Fragments of Desire: Marigold's Silent Departure novel Chapter 3

"How to prove it?" The girl muttered, her voice trembling slightly as she tried her best to suppress the unease in her tone.

"Where are you at?" Lennon asked indifferently.-

Marigold answered him slowly, "The School of Architecture and Design of Eldridge Academy, Wye City."

"Designer?"

"Um." Marigold buried her face in her arms, her cheeks blushing beet red.

She felt like she was a disgrace to that title.

Lennon turned off the water, grabbed a towel to dry his hands, his fingers well-defined as he picked up his phone and walked out of the bathroom.

He wasn't used to bringing people home.

But it was so late, and he didn't feel like heading out.

He was betting – betting that this scatterbrain would show up.

If she did, he'd have to scare her.

So, he gave her his apartment address, "Apartment 1009, Building 6 at Willowbrook Retreat. Come over."

Marigold's face was burning up, her neck and ears turning red as if they were bleeding.

She glanced at the time – half an hour left until the dormitory lights-out and doors-locking.

She hesitated.

But her mother's words kept echoing in her ears, "We feed you, clothe you, scrape together your tuition, and now you've become a college student who doesn't want to contribute anything back home, always crying broke. You're not even as good as Carol next door. She sends home a thousand monthly after dropping out of middle school to work. What good are you!"

Marigold bit her lip.

Seeing that she was silent for a long time, Lennon scoffed suddenly, "If you don't have the guts, stop dreaming of making big bucks. Go wash up and hit the hay, designer."

Marigold clenched her fists and mustered her courage, "I'll go."

She was sitting in the dormitory corridor, pitch-black and deserted.