Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 48146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 241(@200wpm)___ 193(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 241(@200wpm)___ 193(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
“Any regrets?” Leah asked.
“Not so far.” I sucked down more of my drink. “He’s not so bad once you get to know him. He actually has a sweet side to him.”
Lark stared at me. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve gotten him to watch anime and…” I almost told them about the facials, but Bones would kill me. “He can be fun to be around.”
“Well, this is a change of heart,” Leah said. “You complained about what a pain in the ass he was all last year.”
“He still is, but at least I know what to expect.”
“True,” Leah said. “My new roommate is uptight about me touching her stuff. I hope that’s not a preview of the rest of the year.”
“Jessilyn isn’t happy with her living arrangement either.”
“We might be escaping to your room more.”
“Fine by me.” Justin smiled. “Unless there’s a sock on the door handle. That’s the deal my roomie and I came up with.”
“Sheesh. I don’t feel so bad about living at home now,” Lark said, and we laughed.
“Maybe next year you can find something off-campus with Henry.”
He smiled wistfully. “Yeah, maybe.”
We talked about classes and school until Justin’s break was over.
Before Leah left, she agreed to meet me before the party, and then it was just Lark and me.
“Hey, has Henry ever told you anything about Bones’s family?”
Lark looked off in the distance as if trying to recall. “Just that he had an older brother he tries to emulate. Why?”
“He rarely talks about them, but the other night, when he’d had too much to drink, he spilled the beans for the first time.”
Lark’s eyebrows rose to his hairline. “Is that why you seem different about him?”
“What do you mean?”
“The stuff you told us about Bones having a sweeter side…you seem to have softened your stance on him.”
I lobbed my empty cup into the nearby receptacle. “I don’t know. I just think it’s better to be civil than to…”
“There’s nothing wrong with the two of you being friends. I might’ve thought he was a dick last year, but we’ve all gotten to know each other better.”
Last year, Bones would tease Lark about his childhood friendship with Henry. What he didn’t know was that they were both cancer survivors and were crushing on each other. Henry had kept it a secret, and it was affecting his health. But after confessing to his football buddies, things had changed for the better. They still acted like jerks sometimes, but they could be fun too.
“Guess you’re right. Maybe I have softened about Bones a little.”
“Is there something you’re not telling me?”
I averted my eyes. God, was I that easy to read? Maybe it was best to say it out loud. “Not really.” I cleared my throat. “Though he…he fell asleep in my bed last night.”
Lark’s eyes widened. “How did that happen?”
“We were having a Slay marathon. I tried waking him up, but his tired ass wasn’t having it. So I just turned over and went to sleep.”
“Oh, damn.” He smirked. “I can imagine his surprise, waking up in your bed this morning.”
I winced. “Yeah, it was awkward, but also not—in an I’m-a-straight-guy-let-me-prove-my-manhood way. He seemed almost…shy about it.”
“Interesting.” Lark’s eyes met mine. “You’re not crushing on him, are you?”
“Uh, no thanks. He’s like a big, playful puppy who steps in everything.”
Lark laughed. “True.”
“But it’s not a hardship spending time with him.” Admitting that made my hands feel clammy. “Not like it used to be.”
“If you say so.” We stood and headed to the door. “Keep me posted on that.”
4
BONES
“You going to the frat party?” I asked Emil.
“Uh-huh,” he replied, distracted by the dinging of the microwave. Ramen noodles were a staple in our room, and he apparently didn’t think they were done enough because he shoved the cup back inside and punched the buttons again.
“Maybe you’ll find a hookup tonight.” Ever since falling asleep in his bed last night, I was hyperfocused on how his body had felt beside mine and why I’d liked it so much. It made me curious about all sorts of things, and I couldn’t stop my lips from forming the words. “If you need the room, just shoot me a text as a heads-up.”
“I’ll just be hanging with my friends tonight.” He checked his reflection in the appliance door and fluffed his hair. He was always messing with it, running his fingers through it, and now I wondered if it was as soft as it looked. “Maybe you’ll be the one looking for an empty room.”
“You never know.” I shoved more clothes in my laundry bag. Hopefully, the washer would be free this afternoon, or I wouldn’t have anything to wear.
“Missed some stuff in the corner.” He motioned toward my socks and underwear. “You’d be terrible at basketball. You can’t even get your clothes in the hamper.”
“Sure I can.” I grabbed a balled-up sock and tossed it in the laundry basket I kept just inside the closet door. “I just like annoying you.”