his shirt off. Was this a dream? A cold touch on my eye told me that what was happening was not in my imagination.  
                          
I winced.  
                          
"Hey, you're up," he said calmly. He had a wad of cotton in his fingers and was dipping it into a bowl of water. When he brought the water to the skin around my eye, it was moist and freezing, like ice. It stung around my eye for some reason.  
                          
"What happened?" I sat up groggily, wiping my eyes. I was in a dormitory room, one that was quite similar to mine. A clock on the bedside table told me that the time was 1:30. It had been an hour since I snuck out. I remembered that much.  
                          
"I punched you in the eye, is what happened," He said back, laughing softly. At first this unnerved me, then I remembered what had happened just 30 minutes earlier. I remembered running out onto the balcony, hanging onto the edge of the roof, and swinging into a window. I remembered landing on somebody in their bed only to be punched moments later, unluckily. 
                          
Luckily for me, that person was Dane. I trusted him, and I knew he wouldn't report me for being out after hours. After all, he had caught me already outside. However, last time I saw him after hours, our friendship wasn't in a bad state. Right now, our friendship was definitely not in a place where he would make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for me, let alone kiss me.  
                          
I was surprised at his kindness, healing my eye like this. I couldn't stop staring at his shirtless body. I felt heat rise to my cheeks. 
                          
"Could you put on a shirt?" I asked. He smiled, that perfect smile that he hadn't shown me since that night.  
                          
"You're in my room, you know," He told me, but still pulled on a shirt anyway. "What are you doing here, by the way?" I didn't want to tell him for fear he would judge me or tell somebody. Although I knew he would never violate our trust like that, our recent falling out left me wondering if we were in a trusting place or not. 
                          
"I came in through the window and fell on you." I said, deadpan.  
                          
"Well, I know that." 
                          
"And then you punched me."  
                          
He gently dabbed more cotton onto my eye. I put my hand to the skin, which hurt to the touch. I couldn't see myself, but I could assume that it was swelled and dark purple. I'd never gotten a black eye before, but when I was a kid, I thought they were the coolest things in the world. My opinion had changed tonight.  
                          
"Hey, I thought you were attacking me in my sleep. You can't exactly blame me." I felt guilty. He still thought that I was the one who spread those sexual rumors about him. I had to tell him.  
                          
Before I could explain that Madison was behind the manipulation, a different question came out my mouth instead.  
                          
"Why don't you have a roommate?" Although this wasn't what I meant to ask, I still wanted an answer.  
                          
He went into the bathroom and emptied the bowl of water. 
                          
"I did, but he graduated," He said from the bathroom. I looked around his room while he was still in the bathroom. It was nicer than mine, a little bigger, too. He had two walls of windows, instead of just one, like I was. I suppose that meant he had a corner room. It wasn't as neat as mine, but not enough to give someone a headache.