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"What were you doing there?" I asked

He looked down at ?"

"Studying," I said quickly

"On the floor, in the dark?"

I bitBut as I did, it dropped to the floor and all my papers scattered across the carpet

"Oh God, sorry," I said, as we both bent over to pick them up A few of my pencils had rolled across the aisle, and I went to collect the, I tried to grab them from him, but he waved the the title of my essay "Of all of the myths, that’s the one you’d want to believe in?"

"Don’t read that!" I said, grabbing at it

He looked at me with curiosity "You don’t believe in an afterlife?"

"I don’t azed at me "You mean in the literal sense," heback to life"

I looked at my feet I kneas juvenile, but that was exactly what I wanted to believe in "I htly pathetic disclosure, but it was the truth

Dante’s face softened "I bet we haveme the stack of papers

I took the What did that mean? That he missed his parents? Or that he wanted to believe in an afterlife, too? At least he didn’t think I was ridiculous or stupid, which he would have if he had seen iant C+ scrawled over it in red

"Oh, and about your Latin homework"

My face dropped "You saw it?" I wanted to die

"You know, I’ainst the bookshelf, his sleeves rolled up, revealing veins that outlined the muscles on his forearms and disappeared underneath the cuffs of his shirt

"How aood at it? What if you’re just trying to sabotage hed "There isn’t e But you did walk in on h to convince you?"

"Prove it," I said before I could stop ave me an amused look "What do you want o"

Dante studied me, half of his face obscured in the shadows "I don’t know"

I narrowedabout the Board of Monitors So else"

I wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or just trying to placate me "I don’t believe you"

He leaned in until his face was inches away froainst my cheeks He stared at me with an intensity that could only have been born from extreme desire or hatred, but for a moment I didn’t care I closed my eyes and waited for ould come next

"You don’t trust ly cold