Page 81 of Pucking Grey

“Okay,” she jokes. “Pick up your jaw now.”

I touch my jaw to make sure it’s not on the floor.

“Tell me why you’re here. Did my brother put you up to this?” She points at me, vividly suspicious.

I shake my head. “I came willingly. It was my own idea.”

“Why didn’t you answer Ace’s call?”

I laugh. “You were calling me from Ace’s phone?”

“Maybe,” she smiles.

“I didn’t want to hear about the party, so I didn’t answer. But how is it?” Our eyes connect, and my heart is still hammering in my fucking chest. I am doing all that I can to not visualize my fingers in her hair and on her hips. “The party?”

“The record was set straight, thanks to Ace. He’s a good one to have on your side. Crew mentioned last night about Poppy, you, and the stairs. Not in that order. But it definitely made me think our text messages. You know… the one about our deal being broken.”

I stare at her, unable to find words.

She continues, “Matt reiterated that same story. But Ace was there and thank God he was because he knows you the best. I had to tell Matt that I’m completely done. Again. And it’s so ridiculous because Crew was asking me why didn’t I just tell Matt that in the first place. Nobody seems to believe that I’ve told the guy a million times and he keeps trying. And then I’m overthinking about you and Poppy because, like I said, our text messages. I don’t come home for one night and you’re so quick to run out and get laid. So, what actually did happen with you, Poppy, and the stairs?”

She’s nervous. Her hand gestures are all over the place. I think I hear her voice tremble. And the rambling. It’s cute as can be. Too bad it’s about a rumor.

“Do you care if something happened with Poppy?” I ask, needing to know where she stands with this.

She inhales and her shoulders tense. That’s all the confirmation I need to know that she does care. But for one reason or another, it’s not enough. I need to hear her admit it.

“I care about the truth.” She nods, happy with that answer.

I plant my feet where I am, even though I am so fucking tempted to walk over to her and brush my fingers through her beautiful hair out of her face.

“You think I broke the deal we had?” I ask.

She licks her lips, and I wish she wouldn’t. I stare at them, needing to know what her pretty mouth is about to say.

“I thinkIbroke the deal, and you felt free.”

I scoff, not meaning to. I probably look like an asshole. But she thinks she set me free? It’s been quite the fucking opposite. I’ve been torn in a way I’ve never been before when she ghosted me. I say, “We had a good time the night before, and then you disappeared on me. What happened?”

“My eyebrow lady was sick with the flu, and then I had to take the only open option, which happened to be someone from campus, so she was very inexperienced. I looked like I had two tattoos for eyebrows, and I could not let you see me like that.”

I look at her eyebrows now and she covers them with both of her palms.

“Why?” I ask with a smile. “Why couldn’t you let me see you with two black eyebrows?”

She’s turning red. “Because… it looked so bad. I have pictures of what they looked like at first. It was worse than they are now, but I don’t want to show you the pictures. I’ve been scrubbing them every day and night to lighten them. It has finally lightened.”

“Okay, so you kept ghosting me because of your eyebrows?”

She huffs in frustration. “I heard you hooked up with Poppy. I can’t freaking compete with Poppy, are you kidding me? Her hazel eyes are so pretty and the makeup she does. She’s really good at it. Maybe she would make a good brow artist. And plus, the cool clothes that look so good on her. I cannot blame you for wanting someone like her.”

I gulp down my pride before it stops me from what I’m about to say.

Instead, she keeps rambling, “And it’s fine, you know, if you actually did sleep with her last night because I know you’ve said a dozen times that you would never have sex with me. You probably needed that because I’m not someone you’re into, so –”

“Wait, wait,” I cut her off, and she’s dead silent staring at me with big eyes. “Before you go on. I did not sleep with Poppy.”

She exhales. “Okay.” She nods. “I figured that because of what Ace said earlier. But you had me questioning it again. Don’t do that to me.”

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