Chapter 15 The Shirt of True Reckoning
Fifteen
The Shirt of True Reckoning
Priya and I walked into our room, and the door shut automatically behind us. I needed privacy to read Dallas’s texts, so I went straight to my closet.
“Are you good?” Priya asked.
I turned around and frowned. “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because of Sandra.”
“What about her?”
“When she mentioned the girl in the hoodie, I wanted to staple her mouth shut. That’s the last thing you needed to hear.”
I shrugged, debating whether now was the time to tell Priya that the hoodie girl was me.
“Just so you know, Texas is a jerk.” She put her hands on her hips. “I also think he sucks big-time.”
I grimaced. It bothered me, her not understanding what was going on and coming to conclusions. The energy required to stay silent about it was exhausting. Like every time someone said something mean about him, I had to partake in an epic battle against myself to keep from screaming.
So I turned, dug through my closet, and pulled out his sweatshirt. No time like the present. I put it on and lifted the hood over my head. His smell was all around me.
I turned around.
Priya ran her fingers through her hair. “What are you doing?”
I stared harder at her, not saying a word.
She continued gazing at me, then her eyes widened, and she put a hand to her mouth. “Omigod, Ade. You’re the girl in the hoodie.”
I took it off even though I’d have preferred to keep it on. His scent was intoxicating. I tossed it back into my closet. “Don’t tell anyone, and for sure not Emma, Jay, or Luke.”
“But you said you slept in the lounge last night.”
“I lied.”
“Omigod.” She fell back onto her bed, placing a hand on her chest. “The girl in the hoodie. It’s like the title of a movie.” She rolled onto her side. “You know I won’t be able to keep this to myself.”
“Don’t you even think about it.”
She propped herself up on one elbow. “Fine. I won’t say a word as long as you spill your guts. I need details.”
My lips twitched. “No way. You’re lucky I told you anything at all.”
“How was it? I mean, how was the sex?” She fanned her face.
“I’m not talking about it.”
She returned to her back and stared at the ceiling. “You have to tell me. I mean, roommates have to know about this kind of stuff. We have to. Especially it being your first time.” She paused and looked at me again. “Is he as good at sex as he is at kissing?”
The back of my neck tingled. How embarrassing. The reason I couldn’t talk about it was because, well…It. Never. Happened.
“I said I’m not talking about it.”
“You’re killing me, Ade. Killing me.”
I grabbed my phone and started scrolling through Dallas’s texts.
Ignore her. Ignore her. The mantra kept repeating in my head so I wouldn’t think about my real worry—that since he hadn’t had sex with me yet, he never would.
She came up behind me and peered over my shoulder. “Is that why your phone was making noise in the dining hall? Was he texting you?” She backed away and started jumping up and down. “Omigod. This is so exciting. I mean, dramatic, and a little scary because of his reputation, but so exciting!”
I shrugged. If only she knew. There was no drama here. Not even a little.
She stopped jumping and rubbed her hands together. “Okay, so what’s next? When are you going to see him again? Do you think he’d go on a double date with Luke and me?”
I laid my phone down on my desk. “It’s not like that.”
“What do you mean?” She paused.
“We’re not dating.”
A gleam entered her eye. “But you went out with him last night.”
“I wouldn’t call it a date. We went to a bar and met up with some of his friends.”
“But then you had sex with him.”
I folded my arms, my face burning. In retrospect, showing Priya the hoodie might have been a mistake, because my confidence was plummeting. She was the reason I was now second-guessing my plan for Operation: Get Laid.
Suddenly, my head hurt. It was all becoming quite clear. He might pass my requirements, but I didn’t pass his. No guy was given the green light and decided not to go for it. Especially someone like him.
She sat on the bed and squeezed her legs together. “Okay. You don’t have to tell me about the sex. But you have to appease me with something—anything.”
I dropped onto the bed next to her and slouched. “I can’t tell you anything.”
“Come on,” she pleaded.
Just like I couldn’t have her draw conclusions about the girl in the hoodie, I couldn’t have her draw conclusions about my sex life. “I can’t, because it didn’t happen.”
“What didn’t happen?” Her eyebrows snapped together.
I held my head in my hands. “We didn’t have sex. I wanted to, but he didn’t.”
Silence. Earsplitting silence.
Then her arm curled around me, and she hugged me. “Just because he didn’t sleep with you last night doesn’t mean he didn’t want to. Did you guys make out?”
“Yes.” I glanced at her. “And he wants to study together tonight.”
Her eyes lit up. “Wow, Ade. He’s totally crushing on you.”
“You didn’t hear me. He wants to do calculus-based physics problems together, not add the bed, subtract the clothes, divide the legs, and hope you don’t multiply.”
She laughed, grabbed my hand, and walked me to my closet. After shuffling through my clothes, she pulled out the lowest cut, tightest shirt she could find and held it up to me. “Tonight, when you get together with him, you’re going to wear this.”
I looked down at it. “You must be joking. It’s freezing outside. I need layers.”
“I’m not kidding around here. This, my friend, will be the shirt of true reckoning.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“By wearing this top, you’ll come to understand what kind of person he is.
If he’s confident enough to look directly at your chest and not be ashamed to appreciate it, then he’s a bad boy and worth pursuing.
If he boldly looks but also says something that makes you feel bad, like your boobs are too big or too small or saggy or something asshole-like, then he’s a jerk.
Not worth your time. If he glances but looks away fast, he’s afraid of getting caught.
That means he’s a nice guy and also worth pursuing. ”
“What if he doesn’t look at all, then what?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Oh, he’ll look. He won’t be able to help himself.”
“I don’t know, Priya. I still think there’s a possibility he’s not interested.”
She shrugged. “Well, if that’s the case, screw him. But I think that’s impossible. He’d never have let you stay in his room or texted you this morning if he wasn’t totally into you.”
“Priya, you know how this works. Engineering students form friendships. We have this instinct to help each other out because otherwise no one would survive our torturous classes.”
“Pshaw.” She brushed lint off the shirt that had now been deemed sexy. “Have you ever kissed Jay?”
“No.”
“Have I?”
She was also in engineering. Computer engineering. “No.”
“See.” She cocked her head and held out the shirt. “Now change.”
I suppressed a low sigh. I didn’t care if he was a nice guy, a bad boy, or even a jerk. I wanted to have sex with him. Still, I’d do it. I’d conduct Priya’s experiment just to find out whether he wanted to be something more than my engineering study buddy.
But first, I’d have to get through dinner with Mom without being forced into a discussion about Dad.