Just a Little Crush(30)

Ryder opened his door and leaned against the frame, arms crossed, eyes narrowed on Noah. “Go home, Brinley.”

“Yeah, Brinley. Game’s over. Go home. And don’t expect a call. Ryder just needed another tally on his score card—oh, and don’t forget the virgin bonus points.”

Ryder lunged at Noah and shoved him into the wall. It vibrated with the impact. He raised his fist.

“Stop!” I screamed.

Ryder didn’t look at me, but his fist halted in the air as his chest rose and fell with his quickened breathing.

“Go ahead. Hit me.” Noah smirked. “We both know you’d be out on your ass.”

Ryder’s knuckles whitened and his jaw muscle clenched. He was going to beat Noah to a pulp, no doubt.

“Stop,” I said, quieter. “Just stop. Please, Ryder, stop.”

He took a deep breath and lowered his fist.

I shook my head and said, “Let’s get this straight right now. I didn’t have sex with him. Okay, Noah? So before you go around dragging me into whatever the hell this is”—I gestured with my hands between the two of them—”be sure you have your facts straight.”

“You expect me to believe that?” He crossed his arms, flashing a smug grin that I wanted to personally smack off his face.

“I don’t give a shit what you believe. That’s the truth. I slept in his room. With him. But we did not have sex. Now, I have to get to class.” I spun and stormed off.

“Hold up, you just slept?” Noah said with a laugh. “You were serious? You’re a fucking idiot, Ryder. It’ll never work.”

“You think I don’t know that?” he answered.

I paused at the door and glanced over my shoulder. What did that mean?

Ryder stared at me then dropped his gaze and disappeared into his room. Noah shook his head and stepped into his own room with a smirk plastered to his face.

Back at my dorm, Fallon packed books into her backpack and turned to me when I walked in.

“Ooh, so where did you sleep last night?” She grinned. “I never expected you to be doing the walk of shame. Please tell me it was Ryder. Then give me all the dirty details.”

I dug around in my drawer for clean clothes and ignored her.

“What? Did something happen? Are you okay?”

She didn’t know I was peeved about the whole Mason thing, and technically I had given her the thumbs-up, but it still irked me. “Why did you sleep with Mason? I need a friend right now and he and I aren’t even talking.” I slammed the drawer shut. “Never mind. Just forget I asked.”

“Whoa. I didn’t sleep with Mason.”

“Seriously? Were you so drunk you can’t remember?”

“I was drunk the other night, but trust me, I’d remember if I had sex with someone.”

“He was in our room. The sock was on the door.”

“The sock?” She plopped onto her bed and shook her head. “I didn’t put the sock there. I came in and passed out.”

“But Mason was in here.”

“Yeah. When I got back to the room, he was here. In the hall. Said he was waiting for you. I told him you were in a cab right behind us and should be coming. I let him in then he asked who you were with. He seemed all pissy when I mentioned Ryder.”

“Then what happened?”

“I told him he could wait in our room. And I passed out. That’s it. We didn’t have sex. I’d remember if we did.” She narrowed her eyes. “So did he say we did?”

“Actually, no. The sock was on the door. We left, walked around for a while, then when we came back he was coming out of the room. He acted like that’s why the sock was there. He let me believe you two had sex.” Why would he do that? It made no sense. He knew how pissed it made me and he got some sort of satisfaction out of the whole thing.

“Obviously he’s jealous of Ryder and wanted to get you worked up too. Guess it worked.”

“But…why?”

“He likes you.” She shrugged and stood.

Mason didn’t like me. He’d been drunk and confused, nothing more.

Looping her backpack straps over her shoulder, she asked, “So were you with Ryder last night?”

“Um, yeah. That’s kind of a mess in itself though.”

“Want to talk about it?”

Actually, I did, but I had to get to class. “Maybe later.”

“See you, then.”

I changed and rushed to class. The very class I had with Mason and Noah.

I slid into my seat.

Mason was already there. He slouched back and glanced up at me. “Hey.” He averted his gaze.

“Hi.” I pulled out my laptop then faced him. “We need to talk.”