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second’s
pause, I joined her. Max was looking at me and smiling, and the warmth in his
eyes startled me. It made me hot all over.
    Why was he looking at me like that? Why
was he even here? Maybe Trent was right about him and he was trying to get
close to me just to mess with his stepbrother. That seemed so unlikely, though.
I mean, who did that?
    ***
     
    Explosions were going off right in the
hallway of my dorm. I groaned and pried my eyes open. In the thin light of
early morning, a girl stood by the side of my bed, staring down at me. She had
long, perfectly straight blond hair and wore a white tunic-like top with blue
embroidery around the neckline. Her face, bare of make-up, seemed
contemplative, as if she was studying me.
    The explosions resolved into the sound
of someone banging on my door. I blinked and the girl in white vanished. For an
instant, I lay there frowning at the place where she’d been, while the pounding
continued even more loudly than before.
    I must have been dreaming. I glanced at
the clock to see it was only five-thirty. Whoever was on the other side of my
door had some explaining to do, and the explanation had better be that the
building was on fire.
    With another groan, I crawled out of bed
and hobbled to the door. Opening it, I found Paige in the hallway, looking
offensively bright and chipper. She had full make-up on her face, for pity’s
sake. And she carried one of those enormous flat doughnut boxes from a
supermarket, with a tray of coffee cups balanced on top.
    “What do you think you’re doing?” I
croaked. “Where’s the fire?”
    She brandished the treats at me. “I
brought buttermilk old-fashioned. Your favorite. And coffee.”
    “Do you know what time it is?”
    “Five-thirty.” She had the nerve to
smile at me.
    I opened the door to let her enter. “I’m
in pain right now, Paige.”
    She pranced into my room like she’d done
something wonderful. “I couldn’t sleep this morning, so I thought I might as
well get up and get us some breakfast.”
    Why? Rubbing my eyes, I fought down the
urge to glare at her. She meant well, after all. “My first class isn’t until
nine. Which I scheduled on purpose, just so I wouldn’t have to get up at
five-freaking-thirty.”
    “Oops.” She sent me an apologetic
glance. “Sorry. I thought you had a seven o’clock like usual.”
    “Just get me some of that coffee, quick.
But what’s with all the cups?”
    “They were running a special. I figured
we couldn’t have too much coffee this early in the morning.”
    “You got that right.”
    Paige set the doughnuts and coffee on
the tiny built-in desk that would have belonged to my roommate, if I’d had one.
I’d lucked out this year and gotten a room to myself. I opened the doughnut box
and grabbed one, sniffing its sugary aroma before taking a bite.
    “How come Trent never mentioned Max?”
she said.
    I shrugged, trying to seem casual. “They
don’t get along.”
    “That’s some pretty serious
not-getting-along, if he won’t even talk about him.”
    “Tell me about it.”
    “And he’s so freaking hot. I thought I
was seeing things when I walked up to you two at the cafe.”
    “Yeah, he is good-looking.” No way was I
going to admit how much I lusted after him. I took another bite of doughnut.
Nope, no inappropriate hankering going on here.
    “You like him, don’t you?” Paige said.
    “No, I don’t. He’s weird. He kind of
gives me the creeps.”
    “Really?” Her delicate dark brows
climbed. “Why? He seemed nice to me.”
    “I’m not sure. Maybe it’s the way he
looks at me.” I set down my doughnut. “You can’t tell anyone you saw us
together. Have you told anyone yet?”
    “No.” Her eyes were wide and serious. I
hoped she was telling me the truth, because I really didn’t want any gossip
about this.
    “I can’t have it getting back to Trent.
He’ll have a fit.”
    “You guys were in public. Other people
besides me probably saw you.”
    “Yeah,