Page 104 of Out of Bounds

I'd never seen that side of King. Every time he tried to explain something, the worse he sounded. I struggled to reassure him. "I didn't mean to…I'm sorry, King—"

My phone buzzed and we both glanced down at it. Pure relief broke on King's face. "You have to take that."

"Wait—King—"

But King was already gone. Oh, god. I’d have to talk to Ryan about that later. I checked the caller ID, halfway hoping it was Ryan, looking for an excuse to escape the donors.

ZARIAH

MOBILE

Confused, I answered the call. "Z?"

"Fuck me sideways, they turned me away at the door!"

"Who did?"

"I tried to sneak into the alumni night!" Zariah sucked in a breath. "Oh my god, I’m glad you picked up. I almost scaled the roof."

"What’s going on? Did you lock yourself out again?"

"I know so many RAs now, fuck that—Kassie! Are you next to Ryan? Like right now?!"

"No." I stole a look at the windows and my lips quirked up for a smile. He was still shackled to the donors, yapping his ear off. I couldn’t wait until he walked outside. "He’s getting us drinks. Ryan candance, Z. Can you believe it?"

"He doesn’t want to fuck!"

I snapped out of the daydreams and stared off at the gardens. "What?"

"Girl, you are the single inhabitant of the friend zone! No one else is paying the friend zone bills on your block! Don’t shoot your shot! Don’t fire our repairman!"

"I don’t…?" I blinked. "Z, there’s no way. How’d you find out?"

"Iaskedhim!"

"You didn’t."

"I wanted to find out before you got hurt!"

My stomach twisted uncomfortably, and I paced back to the door and double-backed, wearing into the patio with my heels. "You don’t understand, he just kissed me. Like…a gravity-defying kiss."

"In front of thecameras?"

"I mean…"

"Kass, were there cameras? Seriously, girl, I asked him. Flat out."

Heat rose to my face. Oh my god, that was for the cameras. How could I be so stupid? I’d underestimated how well the team captain could perform in front of an audience multiple times. The blush deepened.

"Oh my god. No," I whispered.

"Yes!"

I stumbled on the heels and rightened myself, still pacing. "What do I do?"

"Just play it cool!"

"I don’t know if I can," I admitted. "Um—okay, I’m going to tell him, I’m sick, right? And then—and then—I’m coming home. Right now. We took our photos, I am clockingout."

---