“I’ll see you later,” I tell Lyla, leaning down and kissing her on the cheek close to her mouth.
“Yeah.” She’s breathless as I pull back. “See you later.”
I watch as she walks down the drive and turns toward her house. I want to rush after her. She shouldn’t be walking alone, but I know she would tell me to stay home. I could tell she is still anxious about the whole situation. I need to let her ease into it.
Realizing I left my phone upstairs, I curse as I head back to my room.
“Oh no. Get your ass in here,” Kellan calls as I pass the kitchen.
I backtrack until I’m standing in the kitchen archway.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“What’s up? Can you believe this guy?” Kellan turns to the others.
“You have a girlfriend?” Calvin looks skeptical.
“She’s really pretty. Nice too. She talked to me for a bit last night,” Jason adds.
Jealousy flares inside me as I think about her talking to Jason.
“What did you talk about?” I bark out.
He swallows hard. “Nothing really. We talked about hockey. Then some guy came into the kitchen with a girl latched to him, and she looked like she might be sick, so I told her how to go out the back door to get air. I figured it would be okay.”
I feel myself settle at his words. Of course it was innocent.
“No, you did a good job. I was out back. I took care of her. Yes, she is my girlfriend. No, I will not take any further comments on the subject at this time. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go take a shower.” I go to leave, but Kellan calls out to me.
“Hey, Wyatt. I know you didn’t tell me about her, but did you happen to tell the other guys?”
His tone has me looking back at him. “No.”
He holds up his phone, showing a picture of me and Lyla from the party.
“Well, you might want to make time to tell them because this is all over social media.”
Fuck.
“I’ll tell them.”
That’s all I say as I race up the stairs.
Things are about to get real interesting around here.
five
My skin crawls, and I feel the urge to shiver. Not because I’m cold, but because I can feel everyone staring. As soon as the professor turns his back, people turn and look my way. I thought I knew attention before from when I was with Kyle, but it has nothing on what I’m experiencing now.
Everyone is staring, whispering, and speculating about me. As soon as I stepped foot on campus this morning, it started. Girls were looking at me with jealousy in their eyes, and men were looking at me like they had never seen me before.
It’s insane. If I didn’t know better, I would think Kyle did something, but I know it’s because of Wyatt.
It’s only Monday morning, less than seventy-two hours since he claimed me in front of a house party full of people, and now it’s like I’m the “it girl” on campus.
Again, it’s wild.
Avoiding everyone, I look down at my phone to check the time. As soon as my screen lights up, I bite back a smile.
