Page 64 of The Penalty

“I’m fine. You know I’m pretty tired, and I’ve got early practice tomorrow. I should probably go to bed.”

I drop my head into my hands, avoiding looking at her. Seeing her again when she looks like that won’t help. I can’t resist her ever, but especially not like this.

“Oh. Okay. I thought. Fine. Yeah, we’ll go to bed. I’m tired too.”

I can hear the soft thuds of her feet on the carpet as she walks to the bathroom, but I don’t look up. Instead, I slip under the thick duvet on her bed, dropping an exhausted head on her pillow.

When she returns, she slides in beside me, but I feign sleep. Because if I open my eyes. If I see her all soft and sexy. If she slips in beside me and snuggles up, I know I’ll be lost.

Chapter 21

The Three C's

Cece

We’re only a fewdays away from my favorite holiday of the year. Not everyone considers Halloween to be a holiday, but you’ll bring me over to the dark side. Cosplay is life for me, so I think it follows that the one day a year that even the masses wear costumes is a cause for celebration. Usually, it’s just the cosplay crowd.

The details of what I’m going to wear are running through my head as I idly chew on the end of my pen.

“Miss Whitaker.”

Startled out of my reverie, I look up to spot my TA staring down at me. She’s only a few years older than me as a grad student, but she’s got her shiny blonde hair pulled back in a tidy bun, and she’s wearing a button up blue blouse. It’s probably an attempt to deter her students from asking her out because she would be considered a hottie. And some of the college guys arepretty gross. Being last named by someone so close to my age is weird, though.

“Yes.” There’s a nervous lump forming in my throat. The look in her eyes tells me she feels bad for me, which means this isn’t a pleasure visit.

“We need to talk about your grade on the last assignment.”

Right, I was so busy with Dev, and all the drama I didn’t have as much time to spend on it as I should have. It wasn’t my best work, but I didn’t think it was an F or anything. The look on her face tells me otherwise.

“What about it?”

Her eyes shift away from mine. “It would be better for you to come to my office. I’ve got office hours from one to three today. Can you stop by then?”

Great. Now I’m going to be stressed about this all through lunch.

“Sure. Can I ask...”

She nods. “We’ll talk later.”

Awesome. If I fail this class, I might not be able to graduate at the end of the year. That’s unacceptable. I can’t be the one member of the Whitaker family that doesn’t finish college. What a nightmare.

The front door slams behind me as I rush in, carrying a heap of books in my arms.

“You got time to work on our little project tonight?”

I stumble, and the stack slips out of my arms, tumbling to the floor. “Fuck!” I screech, hopping on one foot. The corner of one particularly thick monster smashed my toes, and now there’s intense pain radiating down my foot.

I grab the injured foot, trying to rub the pain away while continuing my little hopping dance around our hallway.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. What are all these books for?”

“I can’t work on our project. I have to do an extra assignment for management to make up for bombing the last one.”

“Oh, that sucks. I’ve been messing around with some of the ideas for outfit designs, and I was hoping you could make them shine for me.”

Anna’s shouldering more of the writing side, while I’m carrying the heavier load on the drawing aspect of our book, so it’s turning out to be a fantastic partnership.

“I really can’t.” I hate talking about this stuff. Getting a B is considered failing in my family. Actually failing my last assignment with an overall grade hovering in the low Ds would be a complete disgrace. But Anna is not my dad or mom. She’s not my perfect brother. Because as much as he wouldn’t judge me for the grade, he’s never failed a class in his life.

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