Knowing all that, though, I still couldn’t stay away from her. I could try, but my efforts would be in vain. She was like quicksand–the more I struggled to get out, the faster I sank. So I’d decided to give up and embrace the sink down.
There weren’t many people seated yet, and it was fairly quiet, so it was hard to miss the question, “Where is he?” coming from the back of the lecture hall.
My spine straightened at the responding, “Who?” that followed. It was Emily.
“You know damn well who I’m talking about,” her friend snapped.
I turned around, my eyes unerringly landing on Emily’s. She shivered and dropped her eyes, her nipples growing hard under her tight gray t-shirt.
They weren’t the only things becoming hard, I noticed, as I grabbed my jacket and dropped it in my lap. Neither one of them moved, so I gave Emily a quick wave, barely noticing the smile on her friend’s face.
She grabbed Emily’s arm and started towards me, whispering under her breath, “You have to introduce me.”
Emily appeared less than thrilled to be dragged over to me. I gave her a quick smile as they approached and did the first thing that came to mind: I picked up my stuff from the seat next to me and said, “I saved you a seat.” As long as her friend was here, I figured I actually had a shot at getting Emily to be civil with me. It was worth a try.
Thomas was saving me seats now? What the hell? My voice conveyed the same confusion my head felt. “Thanks?”
Beth tugged on my arm, an impatient look on her face.
“Oh, right.” I moved over a little so Thomas and Beth could see each other. “Thomas, this is my roommate, Beth. Beth, this is Thomas.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Beth.”
“The pleasure’s all mine,” Beth said, coyly smiling as she eyed him up and down.
I turned away from Thomas and faced Beth, desperately hoping she could read the look on my face, which clearly indicated how much I did not want to sit with him. Pointing to some seats further back, I said, “If you want, we can sit–”
“You know what? I think I saw someone I know up front. I’m gonna go see if it’s them, okay? I’ll catch up with you later, Em.” She waved at Thomas. “It was nice to meet you.”
“You, too,” he said.
Beth winked at me before she turned and left.
Awesome. Beth probably thought she was doing me this huge favor, when in reality, I’d planned on using her as a life saver. Well, my life saver just tossed me back in the ocean while giving me the finger.
I sank into the seat next to Thomas, making sure Beth was out of earshot before hissing, “Why are you doing this?”
He frowned. “I’m sorry, okay? About Wednesday, about Monday…about everything.” He ran his hand through his hair, causing golden patches to stick up in disarray. “I just wanted to make it up to you.”
Yeah, ’cause you did such a superb job of that on Wednesday.
I rolled my eyes and dropped my bag onto the floor. “You’re an ass, you know that, right?”
He let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I know.”
I slapped my notebook down on my desk and opened it to a new page, then crossed my arms. “I already gave you a second chance on Wednesday, and we both know how that turned out. Why should I give you a third?”
His eyes were anguished. “Because I’m begging you to.”
“Why?” The question came out quieter than I’d meant. “So we had a couple fights, big deal. It’s not like we’re friends. You don’t have to make anything up to me.” I bit my lip, acutely aware of people taking seats all around us. “I just don’t understand why you care.”
He shrugged. “I just do. And who’s to say we won’t be friends someday?”
My eyebrows shot up in an incredulous expression. “Me. I say.”
He rolled his eyes. “You don’t know that it’ll never happen.”
I saw Professor Rosso preparing his lecture notes and used the opportunity to make my escape. “Yes, I do, because that would require me to want to be your friend.” I grabbed my bag, standing as he took the podium. “And so far, you haven’t given me any reason to.”
As the lecture started, I walked down the row, knowing Thomas couldn’t follow me without causing a scene.
Chapter Fifteen
I didn’t stick around to wait for Beth after class, just in case Thomas couldn’t take a hint. Hell, at this point it wasn’t even a hint–it was a flashing neon sign that read “leave me the hell alone.”
So when he sidled up next to me in the hall, I was a little surprised. “Oh my god, are you deaf?”