Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Plus, she had a really successful ASMR YouTube channel, so she exuded creative boss bitch energy too.
Basically, she was made for me.
“Danny is saying that he saw you with Ryan Redpine. Is that true?”
I looked past Maddy to a smirking Danny. He had dark black hair that looked like campfire smoke next to Maddy’s pink comet. Super friendly guy but clearly too interested in other people’s lives.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were friends with him?” Maddison said in a shocked whisper, her face covering Danny’s.
“I was going to,” I said, leaning forward and shooting one last (menacing but mostly friendly) glare at Danny. He gave a wide smile before running a hand through his hair. I returned the grin before turning my attention to the front of the class.
I wasn’t a huge fan of people linking us together, but Danny had been friendly since the start of class, so I didn’t really mind if he was the one who spotted us.
Professor Sinclair, our microbio teacher, was out sick today, so his hot TA took over for him. Everly wasn’t exactly my type—I wasn’t into the blond-haired, blue-eyed, buff aesthetic he rocked, but regardless, no one could deny he wasn’t difficult to look at.
Now, if Ryan were my TA, then it’d be game over. But of course, he wasn’t my TA. Why would he be working in a classroom that had anything to do with potentially protecting the environment? Of course he wouldn’t want to learn all about the ecosystems his family was destroying and the creatures his family endangered on a daily basis.
What an asshole.
What an extraordinarily hot and charismatic and magnetic asshole.
Ugh.
“And we aren’t friends. He’s my new roommate,” I whispered back.
“Are you serious? That’s who you’ve been living with? I knew they reassigned someone, but you failed to mention it was Ryan Redpine. Wow.” She sucked her teeth and shook her head. “Naughty, naughty.”
“There’s nothing naughty about it.”
Unfortunately.
Maddy gave me a “mhmm” glare. “We’re talking about this after class, mister.”
I glanced at the clock on the pale yellow wall. Good. That meant I had about twenty minutes to come up with a way to stop discussing this topic. Everly walked across the front of the class, enthusiastically lecturing us all about how the stains would look under a microscope. I had to give it to him: he was a good stand-in for the professor. Rumor had it he was also a stripper on the weekends, which wouldn’t really surprise me in the least. The guy had a body made for dancing naked and getting bills rained down on him.
Just before the end of class, Everly switched gears. He clicked off the projector and leaned on the desk, crossing his legs. He wore a pair of tight khaki pants that really didn’t leave much to the imagination. “Before I let you all go today, I want to shout out the Clean the Beach event my club is throwing this weekend. There’s a new motion to try and start drilling offshore, which has brought a lot more foot traffic to the beach, along with a lot more trash. If you all want to come volunteer, we’ll be meeting at Beacon’s Beach from noon to evening next weekend. The beach needs us now more than ever.”
“Oh, we’re so going to that,” Maddy said as chairs started squeaking and students started rising.
I gulped. Shit. So she didn’t know about my secret and strengthening crush on my new roommate, and she didn’t know about my pretty intense fear of large bodies of open water—of which the ocean happened to be one of the largest.
“I’ve got to check my calendar,” I said as I stuffed my notebook and textbook into my backpack.
We followed the flow of kids out of the lecture hall and into the bright spring sunshine. I loved this time of year. The days were getting longer, the weather warmer, the shorts shorter. Especially coming from New York, where it was snowing a few weeks back.
“So, spill. What’s going on with you and Mr. Redpine.”
“Ugh, stop saying his name. It’s nausea-inducing.”
“That the only thing he induces?”
“Yes,” I said, giving her a stern look before cracking a smile. “He’s nice, at least. And yeah, he’s kinda hot. But he’s also a Redpine, and that right there is a huge Redflag.”
I said it with the same intonation I said Ryan’s last name.
Maddy cracked up. We headed back to the dorms, walking through the picturesque campus dotted with palm trees. “You know, it’s not such a terrible thing if you two end up sucking and fucking. You can get insider information that way. Be a double agent.”
“There won’t be any sucking or fucking or touching or canoodling or whatever the hell you want to call it.”
“Beasts with two backs, breaking your back, breaking the bed, breaking in your hol—”