Page 50 of Ink & Ambition

Kai scoffs, “Yeah, man, I’m fine. Why?” He drops his laptop on the coffee table before getting up from the couch. I follow as he walks into the kitchen and opens a beer. He offers me one, but I shake my head.

“You just seem off. You’ve seemed off for a while, actually,” I say, leaning back against the sink and crossing my arms.

Kai thinks for a minute as he takes a sip of his beer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says, pursing his lips. “Just got a lot of classes, I guess. Busy.” Kai shrugs and walks out of the room and up the stairs to his bedroom. I should keep trying to get to the bottom of this, but if he doesn’t want to tell me, then there’s really nothing more I can do.

Instead of harping on it, I pull out my phone and check the clock for the hundredth time. When I do, I’m pleasantly surprised to see a text from Margot. It must’ve come in while I was talking to Kai. Eagerly, I open the message, hoping for some kind of “SOS” or “Save me from this disaster” or anything that can get me to stop thinking about Ryan’s hand on her back.

I think we need to replan our script for Saturday. Are you free to meet tomorrow?

I pull the phone back and look at the time again. It’s half past ten and she’s…texting me? What happened to Ryan? Don’t ask. Don’t ask.Don’t ask.

Why are you texting me while you're on a date?

I'm not on a date anymore. Ryan dropped me home fifteen minutes ago

If she were on a date with me, we certainly wouldn’t be home before midnight. Well, unless we were hometogether. She also wouldn’t be texting other guys right after. She’d have no reason to.

That bad, huh?

What? No, the date was fine. I just have early classes tomorrow

Just fine, huh?

Believe it or not, it's actually none of your business

Isn't this the kind of thing friends talk about? Dating and relationships and shit?

…

You seriously want to hear about my date with Ryan?

No. Yes.

Fuck.

Let's meet Friday afternoon. We'll rewrite the script and you can tell me all about Rowdy Ryan and your Really Hot Date, ok?

Those three little grey dots appear and disappear for a few minutes before her reply comes in.

Fine. Cafe Royale. 3pm

I send her a kissy face back that I know she rolls her eyes at. I have no idea why I decided that I want to hear about her date with Ryan when in fact, it’s probably the very last thing on this Earth that I want to hear.

I can’t help but feel better though. There’s no way she had that good of a time and then went home at a reasonable hour. But she is very practical…

I shake my head to get the thoughts out. Margot is my friend. That’s it.

That.

Is.

It.

While I’m used to people looking my way when I walk by, even I can’t get used to the attention on campus. By Friday morning, everyone and their mother had seen the first episode of the podcast and my phone was blowing up with texts about it. Some from my friends and brothers ribbing me about it and others from random girls–how they got my phone number, I’ll never know–asking if we could…well, you know. While I’ve never been one to shy away from attention, this has been a little too much, even for me.

“Alex.” I hear a voice call my name and thankfully it’s a familiar one. As I turn, I see Gia walking up the quad path toward me. She gives me a smile and wave, which I return as I wait for her to catch up to me.

“Hey, G,” I say as she walks to my side. Together, we head toward the library where I’m meeting Keith and Devon before our next class.

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