Chapter 14 #2
“Your to-do list, the instructions for how to use a highlighter. Hell, you could read the phone book, and I’d melt into a puddle.” He lets out a breathy laugh as his cheeks flush soft pink. “Not that you needed to know any of that.”
“Well, I’ll be sure to use my powers for good and not evil,” I tell him.
“I appreciate that.”
Silence stretches between us, and he pulls his phone out of his hoodie pocket and flips it around in his hand in a move that’s clearly a way to fidget. “So, I assume you’ve heard what everyone on campus is saying?” he asks, trying, and failing, to sound casual.
I lean back against the couch. “I haven’t heard anything.”
He gives me a sharp look. “You haven’t?”
I shake my head. “What are people saying?”
He shoots me a sardonic smile. “That I’m a bad lay and that’s why my fiancée dumped me.”
“But that’s not true,” I point out.
“I mean, I like to think it isn’t because I’ve never gotten any complaints, but that’s what her friends are telling everyone, so that’s what everyone is repeating.
” He wiggles his phone. “I got a text from her just before I came over. I guess you could say that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
” He pauses, then gently shakes his head.
“Nope, not going down that road again. I don’t need to be thinking about camels and why we talk about breaking their backs right now.
” He gives me what can only be described as an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry. I babble and bounce around when I’m stressed, so listening to me is like the verbal equivalent of watching a tennis match, only there’s six people on the court and no rules. ”
“Strike one,” I tell him.
“What?” He scrunches his face up in confusion.
“You apologized for no reason and broke my rule,” I tell him. “That’s strike one.”
“What happens if I get to strike three?”
“You’ll find out if you get there.”
He presses his lips into a flat line, like he’s holding back whatever he wants to say.
“And you’re fine,” I continue. “I’m used to conversations that ping-pong around. You’ve obviously never talked to the twins when they’re worked up about something.”
A smile tugs at the corner of his lips. “Are they as crazy as they seem?”
I cross my arms and kick one foot up on the coffee table. “Crazier.”
He drops his eyes to my bicep, and I don’t miss how he drags his gaze up one of my arms, then traces it over my shoulders and across my chest before pausing on my tattoo.
I’ve noticed West has a thing for arms and shoulders, and he seems to really like mine, which is why I put a tank top on after my shower, just in case he decided to stop by.
“McKenna texted before you came over?” I ask, circling things back to where we were before our side quest about apology strikes and conversations bouncing around.
He tears his eyes from my tattoo, his neck flushing soft pink as he gently clears his throat with a delicate “Ahem.”
“Yeah. Like two minutes before. And of course she texted right after my brother did, which was right after I ignored a call from my mother and didn’t open the email my father sent, so I was already in a weird place when I read it.
” He wiggles his phone again. “This fucking thing has been blowing up for hours. I had to put it on airplane mode because it was still driving me nuts on silent.”
“What did she want?” I press when he doesn’t elaborate on McKenna’s text.
He blows out a weary breath. “She said she asked her friends to stop spreading shit about me, and that it wasn’t her idea to start the rumors about me not knowing how to use my dick.”
“Do you believe her?”
I’m not friends with McKenna, but I know her well enough that it wouldn’t surprise me if she were behind it. McKenna is known as the sweetheart of her friend group, but being the nicest bitch still makes you a bitch, so that’s not really saying much.
“I honestly don’t know.” He runs his thumb up and down the side of his phone, his expression thoughtful.
“I want to believe her, and I want to believe that she wouldn’t hurt me like this after everything, but she cheated on me, hid the fact that she cheated on me, then lied when I confronted her about it and only confessed because I had proof.
” He shakes his head ruefully. “I can’t believe I was so wrong about her.
I thought I knew her, but now I’m wondering if she ever even cared about me as a friend. ”
“You two were pretty close before you started dating, right?” I ask, needing to know more about how this whole thing between them started.
“I thought we were,” he says slowly, his eyes fixed unseeingly on something in front of him.
“But now that I’m looking at things through a new lens, or however the saying goes, I see that I was always way more invested in us than she was.
And I was always the one giving and compromising and accepting any scraps of attention or affection she’d give me. ”
He blinks a few times, and his eyes come into focus again as he slides his gaze to mine.
“And that’s my fault for not seeing the signs and making that normal for us, but yeah.
Now I’m seeing that the person I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with was basically using me as a placeholder for her dream man, and when she realized she was going to be stuck with me, she decided to suck face with a random instead of just talking to me.
“And of course, her friends are having a field day and telling everyone I suck in bed.” He absently flips his phone in his hand.
“And it’s kinda hard to put the cat back in the bag now that the rumor has hit the ground running.
” He huffs out a soft laugh. “I’m really getting my money’s worth with the idioms tonight.
” He drags his other hand down his face like he’s trying to pull off his skin.
“Oh my god. Another one. It’s like I can’t stop.
” He drops his hand and shakes his head.
“You must think I’m insane. And if you don’t, you should because I feel insane. ”
“You’re fine,” I tell him again. “It would be weird if you weren’t a mess considering everything that’s happened.”
“And that’s exactly why I’m not good company right now.” He plants his hands on his thighs and pushes himself up. “I should go.”
“Sit.” My tone is firm but quiet, and I bite back my grin when he immediately drops back down on the couch.
“What will help?” I ask. “Do you want to just be in the same space as someone, or do you need to be distracted?”
“Both.” He smiles sadly. “But I think existing is the better option right now.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I just need to process some stuff, then I’ll be a human who can human again.”
“How about I get back to what I was working on and you make yourself comfortable while you process.” I point to my computer. “I’ll just be over there.”
“Yeah, okay.” He worries his bottom lip between his teeth a few times. “Are you sure I won’t bother you? I brought my earbuds, but—”
“It’s fine,” I reach over and pat his thigh. “This is the first year I’ve had my own room at school since I was fourteen. I can exist with someone in my space without them bothering me.”
He smiles shyly. “Thanks.”
I pat his thigh again, then give it a little squeeze as I stand. I can feel his eyes on me as I walk to my desk, but I don’t bother looking behind me as I sit and wiggle my mouse to wake up my computer.