“A walk?”
I shake my head. “I want something that helps me escape from my own thoughts.”
She claps her hands and climbs off my bed. “A movie then.”
I nod slowly. “That would work.”
She claps again, her excitement almost contagious as I begin sliding my books back into my backpack. “I’ll text Dustin and Reid. Get ready, chica. We’re getting a huge bowl of popcorn.”
“What? No! Not Reid!”
Her phone is already in her hand, but she pauses in the text to look up at me. “Relax. It’s not a double date. Just friends. Besides, what moves could he possibly make sitting next to your brother?”
I frown as I think it over. “You have a point.”
“See? Now shush. Go get ready.” She exits my room as her fingers tap against her screen.
CHAPTER 14
REID RATHE
“Here, man,”Dustin says, passing me a bottle of beer.
“Thanks.”
I check my watch and look out the window to the darkening sky. I haven’t left Dustin’s yet. I have Spanish homework to do, but I just don’t feel like doing it. It’s not due for a few days anyway, so I should be good. My notes are terrible though. They’re intermixed with a conversation that Avery and I had. Weeding through them is going to be difficult without rereading our conversation until it’s memorized more so than the notes themselves.
God, I’m pathetic.
Chasing after a girl who says she doesn’t want me. The only thing keeping me going is knowing that, for a fact, she does. I’ll break through her ice. I’ll find the right thing to say or do at the right time. Somehow.
Footsteps stomp down the hallway, and I turn my attention there. Jacob and Dustin are in the living room with me, so that only leaves…
Dustin’s roommate emerges from his room at the back of the apartment and stops in the living room to stare with his hands on his hips.
Jacob looks up from his phone and grins. “Gary!”
“Drinking again,” Gary grumbles as he takes us in and the bottle of beer in each of our hands.
Gary is exactly as I’d picture him if someone just told me his name. A true nerd. Glasses too big for his chubby-cheeked baby face, pimples dotting his stub nose, red hair that hasn’t seen a pair of scissors in who knows how long, and a pathetic mustache. He spends hours playing video games in his room, hardly ever emerging.
He refuses to go to the parties and get to know some of our friends. If the person isn’t gaming, Gary has no interest in them. And he doesn’t drink. In fact, I’m positive he’s called campus security on our parties a few times just to get the drunk folks gone so he could hear whatever came through that giant neon-blue headset of his.
The only reason I know about the headset is because we snuck into his room one day while he was in class just to see if he had porn magazines. It would have made him more likable if he had, but we came up empty-handed.
“Those plaid pants suit you well,” I tease. “Really makes your chicken legs look like they have some muscle.”
“Screw you, rich kid,” Gary hisses.
I hold a hand over my heart. “Rude.” It stung, but I’m not going to show him any weakness.
“You started it,” he growls. “Always here with your sports car. Girls always want you because of your stupid messy hairstyle. Do you think you’re perfect, Reid?” He hisses the last sentence, and it grates at my nerves.
“Of course I’m perfect,” I say with a smile. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t feel the need to point it out.”
He sneers at me and looks at Dustin. “I don’t know how you hang out with these two douchebags.”
“Simple,” Jacob says after taking a swig. “He’s a douche too.”
