"Don't do that." A girl comes around the corner, and behind the trees, a boy follows her laughing.

"Come on Sarah." The guy gives her a playful shove but the girl ignores him.

"No."

They storm past Adelaide without even looking at her. Adelaide breathes a sigh of relief before following them towards the dorms, they head into the first set of buildings while she continues walking.

Slowly the sounds of everyone leaving the rink fills the night but it doesn't make much of a difference to her as the slight noises around the campus have her jumping in the night.

Holding tightly to the bag on her shoulder she comes to the front double doors of her building. Adelaide eyes the warm inside as she reaches into her bag looking for her keys. A shadow moves behind her.

A person is standing behind her, the realization sends her heart-stopping again.

"You're meant to get your key out before getting to the door." The voice tells her.

A smirk in the voice has her rolling her eyes.

"Thanks for the information, Paxton. I'll keep that in mind for next time." Her voice is full of fake confidence as her heart tries to settle back down.

Paxton stands there behind her, the reflection showing her that he had a shower in the locker room before coming.

She looks over her shoulder to find his hair still wet. He has an awkward expression on his face as he looks around them. Towards the people coming towards them.

Adelaide unlocks the door pulling it open she gives him an expectant nod.

"You coming?" Her voice sounds like it's coming from someone else, someone so much more confident than she is.

"I," he cuts himself off when the first people of the crowd come around the corner. "Just for a moment."

He follows her, standing in the common room with his hands awkwardly in his pocket. She shakes her head and walks down the hallway waiting for the elevator to arrive she can't help looking over at him.

He's watching her, his eyes questioning. He steps forward, holding out his hand. It takes her an embarrassingly long time to realize that the elevator had arrived and he was stopping the doors from closing on them.

She clears her throat and walks in.

He smiles behind her back as she clicks the button for number 3. When she turns to him the same smile is on his face.

"I didn't expect you to be in the crowd." His voice is deep as he watches her.

A deep red blush starts on her chest as scratches the back of her neck.

"I told you I would." Her voice is small compared to his.

He takes a step closer to her.

Making the small elevator seem even smaller. She can feel the warmth coming off him in waves and wrapping around her.

"I didn't think you liked the team." He leans down towards her and she smells the soap he used after the game.

"I don't but I can make exceptions." She meant exceptions to attend their events but when she looks up at him under her eyelashes she hears the other meaning loud and clear in the elevator.

He smiles down at her, a deep grin that pulls his eyes into a crinkle.

"Exceptions." He echoes down to her, she feels herself slowly raising, standing on her tippee toes leaning towards him.

She opens her mouth, having no idea what she's going to say.

Ding.

The doors to the elevator open, and the moment was broken as the warmth of the elevator is overcome by the cold of the hallway.

She ducks under his arm and into the hallway, taking the moment to take deep breaths of the cold air. Suddenly out of breath she walks to her dorm, knowing he's following even as he silently does.

They arrive at her room and she gets the prickling of embarrassment. She has never had a visitor to her room much less a guy like Paxton.

She opens the door slowly, motioning for him to head in.

He strides in, not feeling her hesitation at all.

The light clicks on and she follows behind him. She takes the time to see the room as he would.

She doesn't see the room as a mess. She has things everywhere but mostly because she doesn't have enough room for all her things. Well all her books, everything from textbooks to crime novels. She has many interests when it comes to reading and the room shows that cluttered mind.

Her desk is full of post-it notes, thoughts for assignments and articles. He takes in the small bed and the TV she had brought from home sitting on the edge of a bookshelf.

"It's cozy." He tells her, the silence pulling the words from him.

She smiles behind his back, he's standing in the middle of the room, and his wide shoulders make it impossible for her to go anywhere. She pushes his back lightly and he takes a seat at the edge of her bed.

"Thanks." She says before dropping her bag and taking off her shoes.

His eyes which had been moving around the room stops taking her in with a focus she hadn't seen in him before.

He smiles at her a new blush reaches her cheeks as she looks over at him.

She quickly throws her things away and takes a seat on the only other chair, her desk chair.

She spins to look at him.

"What is it you need Paxton?" Her voice sounds formal to her ears but he just smiles at her.

