Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
I don’t know if it’s a fucking cheerleader thing or a college girl thing, but Scottie Bardeaux is beautiful. Girls back home never looked like this.
She’s wearing makeup, but it doesn’t look like a ton—my ex used to cake the shit on like she was tarring a roof—and from this close, I can see that the hazel of her eyes is more green than anything else. It’s just the gentle ring of brown in the center that makes them look the way they do.
Thank you, she mouths before putting her head back toward the paper and scribbling out another response. I watch the way her white teeth dig into her full bottom lip so intently that I’m startled when Professor Winslow’s teacher’s aide, Doug, drops a syllabus packet on the desk in front of me.
I don’t bother reading it. My plans for this class don’t quite follow the same bullet points as Professor Winslow’s.
Scottie slyly slides the notebook paper back to me, and I’ve got the paper open to her new words in seconds.
Got any plans this Friday, Finn? The cheerleaders are throwing a party with the Delta Omegas at their house on Sorority Row.
I don’t know why seeing my name in her handwriting urges the hint of a smile to form on my lips, but it does.
And while I’d love to do a lot of things with Scottie, going to some party with sorority chicks and frat bros isn’t one of them.
I appreciate the offer, Scottie, but I’m not really a party kind of guy.
Her response is back on my desk mere seconds later.
Really? That’s a surprise.
When I glance back at her, she’s focused on Professor Winslow as he starts to talk about our first reading assignment—Wuthering Heights.
I should probably pay attention too, given the financial aid requirements for me to stay enrolled here, but finding out why she would be under the impression that I like to party seems like a higher priority.
Why is that a surprise?
She glances down at the paper and then back at me before quickly scrawling out a response.
You just look like trouble, you know? But, like, the good kind. Don’t be mad. LOL
Is she flirting with me? I move my eyes to her, and even though she’s not looking in my direction, I don’t miss the way her cheeks are flushed pink.
I thought this girl had a boyfriend—an asshole boyfriend, at that—but when I glance toward the back of the class where I saw his douchey head full of blond hair when I first came in, there’s a matching blond chick sitting beside him.
She’s bouncing her tits like they’re balls on a seal’s nose, but his eyes are locked on me, a scowl sitting front and center on his lips.
What the fuck is happening? Is she using me to play games with her boyfriend?
Scottie’s quiet demeanor, attention on the lecture, and the fact that she hasn’t noticed my silent interaction with her boyfriend at all only makes me more confused. Truthfully, I don’t think she’s glanced back in the fuckface’s direction a single time.
I turn back to the front, pen poised over the paper to tell her I don’t want to be a part of whatever fucked-up thing she has going on, when the sound of the lecture hall doors slamming open with a loud bang grabs my—along with everyone else’s—attention.
Ace jogs in, a backpack slung over his shoulder and his dark hair a mess on top of his head. He’s wearing jeans with a wrinkled T-shirt, and his long legs eat up the aisle as he moves toward the front of the lecture hall.
“Can I help you?” Professor Winslow questions, squinting toward Ace’s entrance.
“Sorry, Ty…I mean, Professor Winslow!” Ace calls out as he keeps moving up the rows of seats. “Running a little late this morning.”
“Ace, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that this is—” Professor Winslow starts to comment, but another bang from the lecture hall doors slamming open stops him midsentence.
“Sorry, I’m late, Professor W!” Ace Kelly’s big-ass dad calls from the top of the stairs.
Ace is just plopping down in the seat next to mine when his brain registers his father’s voice. “What. The. Fuck?” Ace mutters, horrified as his dad’s humongous legs eat up the distance toward us in a heartbeat.
“Acer! Save a seat for me, bud!”
“Thatch Kelly, to what do I owe the pleasure of this massive disruption to my class?” Professor Winslow questions and crosses his arms over his chest.
“Well, Prof, I’ve decided to go back to college,” he responds like it’s the most normal thing in the world. “And I figured, what better time to do it than now.”
“You’re taking this class?” Professor Winslow asks, a smile just barely on his lips.
“You bet your academic ass I am.”
I glance back and forth between the two of them in abject realization—they know each other. My roommate’s dad is friends with my stupid half brother.