He made a sound of amusement. "What rumors have you heard about me, hmm?"
I slapped his hand away when I saw it approaching my head in my peripheral vision.
"I would offer to swap numbers, but I made a note of yours from the bathroom wall."
"You're a fucking asshole," I bristled.
He held his hands up, smirking like a jerk at my anger. I shouldered past him, cheeks burning in outrage.
"I'll text you!" he laughed after me as I stormed down the hallway, quickly dodging students.
***
"Honey." My mom knocked on my bedroom door as she opened it. "Harrison's here. He said you have an assignment due soon that you were supposed to work on."
I gaped, my mouth moving like a drowning fish as my door opened further to produce a grinning Harrison behind her.
"Thanks, Mrs Linwood." He smiled widely at her, hands clasped behind his back like an innocent schoolboy. Duped by his charm, my mom patted his shoulder with a warm smile and left us alone.
"I did text you." He held his phone up, waving it in the air.
I gave him a dimwitted look. "Did you? Hmm, I thought you were a creeper, so I blocked you. Oops."
"No worries, I'm here now."
He stepped into my room without a welcome, his eyes roaming around my space. I became hyper-aware that I was sitting here in my too-small pajama shorts with a ratty, oversizedStarWarsT-shirt. Meanwhile, Harrison looked perfectly groomed and put together in blue jeans and a tight, fitted black T-shirt. His hair was damp, as if he had just come straight from a shower.
"You're really perpetuating that nerd girl stigma," he grimaced.
I frowned and glanced around my bedroom, trying to view my personal space from his perspective. A massive poster of the solar system lined one wall, and an eclectic pop art picture of Charles Darwin hung above my bed. My bookcase practically vomited books of various genres—school textbooks, autobiographies, thrillers, romances, and sci-fi literature were scattered everywhere.
I had a single-double bed with a light blue comforter adorned with animation drawings of beakers, bunsen burners, funnels, microscopes, test tubes, and DNA molecules.
My face reddened when I spotted my Darth Vadar soft toy, which I habitually placed on my bed before I left my room for the day.
Okay, so my bedroom was a little on the nose. But I'd bet if I peeked into his private space, I'd find football andSports Illustratedmodel posters, condoms, and dirty gym socks.
I jumped up when Harrison strolled over to my microscope to peer into it. "Okay, I never gave you permission to enter my room."
He straightened and turned to fix me with a sly grin. "Well, I had no choice when you didn't answer my texts, darlin."
"Notyour darlin'," I mockingly drawled. "And like I told you today in class: I got this, O'Connor."
"Naw, that's not gonna work for me. I know you think I'm a dumb jock–"
"Your words."
"But I always pull my weight in group assignments."
"Impressive. I'm sure God will let you into the pearly gates because you helped in an assignment worth zero marks."
Harrison tipped his head back and laughed. "You've got jokes."
I sighed and moved my microscope out of his reach. "As entertaining as this is, I'm actually not working on our thrilling assignment."
"What are you doing?" He threw himself down onto my bed.
I grabbed his ankles, ignoring the feel of his hard, strong flesh under my skin, and pushed them off my bed.
