Touch Me Not(10)

She had to get over it. Adam and Sue were getting married, and she needed to accept it. Once she graduated, she could move to New York and forget all about her problems. If Adam wasn’t in her face twenty-four-seven, she might be able to mend her broken heart.

A loud knock on her door interrupted her silent frustration. One of her returning girls from last year stood in the doorway, twisting her hands. Something was up.

“Mandy, what’s wrong?” she asked, concerned.

“It’s Stephanie,” she said. “Something’s wrong. She’s in our room crying, and I can’t get her to tell me why.”

With a sigh, Lily closed her door and followed Mandy down the hall to the room she shared with Stephanie. They were sophomores this year, and Lily tended to look out for them. Both were young and had made a lot of bad judgment calls last year. She’d even had to bust them once for drinking in their rooms. God only knew what Steph had done now.

The girl in question was curled up on her bed, her old stuffed bear held tightly against her chest as she sobbed brokenly. Her blonde hair was matted to her head and her dress wrinkled.

“What’s wrong, honey?” she asked, sitting down next to the girl.

“Go away,” she cried. “I’m too ashamed to talk about it.”

Lily’s instincts went on alert. “Did someone do something to you, Stephanie?”

She hiccupped and nodded her head. “I was so stupid, Lily. I knew better, and I did it anyway, thinking it’d be different with me. That he couldn’t be as bad as everyone said he was.”

Lily’s gut clenched. She had a feeling she knew exactly what happened. “Tell me,” she said slowly.

“I was going to eat lunch and he caught me before I went in.” She sniffled. “I couldn’t help it, I wanted to say no, really I did, but ohmygod, he’s so hot.”

“Nikoli Kincaid?” Lily asked, resigned.

Stephanie nodded. “Yeah. After, he just threw my dress at me and left. His friend told me to leave and not bother leaving my phone number. I’m so stupid, Lily. Why did I think I could make him look at me any differently? I know his reputation.”

Lily sighed. She’d heard all this before. “Every girl thinks that, Steph. They all think they’ll be the one to finally catch and hold his attention for more than a couple hours.”#p#分页标题#e#

“It wasn’t even that long,” she said forlornly. “It was only an hour, and he didn’t even bother to say good-bye. He had his friend throw me out.”

“Just check it off your bucket list,” Lily told her. “You had sex with BU’s very own manwhore. Everyone else has, so why not you?”

That caused Stephanie to giggle. “He is hot, and the sex was really great.”

“See, it’s not the end of the world, is it? Now you know what all the hype was about, and you can go on and find a nice guy this semester to fall for, yeah?”

Stephanie smiled before lunging up to hug Lily, who went completely still, fighting the scream that rose in her throat. “You’re the best, Lily. I’m glad you’re our dorm mom!”

“Just promise me you two won’t have any more beer parties this year, please.” She gave Stephanie a strained smile and disentangled herself as fast as she could. She winced at the conspiratorial look Stephanie and Mandy gave each other. Dear God, they were going to give her white hairs before she was even twenty-two.

“We promise to try to behave as long as it doesn’t get in the way of our fun.” Mandy gave Lily a grin and pulled Stephanie to her feet. “Come on, Steph, you need to wash your face before we join everyone.”

Lily sighed and followed them out. They were good girls, just a little too mischievous for their own good. And they did ridiculously stupid things in the name of fun, like having sex with the slutty manwhore.

She and Nikoli had a lot of things to talk about, and if he had any thoughts of seducing her, they’d die as soon as she told him in no uncertain terms she’d never be a throwaway he forgot in less than five minutes. She refused to be the one on the bed crying because she let her guard down.

No way in hell was she sleeping with him. He just didn’t know it yet.





Chapter Five





Lily glanced at herself in the mirror and grinned. Worn, baggy jeans and one of Adam’s jerseys over her black tank top was probably not what Nikoli had in mind when he asked her to dinner. Comfortable sandals completed her outfit, her toes shining from the pink nail polish she’d put on yesterday. Nikoli probably expected a dress and heels. She pulled her hair back in pigtails and then slipped on her 1950’s style black rimmed glasses. She screamed nerdy geek going to a high school football pep rally. So not Nikoli’s style.