Page 36 of The Fake
Monday,late morning between classes, I drop onto the couch in the living room. Shaw tosses me a remote without asking and restarts Tecmo Super Bowl.
“Where were you last night?”
“With Chloe.”
He nods. “You missed a crazy night at the baseball house. Jefferson bought four boxes of wine.” Shaw shakes his head. “I had the mother of all headaches this morning. Cheap wine hangover is rough.”
“Yeah,” I agree, feigning interest, but in truth, a night out getting wasted with my buddies doesn’t have quite the same appeal anymore.
I side-eye him as I select the Raiders, and he picks the 49ers.
“Get the fuck out of here, you can’t play the 49ers.” The old video game was made with a clear bias. 49ers are unbeatable.
He grumbles but picks the Giants. “You and Chloe, huh? She seems cool.”
“She is.”
“Think she’d put in a good word for me with Sydney?”
I chuckle. I’m just as likely to need him to put in a good word for me, but obviously, I can’t tell him that so I keep my mouth shut as we play three games only opening it to trash talk him when I kick his ass all three times.
I glance up at the clock in the living room, and Shaw catches me and stands up quickly. “Shit, we’re gonna be late to Comm.”
“I’m thinking of skipping.”
Alright, so I’m a pussy. I don’t want to face Chloe. I’m not embarrassed about wanting her… I mean, who wouldn’t? But it’s hard to keep my brain… and my dick… in check when we go from rubbing up on each other in front of her roommates to her running away from me when we’re alone. After our time at the gym together and then last night… I guess I thought there were some real feelings there. Guess just on my part.
I know it seems like it’d be easy to remember she’s paying me to pretend to like her, but I try and block that detail out as much as possible.
She doesn’t like you like that, asswipe.Or maybe she does, but the way she catapulted herself out of reach last night just as I was about to kiss her—she’s not giving in to any baser-level instincts.
“Yeah?” Shaw nods and stands there thoughtfully. “Maybe I’ll blow off my afternoon classes, too. I mean, if the captain of the basketball team can….” He shrugs with an annoying smirk.
“Fuck,” I say, but I stand and grab my backpack to head out.
We get to class a couple of minutes late, and I slip into the seat next to Chloe with a small smile in place. She scribbles onto her notepad and then angles it toward me.
Slacker
I take out a pen from the side pocket of my backpack.
Surfer Princess
Her face lights up and all that coaching I did on the way over about remembering my place and not getting in too deep goes right out the window. I proceed to draw an exaggerated sketch of her catching a wave.
She lifts a brow at the finished piece and writes,That’s not anatomically correct.
Okay, so I made her boobs a little—a lot—bigger. It’s art; a guy can dream.
You wanna work on the project tonight?
I hesitate with my answer, but I guess I’m a glutton for punishment.Sounds good.
* * *
After weightlifting, I head back to the house to shower and get ready for my study sesh with Chloe. I strip off my sweaty clothes and turn the shower on to let it warm up. While I wait, I scroll through my phone then say fuck it and pull up porn.
I’m not usually picky and will click on whatever the top trending videos are. Sex in just about any format does it for me. Today I’m looking for something specific. Or rather I’m excluding something specific. No blondes. No green eyes. Nothing that reminds me of Chloe.
