Across The Hall by NM Facile

description, danced around the room as she talked to us. She reminded me of a humming bird, bright and colorful and
    constantly moving. Sometimes I wasn’t sure which moved faster: her mouth, her feet, or her hands. She asked question after question. I looked to
    Sloane and Reed, and they just flashed knowing smirks back at me. Final y, Reed saved me.
    “Kai, I think Quinn was stil planning on unpacking in this century.”
    “Oh. So you need any help? We can al come and help you get settled into your place. Sylvia worked this...” I didn’t hear anything else. I had to
    find a way out of meeting Sylvia for now.
    I quickly jumped in. “I have to go home later this afternoon. I promised my mom I would come for supper.” Thank God, they live in the same city. “I
    was just going to go up to shower and change and then take off.” I glanced quickly at Sloane and he nodded.
    “Okay. Wel , then I guess we’l see you later,” she said with a slight pout.
    “It was nice meeting you, Kai. Reed, Sloane. Thanks for the game.” I added with a wave, “I’l see you around sometime this week.” I left, going
    back up to my place. I didn’t real y want to go home, but I was going to now. I couldn’t stay here on the off chance that Kai found out and showed up
    with Sylvia. Sloane agreed that we should avoid it for now. He’d feel her out on how she would react to seeing me again, and how best to approach
    her.
    Sloane was an interesting guy. He was fairly quiet, and even though he was defensive about Sylvia he was stil insightful when we explained the
    situation to him. This was amazing, considering Reed’s tact. While we were walking to the basketbal courts, Reed had said, “So I met the asshole
    who broke Sylvia’s heart.”
    Sloane gave him a dirty look and motioned over to me. “Oh, don’t worry. Quinn here knows al about it.”
    Sloane glanced up at me curiously. “Do you know him?” Reed just laughed, and it dawned on Sloane that it was me. First he gave me a heated
    look, but he looked over at Reed in confusion as to why he was laughing. “What the hel is so funny about this, Reed? Nothing was funny about
    Sylvia when we first met her,” Sloane chastised him while stil flashing angry glances at me.
    “It’s alright Sloane. I gave him the riot act this morning when I found out. But he has a side, too. I think you should hear it.”
    Sloane looked expectantly at me, his green eyes dril ing into me, waiting for me to speak. I wasn’t sure what to say. I was the asshole who broke
    it off and left. I’m the one who didn’t answer her cal s and left for a month after I did it, choosing to hide with my grandparents rather than crawl to
    Sylvia on my knees, begging her to take me back. Sloane looked as if he could feel the guilt rol ing off me, so I figured I would tel it as honestly as I
    could.
    “Since you know about the break up then I assume you know about her and I dating since our freshman year in high school. When it came time for
    col ege I broke it off. I was heading to Princeton and she needed to go here. I didn’t want to deal with a long distance relationship and the inevitable
    breakup that would ensue. We would have enough pressure with classes and being away from home. We didn’t need the added pressure of a
    crumbling relationship. I ended it when we could both have the summer to get over it.” That was the excuse I had been using, since I could never tel
    anyone the real truth.
    “So what?” he was just as pissed as Reed but in a quiet, menacing tone. “Now that you’re in the same city, you want to start it up again?” As if it
    was that simple.
    “No. She seems to be doing fine on her own now.” I thought bitterly of the image in the hal way. “I didn’t even know she was stil here. I just came
    for med school.” I wondered how many times I was going to have to say this. “Honestly, my mom picked out my apartment. My parents left Quarry
    Springs over three years ago and I