Page 8 of The Off-Limits Play

“Did you come?” She glances over her shoulder, and I nod.

“Yeah, of course.”

“Oh good.” She grins, spinning back around and realigning her thong before throwing her tank top back on. Her bra is on the floor of the car, and I keep my eyes on it, not wanting to look at her face. “Well, thanks for the ride, McAvoy.”

Kissing my cheek, she climbs over me, opening the door and silently telling me to get out.

Whipping off the condom, I ball it into a tissue and climb out. My fly’s still undone, and I feel like a right whore as she locks her car and winks at me. “Until next time, stud.”

Pulling her miniskirt down, she struts back into Offside, her bra-less tits rocking. I lean against her Lexus, squeezing that wadded-up tissue and thinking,Her wink has nothing on Nylah’s.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I dip my chin and mumble a string of curses under my breath as I shuffle to my bike.

So much for release.

I feel worse than I did before I even got to Offside.

Maybe I should go home and study.

You really are at a low point if studying is looking more desirable than beer and sex.

And there goes the universe, laughing its ass off again.

CHAPTER3

NYLAH

The dining hall on the first floor of Buckley Hall is a cacophony of cutlery scraping on plates and indecipherable chatter. I poke at my scrambled eggs, glancing across the table at my roommate, Jolie. She’s doing the same, playing with her food rather than eating it, and I want to know what’s bothering her. But it’s not like we’re that close yet. She’s shy… almost hedgy. We’ve been living together for nearly two weeks, and even in that short space of time, I’ve seen a plethora of emotions.

The other night, she came home humming, fighting a grin and biting her lip. I asked her if she’d had a good night, and she just nodded at me, then took off for a shower.

Two days later, she walked in with a grumpy rain cloud over her head. Her mouth was set in a tight, scrunched line, but when I asked if she was okay, she just mumbled something I couldn’t hear and stormed back out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

And then the other night, I heard her crying after we’d turned the lights off. Now, this morning, she seems totally distracted.

“Hey, um…” I scoop up a forkful of eggs and smile at her. “What do you have going on today?”

She shrugs, tucking a lock of shoulder-length hair behind her ear and giving me a glum smile. “Just class. Boring. You know how it is.” She shrugs. “But I might have lunch with my cousin, Caroline, so… yeah…” Her eyebrows dip together, and now I can’t decide if lunch with Caroline is a good or a bad thing.

I smile, not sure what to say as I wonder if there’s a picture of her cousin on the wall in our room. She’s got this collage of images that must have taken her hours to put up there. I like it, though. It’s a fun pop of color in the room and tells me that Jolie comes from a happy, loving family the same way I do.

I should probably do something similar, but I’m trying to get a little distance from my family right now, and walking in to see their smiling faces every day might be a little too much.

Jolie drops her fork, giving up on breakfast and pushing the tray away from her.

Do I ask her what’s up or play it safe?

Play it safe. Ask her something generic!

“So… how’s it going with the school paper? Your article on the basketball team was so good. I love how you featured that player. What’s his name? Ben something?” I grin, trying to be encouraging. “Are you going to be doing a feature on any of the other players? Or has the editor given you something else to work on?”

Her shoulders ping straight, her skin blanching to a white so pale it makes her freckles glow.

“Oh.” My eyebrows shoot up. “Uh… did I miss something? Is it… not going well? Has he not given you something else?”

“It’s, um… yeah, it’s fine.” She swallows, and then her head starts bobbing. “It’s totally… fine. Fine, fine, fine.” She puts on a laugh that is so obviously fake I end up frowning at her. Her expression crumples for a second, and then she rises from her chair, grabbing her tray and muttering, “It’s gonna be fine.”

And then she walks away without even saying goodbye.

---