This Is Falling(67)

“So, I’m pretty sure you’re going to have to deal with that conversation with mister hottie,” Cass says to me as the elevator slides open, and she steps outside. She sees Nate waiting outside our door first, and when I step out and see him, shivers run down the length of my entire body. He. Looks. Pissed!

The closer I get, the more he tries to force coolness, but I can see there’s something simmering underneath. He kisses my cheek quickly, then sits backward at my desk chair, his legs wrapped around either side, and his knees bouncing up and down, just teeming with jealous energy.

I toss my backpack on my bed and pull my shoes from my feet before crawling up next to it, getting out my notebooks. Cass, obviously feeling the tension, just smiles at Nate with a nod and then leaves our room, actually shutting the door behind her. Oh god.

“What time do you think we should leave?” I ask trying my best to pretend like everything about the atmosphere in our room is normal.

“I don’t know, it takes an hour to get there, so five-ish?” His knees are still bobbing. I can see the motion from the corner of my eyes.

“Okay, I don’t need to do much to get ready, so we can still eat something before we leave.”

“I’m not that hungry,” he says.

Oh.

And now we have silence. I’m busying myself flipping through pages of my notebooks, pretending to look for something, just to avoid eye contact, and Nate’s knees are still jumping, and his eyes are still on me, and there’s still this awful awkwardness. And then suddenly they stop, and Nate stands.

“All right, just come by when you’re ready,” he says before quickly escaping through the door. The second it shuts behind him, I flop down on my back. What the hell? Cass comes back in a few minutes later.

“Girl, what did you do to that boy?” she asks.

“Honestly, I have no idea. He just sat here, silent, but edgy. I mean SUPER edgy. And then he left.”

“Awe, jealousy is cute on him,” she says, crawling up next to me and laying her head next to mine. I just look at her with my eyes wide. “You should use this. I bet you could get him to do anything you want right now.”

“Okay, when did Paige take over your body? Bring back Cass,” I say, standing to change into a comfortable pair of jeans and a blue shirt for the basketball game.

“Hey, we are twins. Some of those characteristics are genetic,” she winks.

Shaking my head at her, I pull on a clean shirt and work my hair into a loose ponytail, suddenly wanting to make myself as plain as possible—so no other boy notices me ever and Nate can start acting normal again.





Nate





“Dude, what crawled up your ass?” Ty asks when I shove through our door, popping the handle with enough heat to lodge it against the opposite wall. I pry it loose and close the door again behind me, then I let my head fall forward against it.

“Ohhhhh you know, just lost my shit a little seeing Rowe with some bodyguard-looking dude,” I say, rolling my head to the side to look at Ty with a raised brow.

“Ha. You’re jealous. That’s funny,” Ty says, going back to whatever he’s working on at his laptop.

“Uh, it’s not funny. And I hate it. And I’m pretty sure Rowe doesn’t like me like this either.”

“Yeah, well, then maybe she won’t go hanging out with…what did you call him? Bodyguard-lookin’ dudes?” Ty’s not quite teasing me, but there’s a little bite to his comment.

“He was just big, that’s all,” I say, not really wanting to go into how good-looking he was, knowing that would just send Ty into fits of laughter.

“The girl practically got you floor seats to the Thunder game, and she’s over here more than she’s anywhere else. You’ve got nothing to worry about, unless…have you closed that deal yet?”

Silence. I keep my back to him while I pull out my sweatshirt.

“You’re kidding me!”

“She’s different, Ty. This isn’t some girl from summer ball that I’m using to forget about Sadie. She’s…more,” I turn back away from him, hoping like hell I’m going to get serious-Ty and not the asshole that also inhabits his body. When he doesn’t say anything for a while, I start to relax.

Ty doesn’t say another word, and when Cass comes over, the two of them sit quietly, studying. Rowe comes about a half hour later, and despite all of the sense I’ve talked myself into since I left her room, the minute I see her, my selfish, king-of-the-jungle, pound-on-my-chest instincts move right back inside my body.

She’s wearing a pair of tight jeans, black Converse shoes, and a thin, blue T-shirt. I know she’s going to get cold later, but I don’t want to tell her, because I want her to have to wear my sweatshirt—something of mine. And I want bodyguard-guy to run into us while she’s in it, so we can clear that shit up right then and there.