Page 56 of Ink & Ambition

Dani peeks one eye open and sees her mug out of reach. “You’re a mean, cruel person, Margot Elaine.” I remain silent as she sighs and sits up. “Can you just read it to me? My brain isn’t firing on all cylinders this morning.”

“Absolutely not,” I say firmly, causing Danika to sit up a little straighter.

“Oh this is gonna be good,” she says, taking a fortifying sip of her coffee. She places the mug back down and cracks open my journal to the most recent page.

Immediately her jaw drops. It stays dropped as she continues reading. And then it drops more.

“You saucy minx!” She finally looks up at me and gives me a little smack in the arm. I know my face is as red as a tomato but I don’t shy away. “Well this one is super obvious, you don’t need me for this.” She hands me the notebook and grabs the mug from the table.

“I’ve never had a sex dream about two guys before.”

After taking a sip, she lowers her mug to her lap. “Have you ever had a sex dream about one guy?”

I think for a moment. “No.”

Danika shakes her head with a giggle. “Girly pop, you’ve got it bad. And now you’ve got a choice. The hottie you’re dating or the guy you’ve decided is yourfriend.” Danika adds air quotes around the word friend. I roll my eyes.

She puts the mug down and walks toward the bathroom, plopping onto the toilet. I follow her like a lost puppy. “Alexismy friend, nothing more.”

“Then the choice should be simple,” Danika replies easily. After washing up, she sticks her toothbrush in her mouth and hands mine to me. She tries to talk while we brush but she knows I can’t understand a word she says so I just ignore her, making sure I hit every nook and cranny of my mouth with the minty brush.

We both spit and Danika continues her monologue as if I could hear everything she had said. “There’s just something about Alex. He looks like he’d talk you through it, you know?”

“Oh my god, I’m going to my room. Goodbye, psycho.” I head back past the kitchen, grabbing my backpack off the island stool.

“Hey!” she laughs from behind me. “You asked for my advice!”

“I take it back!” I call before shutting my door and welcoming the quiet. I can’t think about Ryan or Alex or anything elsebesides my psychology homework. And for the next few hours, that’s what I do.

Swinging the lobby door open, I’m shocked to see Alex standing outside, leaning his body against his jeep. There’s an iced cup of coffee in his hand, the condensation leaking through his fingers.

“This is cold,” he whines like a child.

I take the coffee from his out-stretched hands. “How long have you been waiting here?” Wiping the excess condensation on my sweatshirt sleeve, I notice the ice is almost entirely melted.

“I figured you’d leave a little early to catch the bus so I wanted to beat you to the punch.” He shrugs nonchalantly.

I take a sip of the drink, the same I always get. “Thanks,” I grin and he opens my door before swinging around to get into the driver’s side.

“I owed you for the patch job last night,” Alex says as he pulls away from the curb. He holds up his hand to show a fresh bandage.

I laugh. “I’m surprised you remember that.”

“I remember everything,” he says quietly. The rest of the ride is a blur of familiar scenery as we quietly make our way to campus. Pulling into the fitness center lot, Alex parks as close to the media building as possible.

When he shuts off the engine, I move to open the door but am stopped by Alex’s hand on my leg.

“I’m sorry about last night. I acted like a caveman.”

I shrug. “You were drunk.”

“That’s no excuse.”

I pause for a moment. He’s right, it’s really not. But I didn’t expect him to own up to it like this. “You’re okay?” I ask, motioning to his hand.

“Yeah, I followed what you did yesterday with the cleaning and the ointment before putting on a fresh band-aid.” He waves his hand to show me and then places it right back down on my knee. “How was the rest of your night?”

“It was fine. Good, we just hung out.” I say casually, making an intentional decision not to tell him about the kiss with Ryan. And especially not tell him about the dream. He loosens his hand, and I take it as an all clear to leave the car and we do, gathering back together on the other side of the doors and walk toward the media building. Nathan had texted me that he was waiting in the studio so we walked right there so as to not lose any of our time.

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