Hooped #4 (The Hooped Interracial Romance Series, Book #4) by Claire Adams Page B

that
somehow I would wake up the next day and find out that it had all been a stupid
dream, and that Devon and I were in great shape, with nothing keeping us apart.

 
    Chapter
Two
    The next morning I woke up before my alarm even went
off, still feeling confused and troubled and irritable. My head throbbed, and
whenever I thought about Devon, I felt
worse and worse about the whole situation. I just wanted to have some peace and
quiet to think about things, but I knew that if any of my friends found out
about what was going on, they’d want to talk to me about it. I didn’t know how
many of my circle of friends knew about Devon—I hadn’t exactly told everyone
about it, even when we’d started dating—but Kelly knew about it, and I hadn’t
been keeping it entirely a secret that Devon and I were together, once he had
gotten me to come around. Even if they didn’t know the fact that I was with
Devon, they’d probably want to talk about the gossip just because it had to be
one of the hottest topics on campus.
    So I got out of bed quickly, turning off my alarm, and
didn’t even bother with a shower; it might wake Kelly up, if she was still in
the suite, and I didn’t even want to talk to her about the situation. I changed
into clean clothes and tried to decide what to do with myself; I didn’t have a class for a good long while. I loaded the books
I would need for my classes later into my backpack and decided that the only
real option would be to go to the library. The dining hall I’d be sure to see
someone, even at the early hour, and the student union had the same issue. I
ducked out of my room as quietly as possible and hurried down the hallway to
the stairwell.
    I emerged from the dorm building and started off
across campus to the Library. So early in the morning there weren’t very many
people around; I didn’t run much of a risk of running into anyone at all, but I
hurried nonetheless. I hadn’t slept very well, in spite of being utterly
exhausted when I climbed into my bed. I worried at my bottom lip as I made my
way along the walkway, glancing around to make sure no one was around. I felt
stupid being so cautious, but I didn’t
want to run into anyone. I had so many thoughts and feeling swirling around in
my head that all I wanted to do was have a quiet place away from everyone where
I could think things through. Everything was happening so fast; I had gone from
simply going out to a party with some friends to losing my virginity to having
and losing something like a boyfriend in a matter of a couple of weeks.
    I made it into the library and showed them my ID card.
“Are there any private study rooms available?” I asked the bleary-eyed girl
behind the desk. She frowned, tapping a few keys on the keyboard as I glanced
around the main area of the Library; it was almost totally deserted, only a few
of the most studious kids at computers finishing up papers or looking up
references in the free databases.
    “Yep, here you go; study room three, all yours. If
more people come in an hour from now, we’ll buzz you, but it’s so early practically no one is using any of the rooms
right now.” The girl behind the desk handed me the electronic key card to the
room and scanned my ID to reserve it for me. I wandered in the direction of the
private study rooms, trying to decide what to do with myself once I got there. Well obviously you might as well study, I thought wryly.
    I scanned the card at the door to the tiny room and
closed the door behind me. I had used the study rooms before; the door locked
automatically, keeping everyone else out unless and until the room was needed
again. You could technically only reserve the room for an hour at a time, but
when the hour was up, the front desk would call on the linked phone inside the
room, and if there wasn’t anyone in line for a study room, you could stay there
another hour. And then another, with the right circumstances. In theory, I
could spend the entire