I protested. I didn’t need to breathe, but he rolled off instead, taking care of the condom by using his t-shirt and then rolling back to my side. “I take it back. Biology does make me horny,” he huffed.
I stifled a laugh and looked at him. His eyes glinted with mischief, and I knew that the next time we were in class he’d be thinking about this, and I’d grow hot thinking about him examining me. And it’d be an endless feedback loop of lust, but I couldn’t care less, so I grinned right back at him and let the love and lust I had for him shine right through.
Chapter Twenty
AM
WE DID MANAGE TO GET in some studying that afternoon, and Bo thought we should reward ourselves by going out.
Ellie and Ryan suggested going to the party house. The party house was a big house rented out by six or seven guys on the opposite end of campus near Greek Street. They charged a cover and made you pay for premium alcohol, but unlike the fraternities, there was no list to get in, so it was a good mix of Greeks and non-Greeks at any one time. The only downside, of course, was that you had to pay for decent liquor or be content with drinking really watered-down keg beer.
I hadn’t been to the party house since freshman year, first semester, but emboldened by the large friendly crowd in my apartment, I capitulated. Bo looked worriedly at me.
“She’s stronger than any of us,” Ellie assured Bo, and I blushed as he nodded his agreement.
Bo reached over and kissed me on the forehead. “It’ll be all good, Sunshine.” I’m not sure if he was reassuring himself or me.
Ellie beamed at Bo’s endearment for me, like she was my proud mother.
I WALKED INTO THE PARTY house with Ellie, Bo, and Ryan. We paid for the shots of Jager that they poured and made everyone drink as part of the admission. No one seemed to recognize me, and the ordinariness of it, along with the shot, gave me a false sense of security. The rear rooms of the party house weren’t entirely full yet. The party seemed to be in its early stages.
There was no DJ mixing music, only a playlist of hip-hop, pop, and dance music cycling through. I guessed the DJ came later. We moved through the room toward the back deck and saw a few hardcore smokers blowing rings into the cold night air. I shivered just looking at them.
My back was to the room so I didn’t see him approach, only heard him stupidly mocking me in front of Bo.
“So you’re going for the easy pussy now?”
I turned and saw Clay in a long-sleeved t-shirt, faded Greek letters stenciled in artful decay across the front. Bo turned on him immediately.
“Did I hear you wanted to be sucking your own dick?”
I grabbed Bo’s arm before it could jettison into the stupid asshat’s face. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before, and it was one of the reasons why I stayed away from the campus party scene. There were plenty of bars and other places to go that didn’t involve everyone who thought they knew my business.
“Come on, Bo,” I whispered. I wanted to get out of there before we were in the middle of a scene. God only knew what rumors would develop from a fight between Bo and Clay with me standing right here. Bo looked at me and flexed his fist. I silently pleaded for him to let it go. He unfisted his hand and mouthed, “For you.” We turned to walk out.
“You know she’s called Typhoid Mary, right,” he called after us. “Because you never know what kind of disease she’s carrying.”
The girl next to him chimed in. “I bet your crotch could sustain a semester’s worth of laboratory study. Is that why you took biology this year? So you could test out exactly what kind of diseases you have?”
My cheeks burned. The name-calling and jeering should’ve been expected, but it was just so humiliating and unfair to have the untruths half-shouted in a large room. I wanted to leave. Hot tears pricked at my eyes, but I wasn’t going to let those motherfuckers see me cry. I stiffened my spine and walked determinedly to the door, not caring at this point whether Bo was with me or not. I couldn’t see the cluster of people around me, only felt the quietude of the crowd, as if they were all settling in to watch a drama.
“Who are you?” Ellie advanced on the girl and got right up into her face.
“R-Rebecca.” She shrank back despite the height difference. Ellie’s ferocity made up for her lack of size. Rebecca wasn’t so brave in the face of my tiny dragon.
“Rebecca who?”
“Anderson.”
Ellie gave Rebecca a long look and spoke so confidently it was like she could see into the future.
“Rebecca Anderson, ten years from now you’re going to look back on this year, and it will be the pinnacle of your life. You’ll be married to some douche bag who’s cheating on you with his secretary. You’ll have no friends. Everyone who calls themselves your friend will be regaling each other with how you’re being shit on by your husband, that your kids don’t like you, and that the last plastic surgery you had done in Palm Springs was so botched it makes you look like you’re wearing perma-surprise.” Ellie’s tongue was so vicious I was vaguely surprised Rebecca was still standing upright. She burst into tears and tried to get comfort from Clay, but he was too busy looking warily at Bo.