Page 254 of Ruin Me Gently

My phone buzzed from the cluttered nightstand.

Katie.

I left it to vibrate against the wood, shoving another bite of pizza into my mouth like I hadn’t seen the screen light up.

Finn glanced over, raising an eyebrow. “Dude, seriously? You just gonna keep ignoring that?”

I chewed slower, shaking my head. “It’s just Katie. She won’t let me breathe, man. I need a minute.”

The buzzing stopped—only to start again, this time with a voicemail notification popping up.

Finn watched me, waiting for some kind of reaction, but I just shrugged.

“She’s nice,” I muttered. “But… I dunno man. It’s a lot. She keeps calling, checking in, asking where I am, who I’m with. Every time I don’t answer, there’s a text. Or another call. She told me she loved me last week, and I—” I blew out a heavy breath, running a hand through my hair. “I wasn’t expecting it. This was supposed to be fun, you know?”

Finn snorted. “So tell her to back off. It’s not like you’re married.”

“Yeah, I know. I just—” My phone buzzed again, and I groaned. “I don’t wanna be a dick. She’s sweet. I don’t wanna make her feel like shit.”

Finn leaned back, tossing a crust at me.

“Sounds like she’s makingyoufeel like shit,” another voice chimed in.

I glanced over to Mia. She sat cross-legged on the floor, textbook in her lap, highlighter cap between her teeth. She was the mirror of Finn in every way. Same eyes, same sandy hair. But she wasn’t loud, she was quiet and sharp, like she saw too much and was filing it all away for later.

“Yeah, I actually kind of agree with her for once even though she’s dumb as shit.” Finn said.

“Oh, bite me, asshole.”

“You’d cry.”

“Try me.”

They bickered like that for another minute or so—Finn flinging insults with his mouth full, Mia firing back without even looking up from her notes.

Then the door banged open.

“Ori!” Mia squealed.

“Jesus,” I muttered, dragging a hand down my face. “How many more of you are gonna cram in here? Gonna start charging rent soon.”

The room was too damn small for this many people. Too warm. Too loud. Too… much.

Finn groaned around another mouthful of pizza. “Oh, fucking gross.”

I didn’t even have to look to know what he was reacting to. Orion’s long, slightly greasy black hair flopped over their faces as he grabbed Mia by the cheeks and kissed her like he was trying to suck the soul out of her.

Finn muttered something under his breath, cramming another slice into his face like it might erase what he’d just seen.

Orion finally pulled back, still cupping Mia’s face, both of them grinning. “What’s going on in here?”

Finn snorted. “Talking about Katie.”

“Oh,” Orion drawled, flopping onto the end of Finn’s bed. “Is that still going on?”

Mia leaned forward, rolling her eyes. “Yes. And I think he needs to cut it off now.”

“Yeah,” Orion agreed. “You should.”

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