He doesn't answer and it takes her a while to realize he has no plan on answering. He sways on her bed, drunkenness coming from him. If she hadn't watched him sliding across the ice with ease just minutes before she would have thought he spent the night drinking.

Adrenaline, her father used to come home like this after playing a round of ice hockey with his old team. He never drank during those, telling Adelaide that it would take away from the fun.

Paxton is just coming down from the adrenaline.

"You want to watch a movie?" She asks. Another thing she learns from coming down from a high of adrenaline is the crash of energy and emotions. He was coming down and he chose to come to her.

Something in her chest flutters when he nods his head.

She takes her time getting the TV on, she passes the remote for him to find the movie as she turns off the lights and gets into the bed.

He finds a random movie pressing play before looking down at her.

Neither of them says anything but she pats the bed beside her and he takes off his shoes and relaxes in the space beside her.

They watch the movie, Adelaide's attention more on the boy next to her than whatever movie he had chosen.

He turns his head ever so slightly to look at her, his breath warms her cheek and she turns towards it until it hits her burning lips.

She wants to lean forward, to kiss the softness that beckons to her.

"Adelaide." His voice holds her name so softly as he whispers it to her.

She can't open her mouth instead she nods. Dragging her eyes from his lips to his eyes as he stares down at her.

"What did you see that night?"

Instantly her body tenses up and chill as if he had just thrown an ice bucket over her slides down her back.

She looks away looking towards the window.

"The girl." She says slowly unable to continue.

"Taylor." He tells her, she can feel one of his large hands wrapped around her arm, giving her a warmth that had escaped her body. She leans into it.

"Taylor." She echoes. "I had been on a call with ... a friend when I heard the commotion. I hung up and followed the flashing police lights towards the forest. The crowd was large, all standing around. I was curious I walked in between them, pushing my way to the front. She was way above my head, hanging."

She felt sick remembering it but Paxton rubbed small circles into her arm, calming her.

"I saw you talking to her earlier." He tells her, shocking her out of her stupor.

"What?" She turns to him, sitting up ever so slightly. He looks at her wide-eyed. "What did you just say?"

"At the party. You talked to Sam, and then Taylor came over to you." His eyes widen even more as he watches her reaction. "You didn't realize it was her."

She shakes her head, her body deflating in seconds.

"That was Taylor." He nods his head, he hesitates beside her before wrapping his arm around her, pulling Adelaide into his side. She leans into him unable to stop herself in her shock. "What did you talk about?"

She shakes her head, sadness entering her chest like ice crystals.

"She wanted to know what Sam wanted. She left for the forest to hook up with him." A shiver rips through her body. "He - He must have rejected her."

A tear slides down Adelaide's face. A feeling of hot responsibility slides into her stomach turning it.

"If I didn't give her the note, she wouldn't have gone after him." She bites her lip as a sob takes her body.

"No." Paxton's commanding voice tells her. He grabs her chin softly pushing her face up to him. "This isn't your fault Adelaide."

She softens at his words, and she holds tightly to his body. Leeching his warmth off of him as the emotions take over her mind.

What has she done? She asks herself as Paxton rubs circles in her back.

"I'm sorry for asking." He tells her in a whisper above her head.

"No, I'm glad you asked. You answered a lot of questions I had." She shakes her head.

"What do you mean?" His thumb rubs against her ribs and warmth flood her from the gesture.

"The newspaper left so many things unanswered. I felt like I didn't get all the information from them like someone was holding something back."

She shakes her head now and burrows it into his chest.

"I guess this was it. Me not wanting to accept my part."

She sighs into him and can feel his chest shaking as he talks. She can't focus on it, however, the warmth of his body and the way his hand doesn't stop rubbing soothing circles on her back and she's gone. Asleep soundless beside him as he reassures her it's not her fault.

The coziest and calmest sleep she's had her whole life, like a blanket, cuddled up around her. 

AUTHOR NOTE

What do you guys think about the news Adelaide just found out? 

I never know what to say in these author notes. 

Anyways, as always if you see any issues or problems with any of my chapters please comment so I can fix them in my next draft.

Thank you for reading, 

Laura