Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
I ignored the attention we had garnered.
Kristina hit me on the shoulder. “Kennedy! You know Shay Coleman?”
I grimaced, turning for the food court. “No. I technically don’t.”
“That didn’t look like you were strangers to me. He touched your ass.”
I repressed a shudder. “Don’t remind me.” A line had formed for the cafeteria, and we stood at the end. “And I meant it. Today’s the first day I’ve ever talked to him. We got put in a group for discussion.”
“Why’d he give you his number?”
“Because we have to do a final presentation at the end of the semester.” I saw the excitement forming. “The whole group, not just us two.”
“But still.” She reached for my arm. “Sarah, Laura, and Casey are going to go nuts over this. Casey, especially. She’s been fawning over him since the first football game.”
I didn’t need to be reminded about that, either.
Casey was Kristina’s roommate, and the other two were friends from Kristina’s school. Where Kristina was more reserved, she didn’t drink (that much) and had a steady boyfriend—the others were not. Casey was another “it” girl. And she was single. After the first day of orientation, she had guys calling at all hours of the day. She, Laura, and Sarah divided their time between their own dorm and the guys’.
We had a no-boys-sleeping-over policy in our dorm, but Sarah and Laura had already broken that four times that I knew of. Casey stayed with them those nights. And I only knew of those four times because I’d been watching a movie with Kristina when Casey came in for booze reinforcements. She always smiled and offered an invite to party with them, but I was too chicken shit to risk being caught.
We hadn’t even gotten to homecoming yet.
The four formed a clique, and while I wasn’t really in the clique, I hung out with them on occasion. I was Kristina’s friend, but she was the type who was friendly with everyone. If this had been high school, I would’ve given up because Kristina would’ve had thirty other friends. I was lucky. I got her the first week of college when she didn’t have umpteen friends already. Besides the other three, I knew Kristina considered me one of her closest gal pals at college.
I needed it. I needed her. My other option was my stuffy roommate and her friends.
I frowned. Maybe I was the problem?
Nah.
I shook my head and moved forward with the line. That couldn’t be the case. I oozed warmth. I drew people to me like sap to bears. Come and eat me, animals.
My lip twitched.
Even my own jokes were pathetic.
“Wait a minute.” Kristina had been watching me. Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not going to tell them, are you?”
I glanced back, the same incredulous look on my face that she’d given me when Shay first walked away. “You’re kidding, right? There’s no way I’m telling them.”
They’d want his number. They’d want me to call him. They’d want me to talk to him.
They’d want to use me. This was not going to be high school all over again.
I had rules: no hot boys and no drama. This was a new year, new school, and a new me.
I was going to study my ass off and not get swept up in everything extracurricular.
I clipped my head side to side. “I’m not using his number, and he’s right. I’m not answering if he calls.” That made me look like a brat, but I had alarms going off. Big, huge, red alarms and there’s a reason I instantly didn’t like Shay. I was listening to those alarms. The last time I hadn’t, well, it hadn’t been pretty. It’d been a disaster.
“How are you going to get in contact about meeting for your project?”
“Linde.” I’d already formed my plan as I was walking out of the classroom.
“Who’s Linde?”
“Raymond Linde. He’s an offensive lineman.” Thank you to my brother for that random fact. “And he’s also in the group. We’re pals.” He nodded at me. Same thing. “I’ll train Shay so that if he wants to talk to me, he’ll have to go through Linde to do it.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she stepped behind me as we entered the cafeteria. “Shay Coleman doesn’t strike me as the type to be trained. He’s the type who would do the training.”
I handed my card to the clerk, and as it was swiped, I said to Kristina, “Well”—I took my card back—“he’s never met me before.”
Then I stepped forward.
My stomach growled at the first smell of that ice cream bar, and I headed right for it.
My priorities were in place.
I had to see Shay twice more during the week since our classes fell on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule, but both of us escaped alive. We weren’t forced into group discussions, and the one time we had to pair up with someone, Linde signaled for me right away.