Zak
ZAK
I’ve had enough. Pulling the hood of my sweatshirt down further over my head, I wrap my jacket tighter around me and breathe into my gloves. There are barely two weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break thanks to Franklin West’s five-day weekend. Some students don’t even bother coming back, taking the full month of December off instead.
I know Jaime’s back, though. Even though she’s ignored the text I sent, asking her if she wanted to go and get coffee, both Sol and Alex say they’ve seen her. Which can only mean one thing. She’s avoiding me.
After what happened at the party, I knew things would be awkward. I told her we’d just be friends and, although what we did was more than friendly, I’m pretty sure that’s not what Jaime meant. Maybe she thinks I’m done with her—that I got what I wanted and now I can graduate happy. Well, I’m not. Far fucking from it.
Which is why I’m camped out in the woods behind the Hive, waiting for her to get back from class like a goddamn stalker. I figure, if she spots me on the front steps, she’ll turn and run. The same with the car park and the path from it to the Hive. Which leaves me in the fucking woods.
The sound of footsteps crunching on gravel carries across the crisp afternoon air and I freeze, watching as Jaime strides down the path, her eyes on her phone. I press my lips together. It would seem she didn’t lose her phone, or her sight, in a freak accident, preventing her from returning my text.
She looks amazing, as always. With a knitted hat and her hair loose around her shoulders, the dark orange dress she’s wearing brushes her knees beneath her woolen coat as she walks. She’s fall personified.
I think she’s wearing the same ankle boots she wore to the party, and I swallow hard at the memory of them digging into my ass, my dick attempting to cheer from where it’s hiding from the freezing cold.
When she gets inside, I’m not planning on knocking. I have no idea whether she’s told the Bees what happened between us, but I’m not risking being turned away. The way I see it, I have nothing to lose. She’s already ignoring me, so why not go for broke.
Which is why I cross to the side of the sorority house and start to climb.
The Hive and the Den are almost identical, so I’ve had plenty of time and opportunity to plan how to do this. The only problem is, thinking about it and actually doing it are two very different things. Especially when everything’s covered in fucking frost.
Because Jaime’s room is on the very top floor, I climb up onto the top of the bay window on the side first, then up onto the second story window to get to the lowest point of the sloped roof. From there, I just have to get to her skylight and hope she lets me the fuck in. She has a window on the side of the house, but I can’t figure out a way to get to it from the roof. I may or may not have sat in Sol’s room for a good hour trying to figure it out.
The skylights aren’t original to the house, apparently, and are some fancy ones that open with some sort of remote. Sol was buzzed about his when he moved in this year, and I can’t pretend I wasn’t a little impressed.
I’m well aware this is desperate, and I’m kind of waiting for someone to call campus security, but as my feet slip for the ninth time on the tiles, I realize I’ve gone too far to turn back now. When I finally reach her skylight, I exhale in relief to find the light on. If she’d stayed downstairs, I’d have been left sitting on the roof like fucking Santa.
My heart hammering in my chest and my breath in thick clouds around me, I pull off one of my gloves and knock on the glass. After a few seconds, I knock again, sounding out a pattern so there’s no doubting that it’s a person and not just a bird or the wind.
When Jaime appears below, her big brown eyes wide in horror, I regret every decision I’ve ever made. What the fuck am I doing on her goddamn roof? How is this going to make her want me? If I wanted to drive an even bigger wedge between us, I’ve definitely done it now.
Hanging my head in shame, I wait as she presses the button to open the high skylight, bracing myself for the onslaught of abuse I suspect is coming.
“What the hell, ? Get in here before you get yourself killed!”
I blink, staring down into her room as she gestures frantically for me to come inside. She doesn’t have to ask me twice. Easing my body through the gap, I grip hold of the frame and lower myself down until I can let go, dropping onto her carpet.
Jaime immediately smacks me in the chest. “What the hell were you doing on the fucking roof?”
“You ignored my text.”
She stares up at me, blinking. “Climbing onto the roof and coming through someone’s window is not the appropriate response to having a text ignored. I think you need professional help.”
Rolling my eyes, I shove my hands in my pockets. “What I need is for you to talk to me, Jaime. You said we were friends, and then you ghosted me.”
All concern drains from her face, her features tightening. “I’ve had a lot of shit going on, . My world doesn’t revolve around you.”
“I never said it did, Kitty Cat. All I wanted was a response. Common courtesy. Even if it was a text saying, ‘leave me alone’.”
Jaime marches over to her desk and snatches up her phone, unlocking it and tapping at the screen. A few seconds later, my phone vibrates in my pocket.
I narrow my eyes. “Hilarious.”
“You got your text. Now you can leave. Through the door this time.”
