And suddenly I felt like crying.
I didn’t even notice that he’d saidfor the rest of the yearuntil later.
Keaton
I opened my mouth to comment on the line one of the actors had delivered, and turned my head to see Olly’s eyes were closed. I shut my mouth quickly, not wanting to disturb him. I watched him for another moment to make sure.
He was asleep. He was definitely asleep.
I suppressed a smile and looked back at the laptop. He must have had a long day, especially with practice running so late. I didn’t even realize how much practice went into college football. He was there pretty much every day, and when he wasn’t on the field, he was at the gym.
Which explained, of course, why he had such an amazing body.
A body that, I had to admit, had grown on me a lot over the weeks we’d been rooming together.
I glanced sideways at him through my lashes, then back at the screen. It was another dark scene, set on some atmospheric and windy night. If I refocused my eyes I could see his reflection in the screen. His head was back against the wall, his eyes closed, his mouth just slightly open.
God, what a mouth.
I had been trying so hard not to think about it, but Olly definitely had a kissable mouth. With his lips slightly parted like that, it had me biting my own to stop myself from doing something stupid. Something like kissing him softly just to see what it would be like.
Which was bad. Obviously. He would probably wake up. And even if he didn’t, it wasn’t right to do something like that without someone’s consent. And he would probably punch me when he realized.
I wet my lips and looked back at the movie and tried to focus on that, instead of thinking about how much I kind of wanted to put the laptop aside and climb myself onto Olly’s lap instead.
Where did that come from?
I mean – it was probably inevitable. Olly was a football player with a football player’s body. And I hadn’t had so much as a flirtatious look from another guy since I’d started college. They said this was where everyone experimented a bit, but so far my prospects were not looking amazing.
But if Olly decided to experiment…
I shook my head. That wasn’t ever going to happen.
A loud sting of music on the screen accompanied a jump scare and Olly’s head shot up, his eyes opening. I looked at him with a chuckle.
“Oh, you’re back,” I said, grinning.
“What…?” he looked down at me, then at the movie. “I was asleep?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Only for a short while.”
Olly made a frustrated noise and raised his hands in the air. The credits were playing on my laptop screen. “For god’s sake. What a waste of time!”
“A waste?” I repeated, then glanced at the movie. “Because you missed the ending? We can just run it back if you want.”
“I shouldn’t even have been watching a movie at all!” Olly exclaimed. He pushed my laptop aside and scrambled off my bed, leaving me to catch it before it fell to the floor.
“Hey!” I called after him, righting both myself and the laptop.
“I can’t waste time like this – I should have been studying,” Olly snapped. “This is all your fault. Now it’s too late to get anything done – unless I go to the library. Maybe I’ll do that.”
“Okay, well, sorry for wanting to have a tiny bit of fun,” I said, furrowing my brow. Inside, I was bracing myself. I made myself small on the bed, huddling around my laptop to protect it, waiting for the punch to land. But I wasn’t going to just lay there and not say anything this time. I wasn’t going to keep quiet and not tell him he was wrong. “You don’t have to be an asshole about it.”
“I’m not being an asshole,” Olly said, turning on me and raising his voice. “I have to study! I’m not like, you, Keaton, with your fucking nerd brain! I have to actually study because otherwise, I’m going to fail my classes!”
I squinted at him. “Are you really saying that you’re going to fail out of your classes because I made you watch a movie? Which, by the way – I didn’t even make you. I invited you.”
“News flash, Keaton,” Olly said, his voice like a whip cracking across the room. I thought there was something shining in his eyes – like they were wet. “I’m already failing all my classes. So, yeah, taking time out to watch a movie probably will make a difference. Because if I don’t fix my scores before the next time we have tests, you’re going to get your wish. I’m not going to be your roommate anymore. I’m not going to be at this college at all!”
