Page 131 of Out of Bounds

There’s no way they’ll let him up.

"Fuck." I squeezed my eyes shut. "You need to wake up Zariah. Go to my dorm. Get my makeup."

"Is it…in a bag…? Where do you store makeup?"

Oh my god, this is not going to work.

I gripped him harder. "Don’t worry about it, just get Zariah. You can do this. I believe in you. I need you to get my setting powder and setting spray, my color corrector, I’ll need all my brushes—"

Ryan stared down at me. I’d never seen him so genuinely confused. “Color what?”

"Give me your phone." I took another look behind him to make sure Cleo and Miles weren’t investigating how we were doing. "Open up the notes app."

"I don’t have that app."

"Everybodyhas that app."

I started typing in everything I could think of, everything I could possibly need to make the hickeys and bite mark go the hell away. Ryan peered over my shoulder.

He nodded. "Look at that. You can just write things on there. That’s a good app."

"Some of the makeup labels are ripped." I tried to write down explanations but those weren’t Ryan-coded. We were running out of time. "Ryan, look at me. You need to go get my makeup and you need to get back here before they call us in."

Ryan nodded solemnly. "Got it."

"You can do this," I urged him. "You’ve got the ball and five seconds on the clock."

"Five seconds on the clock." He nodded to me and disappeared down the hallway. The moment he was gone, I breathed out a sigh of relief, but he reappeared just as quickly, long strides up to mine.

My eyebrows furrowed. "Did you forget something?"

"I just have one question."

"Uh-huh?"

Ryan shifted on his back leg. "Do you like me?"

"What?"

Of all the curveballs he could’ve thrown at me, that one left me stumped the most. Was Ryan serious? Yes. He was. Because the football player didn’t make jokes. I blinked at him ad a huge blush crossed my face. I’d never had a guy ask me something like that. Not once.

"I just—you just—" I sputtered. "On your couch—"

"But you can come on someone’s face and not like them," Ryan pointed out, unperturbed by the insanity of the conversation. "I want to know if you like me."

"Of course, I like you," I whispered, my face hot.

The boyish grin lifted his lips. "Okay. Awesome. I like you too."

"Would yougo get the makeup?!"

"Will do."

He dipped down and kissed me on the cheek. I couldn’t have said anything to him if I tried, I was an exhausted mess of embarrassment. Just as quickly, he turned around and made a line to the exit. I touched my cheek, watching him.

51

Ryan

---