I make no move to go. “How was your Thanksgiving?”
She stares at me as though I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have. I’ve never been able to think clearly when it comes to her.
I take the silence as an excuse to look around her room. The layout is identical to Sol’s, but it’s pretty much how I imagined it. Not cluttered, with lots of earth tones and shiny bits. Shrugging off my jacket, I sit down on the bed, scooting back until I’m leaning against the wall.
Jamie huffs through her nose. “Make yourself comfortable, why don’t you?”
“I’m very comfortable. Thank you.”
Her growl of frustration is fucking adorable, and I can’t disguise my grin.
“You like making my life difficult, don’t you?” she asks. “Do you get some sort of kick out of it?”
I shake my head. “I don’t want to make your life difficult. I want to make it easier, but you keep trying to push me away when I’m trying to help.”
“I don’t need your help,” she snaps. “If I wanted help, I’d ask for it.”
I chuckle softly. “You know that’s not true.”
“Fine.” She folds her arms across her chest. “But you can’t help me. There’s no one that can help me.”
There’s a pain lacing her words that has me sitting up, my heart quickening. “What are you talking about?”
“Nothing.” She turns away, placing her phone back down on her desk.
“Jaime.” She stiffens at my firm tone, and when she turns around, I pat the bed next to me. “Come here.”
I half expect her to tell me to fuck off, but she walks over and climbs onto the bed, settling a foot away from me. Huffing through my nose, I reach out and wrap an arm around her, dragging her closer until she’s leaning against my chest. She doesn’t fight me, and I close my eyes as she relaxes against me, her hand resting over my stomach. She smells wonderful. I don’t have a clue about flowers, but it’s something heady and rich that makes me want to bury my face in her hair and inhale.
“You can tell me,” I say quietly, rubbing my hand up and down her arm. “Whatever it is.”
She shakes her head slightly. “No.”
I don’t push. I’m not sure whether she’s saying she can’t or won’t tell me, but no means no. All I can do is show her that she can trust me and maybe one day she will.
Jaime turns her head, looking up at me. “Why are you doing this?”
“What?” I raise my eyebrows with a grin. “Stalking you and climbing in through your window? Isn’t it obvious?”
She stares at me, her eyes narrowing slightly. Then she looks away. “I thought after the Thanksgiving party you’d be over it.”
My heart surges in my chest and I sit up a little straighter, pulling Jaime from my chest and cupping her face as I stare into her eyes. “This is not an infatuation, Kitty Cat. The very first time I laid eyes on you, I knew. I knew you were perfect for me.”
She scoffs and tries to pull out of my grip, but I hold her firm, stroking her jaw with my thumbs. “It’s the truth. Don’t ask me how I knew—how I still know—but I feel it, right here in my chest. So, in answer to your question, Jaime. I’m doing this because my heart has been laid out before you for three years. That hasn’t changed because we fucked. I’m yours. I always have been. I’m just waiting for you to wake up and see it. I’m not going to give up on you. On us.”
“There is no ‘us’,” she says, tugging free of my grip. “You’re delusional, . And you need to give up on me because we’re not going to happen. The party was a mistake, a lapse in judgment that won’t be happening again.”
Her words hurt just enough to make me pause, but then I shake them off. “That’s bullshit. It might not have been my best work, but you sure as hell felt the same connection I did.”
She looks away and I know I’m right. But then, she stands and walks over to her door.
“You need to leave.”
I fold my arms across my chest, tempted to tell her to make me, but she stares at me in a way that makes me shuffle to the end of the bed and stand.
“You know,” I say as I pull on my jacket, “Thanksgiving wasn’t a fair trial. You should give me a proper try, Kitty Cat. Maybe you wouldn’t be so quick to write me off.”
I swear her lips almost pull into a smile, but she manages to squash it, her glare narrowing as she puts a hand on her hip.
“Out, Aldridge.”
Holding up my hands in surrender, I grin at her. “Okay. Fine. But just know that you might be getting rid of me, but I’m not giving up.”
I pause by the door, and she stares up at me, her glare faltering just enough that I reach for her face again. When she doesn’t stop me, I lean down and brush my lips against hers. As much as I want to push, to kiss her until she feels what I feel, I force myself to step back.
“Reply to my text,” I say, ducking a little under the doorframe. “We’ll have coffee.”
Before she can refuse, I turn and jog down the stairs. What her sisters will say about me leaving when they didn’t see me come in, I have no idea. Jaime will have to deal with that one. If I had my way, I’d have stayed all night and sneaked out either at dawn or when everyone was in class.
One day, I tell myself as I close the front door and step out into the cold, zipping up my jacket. One day, she won’t want to let me leave.