I shook my head, smiling. We quickly headed back inside before the beer bonging idiots decided to come after us.
As we walked back inside, I spotted him. Just off the kitchen was a smaller room. Gibson was sitting on a couch, surrounded by people. I stood in the doorway, Harper just behind me, and he sat up when he spotted me.
“Avery,” he called out, standing. “There you are.”
He walked away from the group, and a few of the girls shot me dirty looks.
“Hey, Gibson,” I said. “Cool party.”
“Yeah, real cool.” He smirked at me. “Better now that you’re here.” He looked at Harper. “And you’re the friend, right?”
“Harper,” she said.
“We met before, at the party.”
“Right. The party where you got Avery pregnant.”
There was a short silence before he burst out laughing. I couldn’t believe she had said that. I wanted to kill her, but Gibson seemed to find it funny.
“Yeah, that party,” he said, grinning. “Do you guys want anything?”
“No, thanks,” I said.
“I’ll have a beer,” Harper said.
“Sure.” Gibson went into the kitchen and I glared at Harper.
“Are you kidding me?”
“What? I couldn’t help myself.”
I wanted to say something else, but Gibson returned a second later with a drink for Harper.
“I’m glad you came,” he said to me. “I thought you’d ditch me.”
“Harper made me come,” I said.
“Well then, thanks, Harper.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, sipping her drink. “Oh shit. Is that flip cup?” In the other room, a group of people was gathering around a table. “I’m the fucking bomb at flip cup. You guys mind?”
“Go ahead,” I said, laughing.
She grinned and then went to join the group, hopping in on one team.
“She’s nice,” Gibson said to me.
“She’s easy to get along with.”
“Seems to be. Look at her blending into that crowd.”
“Harper is like that. Never had trouble making friends.”
“What about you?” he asked, standing close to me. “Do you have trouble making friends?”
“Sometimes,” I admitted.
“Me too.”
“Oh come on, I doubt that. You’re the most popular guy on this campus.”
“Not exactly,” he said. “I have a thousand acquaintances but not many friends.”
I nodded. “That makes sense.”
“I don’t mean to complain, though. It’s just that being this successful comes with a whole new set of problems.”
“Mo’ money, mo’ problems. Right, Gibson?” I said, joking.
He laughed. “Exactly.”
“I get it, though. At the end of the day, you’re just a guy.”
“Right. Just another guy who happens to be able to play football really well.”
I bit my lip, looking at him. I wanted to say that he was a tall, muscular, handsome as hell guy, the sort of guy that stood out in a crowd no matter what he did, but I kept that part to myself.
“Actually, I was thinking about you last night,” he said.
“Oh yeah? Clean things, I hope.”
“Definitely not clean things. First I was having a nice stroll down memory lane to the night in my truck.”
“Oh, the night you got me pregnant?”
He smirked. “That’s the one.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“But I was thinking about something else, too.”
“What’s that?”
“You should study me.”
I cocked my head to one side. “What’s that now?”
“Study me. You said you wished you could study an athlete for your biology class. Why don’t you study me?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Are you kidding? That’s crazy.”
“I’m an athlete playing at the top of my game right now. You should totally study me.”
I shook my head, smiling at his crazy idea. I couldn’t imagine running a study with Gibson involved. We’d have to work so closely together, and I’d have to touch his body, watch him work and sweat. I’d have to observe every motion and twist of his strong, ripped physique, and I’d have to somehow remain impartial.
There was just no way. We were already tangled up together too deeply, whether we wanted to be or not. Throwing this study on top of it couldn’t be a smart idea.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
He laughed. “When are you going to have another opportunity like this one?”
I sighed. He had a pretty good point. It wasn’t every day that one of the top athletes in the country was willing to let some random undergraduate girl study him, at least in a professional manner.