Page 57 of Alive and Kicking
Reaching up, I grasp her wrist, rolling over in the bed to pull her in after me. She doesn’t put up a fight as I settle her into the bed beside me under the covers. “I’m just tired,” I tell her.
She hums in understanding and just lets me hold her. The scent of her fruity shampoo is soothing in a way I hadn’t realized before, even though I’ve never been a fan of sweet smells and usually go for more musky and earthy scents for myself.
Before my grandma died, she used to take me to a strawberry patch every summer where we would pick our own strawberries.We would spend the rest of the day after in the kitchen baking shortcakes for strawberry shortcake. The scent of her hair reminds me of that time in my life. And as I drift off to sleep I wonder if I could convince the others to go to a strawberry patch together. As a family.
I wake up warm and well rested. When I open my eyes I find Viv using my arm as a pillow, still asleep. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a good night’s rest. I’ve been running on fumes the last couple weeks.
Having a TA was supposed to lessen my workload, but he’s always asking for clarification on this or that. He keeps giving me run throughs on his study groups and complaining that some students decided not to sign up. He’s even mentioned Viv on more than one occasion and it’s starting to make me feel uncomfortable. While she hasn’t complained to me directly, the fact that she dislikes him is not a well kept secret.
Besides, Viv isn’t really a group study type of person. She likes to study independently or in a small group with the other guys and Sandy. I’ll have to make sure she isn’t struggling too hard with all the stress of her family and school work. My alarm goes off and Viv jerks upright in bed like someone has invaded the country starting with my bedroom. She rubs her eyes and looks over at me with her brows pinched together. “Why am I in here?”
I grin. “You brought me my bag and then I bored you to sleep.”
Her eyes widen and a blush tints her cheeks. I’m not sure what I did to make her blush like that, but she starts mutteringabout something not being fair. She stretches her arms above her head, the hem of her shirt rising to show off a couple inches of skin. She stands, and I realize she was wearing her jeans still when I pulled her into bed. How did she fall asleep like that? At least my slacks are stretchy.
She see’s the clock on the wall and frowns. “Why didn’t Sloane get me up for the gym? Also, who keeps a clock on their bedroom wall?”
“Leave my clock alone, it was made by my great-great-grandfather.” Her mouth forms a small ‘o’ before I continue, “And Sloane probably didn’t want to come in here and chance getting stabbed or shot.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “I’ve only attempted to stab someone when they woke me up. Nox said no shooting in the house.”
I sit up. “I wasn’t talking about you shooting him. I’m not a morning person.” I sigh, realizing she’s taking me seriously. “I wouldn’t actually shoot someone for waking me up. That was a joke.”
Her brows crinkle. “I don’t get it.”
Another sigh leaves me. “I didn’t think you would. Now go get ready for class, you don’t want to be late.”
She stands in front of the door wringing her hands together, and after a moment I finally break. “What?” I ask.
“I was just wondering if it would be okay… Umm, If I could have a kiss?” she says finally, avoiding eye contact.
I stand from the bed in one fluid motion and stalk after her. Her eyes connect with me and she watches as I approach. When I reach her, my hand cups the back of her head. Since she was such a good girl and asked nicely, I have no problem giving her what she wants.
When my lips meet hers she relaxes, allowing her weight to fall into my arms. I kiss her gently at first, like she might break,but then I scoop her up and brace her back against the door. Her legs wind around my waist automatically and her arms wrap around my neck as I nip at her bottom lip. The moment she starts to dip her fingers into the opening of my shirt, I pull away, and she grumbles out a displeased sound when I place her back on her feet.
I open the door for her. “Have a good morning, princess.”
She leaves the room almost like she’s in a daze, and I have to close the door behind her, leaning my weight against the wood to keep myself from following. This whole being involved with a student thing is a slippery slope, and I’m pretty sure I’m making the decline at a steady pace. Fuck. The fact I’m even thinking this way just proves I’ve already hit the ground, penetrated through the earth’s crust and am well on my way to hell.
Viviana
After weeks of cramming my brain full of information, I’m spent and truly exhausted. Zane, Sloane, Sandy and I met every free chance we could to study like our lives depended on it. I’m ready for summer already and I still have an entire semester to finish before then. Even after exams I’ve been too stressed waiting for grades to come out to get any good sleep.
It’s the moment of truth. I’m sitting in criminology class Monday morning while Cain passes out our graded exams. When he places mine on my desk, I receive a little smile and look down to see the number ninety-one written in red ink on the top right corner of the page. I could have done better, but with all the stress I’ve been dealing with lately I’m just glad I still got an A. We’ve actually learned a lot of interesting stuff this semester and I’m just glad that I’m taking an extra criminology class this year, since I only took one last year.
When Cain dismisses us, I head toward the quad. Usually I’d sit and study between classes but today Sandy’s sorority is having a bake sale. She got approval for her sustainability project and now they’re just working on raising the money needed for it.
I find Zane waiting for me in front of the building and we walk over to the bake sale together. He reaches over to grab my hand and I catch him looking around before he tries to pull his hand away like he’s worried someone could be watching us. I just hold on tighter. When he looks over at me, I shrug. “I don’t care who sees. I’ll stab someone before I change how I act with you. Fuck what everyone else thinks about us.”
Zane pulls me closer and wraps his arm around my shoulders as we continue to walk. “It’s so hot when you threaten to stab people.”
I lean into him. All this has been hard on him and Sloane too. People have been calling me the worst names, but neither of them are getting away unscathed. After Nox got the posts taken down, I overheard him telling Cain about the comments that had been left on them. I’d been called everything from a harlot to a whore. Then Zane and I had a conversation that Nox was very uncomfortable with while Sloane just laughed at the whole situation. Nox had to explain, in detail, why people were calling Sloane and Zane cucks and how it could be considered an insult.
All that really did was confuse me and give Zane some ideas which he whispered to me while he fucked me that night. I’ve had fantasies about having Cain tied to a chair in the corner and being forced to watch while I have my way with each of the other guys since. Zane and I are pretty sure that we could take him down and get him tied up, we’re just still considering the ethics of something like that. Consent is the real sticking point, though. I might just have to challenge him to a contest again and make that my reward.
“…narrowed down a few leads. We’ll probably be able to move in this summer and get the problem taken care of.” Zane has obviously been talking for awhile while I’ve been daydreaming.
“Move in on what?”
