And then, once that happened, I wanted to throw her over my shoulder, take her somewhere private, and make her forget the touch of that rich boy. Make her forget how any other guy had felt. Fill every crevice of her mind with me…and every part of her body.
Oh, yeah. If Kelsey thought I was going to give up, she was wrong. If she couldn’t make up her mind, I’d make it up for her.
Chapter Seven – Kelsey
I knew I must’ve dropped my phone at the Sigma Chi house. It must’ve slipped from my pocket without me knowing, and I was too focused on hurrying back to the dorm to hop in bed before Mel woke up for her early classes to realize it. And by the time I did, it was too late. Mel had called and called it, even risking being late to her class, but it was no use, because it wasn’t in the dorm room. My mulch-covered hoodie was shoved under my bed, minus my phone.
Shit.
In between my classes that day, I swung by the house. Didn’t go inside it, of course, but I snooped around the side of it, examining the area where I’d fallen asleep. My phone wasn’t there. Someone must’ve found it, picked it up.
Damn it.
I repeated those words to myself all day—damn it, damn it, damn it—and only stopped later that night when Mel got a text…from my phone, no less. Someone had found my phone, and they wanted to meet in the student union in the morning to give it back. Ten o’clock.
“Ask who it is,” I said, my nerves on fire. Could be Dean. Could be some other guy in Sigma Chi…even Levi. Shit. If Levi found my phone, how the hell was I going to explain why it was there, just outside his window?
Mel texted the number back a minute later, and we both waited with bated breath, staring down at her phone screen as if it held all of the answers. She never got a text back, and it worried me.
“Maybe your phone died,” Mel suggested. “When exactly did you lose it? Batteries don’t last that long.”
My mind danced around what I could tell her. Did she see me with my phone last night? If I told her I lost it sometime yesterday, she might come at me saying she saw me in bed with it or something. I definitely didn’t want to admit that I took a midnight stroll to Sigma Chi—the fraternity she warned me from day one to stay away from.
Yeah. Didn’t listen to her, and look where it got me.
“I don’t remember,” I said, lying through my teeth. Thankfully, Mel didn’t seem to notice.
“Do you want me to go with you? Who knows who has it—”
Fuck. What if it was Dean? What if he found my phone, and hoped that Mel would come with me? No. Whoever it was, I could face them alone. The last thing I wanted was Mel being around Dean.
Well, the second to last thing. The absolute last thing was to see Levi.
“No,” I said, standing straight and crossing my arms. “I’ll just swing by the union and then head to the library. Besides, it’s supposed to downpour tomorrow, and you only have one raincoat.”
Mel’s amber eyes studied me, and it was a long while until she said, “Okay. If you’re sure.”
I let out a chuckle, but the sound fell flat. “You’re acting like it’s some sketchy meeting in a dark alley. It’s the union. There will be other students around. It isn’t like I’ll be alone. And besides, you know I can handle myself.”
At that, she cracked a smile. A small one, but a smile nonetheless, so I’d take it as a win. “You’re right about that.”
“I am stealing your raincoat,” I told her, not for the first time. “You haven’t changed your mind about going anywhere, have you?” The raincoat was hers. If I had to get drenched walking to the library, I would. Wouldn’t be too happy about it, but I’d do what I had to. With it being November, the end of the semester was about a month and a half away. Had to get cracking on those papers.
Papers that were worth a good chunk of my grade. Did not want to think about that, considering how awful I was at writing papers. Hmm. Maybe I’d ask Mel to go over them; she seemed like an overachiever when it came to classes and homework and shit. She’d probably be able to see some stuff I should fix or change.
“Do I ever go anywhere?” Mel asked, trying to joke. Kind of like my earlier chuckle, her joke didn’t stick the landing. Mel just seemed awkward when she was trying to joke. She was a serious kind of person, but she put up with me, and sometimes I made her laugh, so at least it wasn’t a complete drag being roommates with her.
Eventually I said, “True. Don’t even know why I asked.” I shot her a grin, which she met with a smile.
The more you faked something, the easier it was to pretend. If I lived the lie that I was happy with the state of my life, maybe I’d start to believe it myself.
But I wasn’t happy, hence the issue. I was miserable, and I hated how confusing it all was, how guilty I felt for sleeping with Sawyer—not only because of Ash, but because of Levi as well. I was a shitty person, and I could never forget that.
Hours passed. Mel had a textbook open on
