She left for the computer, and I twisted around. “Oh, look at that.” Her hips had an extra sway to them. “Even her ass looks like a bitch.”
She braked, rotating swiftly to glare at me.
I glared back. “I’ll let you know if your ex calls again.”
She sucked in her breath but went to the computer.
When I sat straight again, everyone was watching me. “What?”
Aby said, “That was mean, even for you.”
I shrugged, ignoring Linde and Shay and flipping to a new page in my book. “Why do people assume I have no backbone or that I’m only nice? Seriously. People need to stop underestimating me. It’s annoying when my normal, real-human side comes out.”
“Uh.” Aby frowned. “I don’t think we assume that. Any of that.”
A group of books landed on the table in front of me with a thud. I jumped, cursing, and then Gage dropped to the seat. He had his bag in front of him, and he nodded to everyone at the table. “Hey-a!”
He paused on Aby, pointing his phone at her. “Did we sleep together sometime?”
I expected a no.
I got a, “Freshman year, second semester. My boyfriend and I were on a break.”
He snapped his fingers in triumph. “Ah-ha! I knew it.” He tapped the side of his head. “I forget faces all the time, but not yours and especially not anymore.” He checked her out, sliding his eyes up and down.
I remarked, “They’re back together.”
“Ah.” He nodded to Linde and to Shay, his eyes narrowing slightly at Shay before focusing back on me. He propped his elbows on the table, nudging my arm with one of them. “Hey, sis. I figured I can talk to you now that you went public last night. How’s your day? What are you up to?”
Aby muttered under her breath, “Being a bitch.”
Gage shrugged. “She does that.” He leaned down and dropped his voice, whispering so everyone could still hear, “You haven’t answered my texts or called me back. Are you mad at me?”
“What for?”
He straightened, his voice going back to normal. “For last night? I forgot you were at the bar.” He glanced to Shay. “Right?” When no one responded right away, Gage’s frown deepened. “Or was I really, really, really drunk last night? I could’ve sworn I had dinner with you.”
Linde started laughing. Shay was grinning.
Gage took their cue, his eyes widening. “It did happen then? I’m not losing my mind?”
Aby cut in, “It’s too cute to lose. I didn’t see her, but I heard she was there.”
I couldn’t. I looked at her. “My brother’s brain is too cute to lose? Have you seen a brain in real life? Or even a picture? That’s your pick-up line? You have a boyfriend.”
“Man.” She edged her seat over an inch. “Maybe the bitch vibe stayed here.” She shot me a meaningful look.
I rolled my eyes. I had more retorts to spew, but swallowed them. Every single one. I didn’t know why I was irritated with Aby or even Becca. They weren’t my favorite people in the world, but they weren’t my enemies.
“Oh, no. This is total Kennedy. Don’t piss her off, because you’ll see a whole other level.”
Aby snorted. “I think we all know. Matt Carruthers found that out for us.”
I asked, “Who’s Matt Carruthers?”
“The guy whose dick you crushed,” Gage told me.
“Got it.” Asshole One was Matt Carruthers in real life. I hoped I’d never have to deal with him again. “Could I get arrested for that?”
“You know what?” Shay grinned at me, a sharpness in his eyes. “You can look that up yourself in your textbook.” He pointed to my book. There was an extra tone in his voice, and I frowned long enough to figure out he was telling me to shut up.
I nodded. The video would open up a whole conversation I probably wanted to avoid. Like why I was so mad, what I did afterward, and eventually round to the bar and what happened after the bar.
I was happy to shut up.
But first, I grabbed Gage’s arm and pulled him with me. I headed out of the lab, past a blonde girl standing in the doorway, past the front desk clerk, through the metal detectors, even past the coffee cart until we were outside. It was the best place for privacy. There were a few people there, so I kept walking until we hit a private alcove of trees.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been calling you all day. Do you not check your phone?”
“You called my cell or my room phone?” I asked as I was pulling my phone out of my pocket. I lit the screen up and saw a few missed calls, along with some text messages.
“Both.”
I waved my phone in the air before putting it back in my pocket. “I didn’t check it today.” Shay’s one text lit the screen up so I hadn’t needed to see all the rest. “I’m sorry if you were worried.”
“I wasn’t worried about you getting home last night. I was worried how pissed you were at me today, and,” he lowered his voice, “I can’t help but be worried about whatever you have going on with Shay Coleman.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Nothing’s going on with Shay.”
“Right.”
He didn’t believe me.
“If there were, I wouldn’t be stupid about it.”
He studied me before nodding. “I guess that’s all I can hope for as a big brother. You’re not mad at me for forgetting about you last night?”
“I’m not mad at you for last night.”
He released a deep breath he’d been holding. “Good.” His hand patted his chest. “I was worried about that. I even went around your dorm.”
“Wait. What?”
“Your dorm.”
“I haven’t been there all day.”
“Yeah, I know.” He held his hands up. “Don’t worry. I followed your rules. I went to see Casey, technically, and she went up and talked to your roommate. Your roommate has no clue.”
He saw Casey.
He probably saw Kristina and the others.
My only semblance of normality was my roommate now. I was fucked.
I groaned. “You can’t come around my dorm.”
“Casey and her friends already know. She said she didn’t say anything to your roommate.”
It didn’t matter. Everyone knew. I didn’t care about my roommate. Well, I did, but in the grand scheme of things, she was an ant. “Gage,” I moaned. “You’re making things so difficult for me.” That wasn’t totally true. I was doing plenty myself.
“Me?” He pointed to the library. “What about you and whatever you have going on with the starting quarterback of the university’s football team? You want to stay low-key? Don’t sleep with a guy like that. Date down, Kenz. Don’t shoot for the top tier, because Shay Coleman is the top tier. He’s the whole tier at the very fucking top.”
“I know,” I started.
He kept going.
I shouted to shut him up, “I know!”
He stopped.
“Okay? I know. And it isn’t as if this was planned. We just, he just—I just . . .” No. No. No. I wasn’t explaining how I ended up in Shay’s bed last night. I pressed my hands to my forehead. A headache was forming, and I began to rub there, hoping to smooth it away.
It wasn’t working. I knew it wouldn’t work. I gave up.
Gage was looking at the ground. He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “You never said you weren’t in his bed. You would’ve jumped on that instantly if it wasn’t true.” He let his sentence hang, and I couldn’t refute it. He was right. I would’ve. I wasn’t pre-law anymore, but I still had that fighting spirit in me. I would’ve been all over that.
“No one knows.”
“Do you even know?”
My eyes flicked to his. “What do you mean?”
“Do you know what you’re doing? With him. I know what Parker did to you, and I wouldn’t wan—”
“Shay is not Parker. He’s the farthest thing from Parker.” I hoped.