Needing to banish him from my thoughts, I turn the water down until a torrent of freezing cold liquid douses my heated skin. I don’t want him to be the thing that turns me on, when I’ve fought so hard to get away from him and his terrifying intensity.

When I’m chilled to the core, I turn off the water and wrap myself in a fluffy white towel, blotting the dripping liquid from my hair as I make my way over to my closet. I know I should get into pajamas and try to get back to sleep, but with my mind full of thoughts of Sebastian, I know there’s no way I’ll get any more peace tonight.

Dressing in fresh underwear, running shorts and a sports bra, I slide my cell phone and key card into my running armband and push my AirPods into my ears. I don’t want to piss off the housemates I’ve not even met yet, so I carry my running sneakers in my hand as I pad barefoot down the stairs and out onto the second-floor landing,

It’s dark and quiet, if my housemates were out partying last night, they either haven’t come home yet, or are all passed out drunk in their beds. Either way, I try to stay as silent as I can as I make my way down to the front door and let myself out.

The cool night air surrounds me and I inhale deeply. On the one and only time I’ve been back to Florida since I ran, I felt like I could never get a full breath of air, like my lungs just don’t work properly here. But this is where I’ll be spending the next four years, so I need to get used to surviving here, and that starts with learning to breathe again.

Kingsacre is still a complete unknown to me, after texting my dad to tell him I’d made it here safe, I glanced at my campus map for less than five minutes before I fell asleep. Now I’m standing in the front yard, trying to remember if the golf cart had approached the house from the left or the right?

Opening up my maps app on my cell, I add a pin on my current location, this way if I do get completely lost then I can use the pin to figure out how to get back to the house. Huge gates block the entrance to the driveway and as I approach them, I try to see if there’s a button to press or something, but as soon as I’m within about twenty feet of them, they slowly start to open as if they’re on a sensor.

While I wait, I lift first one foot, then the other up behind me, stretching my muscles. Once the gap in the gates is wide enough, I walk through it and down the asphalt road that meanders through the campus housing.

The feeling of being watched washes over me and I still, letting my eyes wander from side to side before I turn and look back at the house. It’s in darkness, there’re no lights on in any of the bedrooms. Shaking my head, I twist my neck from one side to the next, then take off in a slow jog.