hour.”
“Sounds good to me.”
I hung up the phone and then texted John that I was meeting Monica at the library. He texted back with a sad face. As much as I wanted to see him, I did need to study. And gossip with Monica.
Monica sat at a desk on the second floor above a sunken living room area.
“Hey Mon.” I plopped down in the chair across from her. She was unpacking a textbook and her laptop from her messenger bag, but looked up when I sat down.
“Hey, Mel. I’m not used to seeing you out of uniform or without your manboy on your arm.
I smirked. “I could say the same thing about you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Touche. But I’m ditching the boy tonight for some studying and girl time. You’re worth it, pookie.”
“Did you just give me a cutesy nickname like we have some sort of a girlmance?”
She nodded. “I did. Are you going to do something about it? Like take me out on a kickass Christmas date?”
“So, we’re doing Christmas dates now, too? Not just study dates?” I pulled out my Spanish book and set it down on the desk.
“Well, if I don’t gouge my eyeballs out from studying, I do need to get Trey a Christmas gift at some point. He convinced me to spend Christmas Eve day with the Chapman family and I have no idea what to get him or what to get his parents and it’s a big cluster. It gives me more of a headache than my Physics class.” Monica rubbed her temples.
“Did you invite me here to study or to talk about Trey and Christmas?”
“Both.” She put her hands down.
“You know I can’t resist a girl chat.”
She beamed. “Okay, so you’re way better at this gift giving thing than I am. What do I get for the boy who has everything? And how about his upper crest family?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I barely know what to get my mom and sister this year and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to get my dad something.”
She blew a stray strand of her wavy, red hair out of her eye. “This was way easier when we could just paint everyone a picture in our kindergarten class and call it a day.” She rifled through some papers in her messenger bag and then stopped. “What are you getting for John Boy, anyway?”
“A gift for John? I’m not even sure how we’re defining our relationship or whatever it is.” I blinked. I never even thought about getting him something. I usually got the same video game for Robby every year and we dated all through high school. I didn’t technically know what me and John were and if it qualified for gift giving.
She leaned in, raising an eyebrow. “Is he getting you something?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about the holidays.”
“Christmas break isn’t even two weeks away and you haven’t talked about your plans with him?”
I guess I’d been more concerned about what came after Christmas. My next biopsy to find out if there was still cancer on my cervix was scheduled for December 22nd. They said I’d have the results back by the new year, which felt like the longest stretch of time in my life.
“And speak of the devil.” Monica folded her arms across her chest and looked over my shoulder, smirking.
I turned to find Trey and John walking toward us.
“Fancy meeting you two here,” John said, unzipping his jacket as he approached our table.
Monica shook her head. “Trey Chapman, I told you that I was studying with Melanie. I didn’t think that was an invitation for you to join us.”
Trey shoved his hands in his coat pockets. It was much too fancy to be a winter coat with its soft, gray material and tons of buttons. “I’m here to make sure that the Alpha Mus who signed up for study hours are actually here and John Boy said he was ditched by Melanie, so he said he would come with.”
“Lame excuse.” Monica rolled her eyes.
He bent over and kissed the top of Monica’s head. “I really am here to check on the study group. And if I get to see you at the same time, then it’s not so bad.”
She scowled at him, but her body language said something different. She was relaxed and smiling like she enjoyed his attention. “Some of us need to study, but maybe you forgot that since you seem to just retain everything by osmosis.”
Trey’s smiled broadened. “I assure you that I need to study and if my girlfriend would like to discuss our State and Local Government final, I wouldn’t be opposed.”
“Oh, I’ve already got that one locked down.”
“Really?” He raised an eyebrow.
John leaned over and whispered. “I love it when they debate. It’s better than Judge Judy.”
I had to agree. The liberal girl and the conservative guy seemed like the biggest cliche in the world, but not only did they make it work, they made it interesting for the rest of us.
“Hit me with your best shot,” Monica said.
Trey crossed his arms over his chest. “What is Dillion’s Rule and how can it be applied to our local government?”
Monica rolled her eyes. “Please. Like that isn’t your favorite question to ask me.”
I could feel the heat rolling off of John’s body, he was so close to me. Something stirred inside of me. As fun as it was to watch Monica and Trey argue, I wanted something different. “Want to get out of here?”
“I thought you’d never ask, Red.”
I pounded my hand on the table, rousing Trey and Monica from their debate. They snapped their heads in my direction. “Hey, me and John are going to get out of here since it seems like you two have a handle on this studying thing.”
Monica sighed. “I’m sorry. Do you want me to make him go away? I can totally do that.”
I stood up, forcing my books back in my bag and then yanked my coat on. “No, don’t worry about it. I’m sure we’ll catch up later.”
A slight smile crossed Monica’s lips. “Oh, I see what this is.” She made quotation marks with her fingers. “You two want to have a study session of your own.”
John put his arm around my waist, pulling me to his side. “Just like you two are about to do.”
“If by studying, you mean me wiping the floor with Trey in a debate, then yes, yes we are.” Monica smirked.
“On that note.” John and I backed away. “I’ll text you later, Mon.”
We took the stairs two at a time as if we both couldn’t wait to get out of there. “So where to? Coffee shop? The house?” I asked
John shook his head as he opened the front door and ushered me out. “The house is way too loud. I can’t even think there. It’s supposed to be study hours, but half the guys are shit faced.”
“Okay, so coffee?” I bit my bottom lip. God, how could this guy turn me on so much? This was why I didn’t want to study with him—because all I could think about was how bad I wanted to forget about cancer and just have him.
John put his arm back around my waist. “How about your place? More comfortable, better atmosphere, and I don’t have to listen to every freshman kid freak out because they may fail out of school.”
“Was this whole thing just an ulterior motive to get into my apartment?”
He smiled, letting out a breath of air through his nose that immediately turned into a cloud of smoke in the December air. “It wasn’t originally, but now that you mention it...”
“All you had to do was ask to come to my place instead of finding a way to run into me.”
“Okay, fine. Can I come hang out at your apartment?”
“Maybe.”
And that was how I ended up back in my apartment with John. I shouldn’t have agreed to it, because all I could think about was pouncing on him.
