Page 80 of Ancient History

“Come on. It’s on the way.”

“It’s actually not. It’s actually completely in the opposite direction of school.”

“We live in a small town. Nothing’s ever that far.”

I rolled my eyes. I loved Everett dearly, but he could be a small doses kind of guy, especially when he was craving coffee.

“I would. You know I would, but we’re going to be late.”

“That’s not my fault. I was ready. You were the one who was tardy for the party,” he said.

Damn me and my punctuality. A smile crested on my lips as I thought about why I was late. But I wasn’t ready to share it with my friends. I was still processing the past twenty-four hours and didn’t need Everett to condense it down into a pithy, sassy comment.

“I got a late start. Had trouble sleeping.”

Everett studied me for a moment, and I got very still, waiting for him to call bullshit.

“You feeling okay?” His brow creased with unexpected concern.

“Yeah. Just one of those nights.” I shrugged, willing him to drop it.

He relaxed back in his seat and checked his phone. Crisis averted.

My sugar rush dropped precipitously. I needed a coffee pick-me-up soon, even if it was gross teachers lounge coffee.

“So what’d you do last night?” he asked.

“Nothing. It was a weeknight. I graded papers.” I breathed slowly and kept my eyes on the road. I was not a fan of lying, but I didn’t want Everett to turn last night into a whole thing.

“Yeah. You’re right. My night was also–”

“Incoming text message.” The monotone, vaguely feminine, Alexa-esque voice of my car’s text-to-voice system came on the speakers. “From Hutch.”

My eyes darted directly out of my skull. I reached for my phone, but it was in my pocket, and I was wearing fitted pants. I wouldn’t fish it out without hitting a telephone pole. Maybe that was best.

“Are you just going to hit it and quit it?” the robotic voice read out. “No morning sex?”

Everett was eerily silent. I glanced over and witnessed the most slaphappy, giddy expression lighting up his face. Technology was going to ruin my life.

“That’s not what you think…” I started before being overtaken by the voice again.

“Incoming text message from Hutch.”

I jammed my fingers at the touch screen hoping to hit something that would make her shut the fuck up. Of course we were hitting all green lights this morning so I had no chance to stop. My fingers smeared over the screen, but I only managed to turn up the volume.

“I can’t stop thinking about last night,” the voice read aloud—very aloud. “I want to be inside you again. Peach emoji. Eggplant emoji.”

Everett’s hands were clapped over his face, tears of joyous laughter raining down his face.

I wanted to die…but I was also really turned on by that message, making my tight pants even tighter.

“Don’t. Say. A. Word,” I growled out to Everett.

He held up his hands silently.

“Because I know you want to say something. You’re dying to say something. But because you’re my friend, you won’t say anything, right?”

He mimed zipping his mouth shut.

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