Page 15 of Out of Bounds

"What’sthis?"

"What’s what?"

"The…I thought…the dinner?" Zariah glanced back and forth between the two of us while I shoved the pencil into my sharpener. She kept her voice as low as she could. "Kass…did you just…eye-fuck him?!"

"Did Iwhat?"

"And he’s…is he eye-fuckingyou?" Zariah had the most incredulous look on her face. "Whatisthis?"

"Would you relax?" I hissed, trying to avoid the flush creeping up my neck.

"You did that inpublic?In front ofme?"

"Zariah—"

"Are you serious? You could've gotten that poor man pregnant. It feels like I’ve got to put a sweater on and—"

"Zariah." Mr. Ishisaka’s small voice carried over the classroom and pencils stopped scribbling long enough to get everyone’s attention. "Are we finished early?"

"Um…no."

"Then I suggest…" He clapped his hands, and all attention returned to our drawings, the seconds counting down.

It wasn’t fast enough, but once the modeling session was done, Ryan offered his goodbyes to our grateful professor and nodded once at me.

Zariah and I were close to the stage. I had zero clue if my roommate's whispers had carried up. All I knew was that I had a blessed thirty-five minutes left, where all I needed to focus on was carefully copying notes.

Until that ran out.

"Do you think he’s still outside?" Zariah craned her neck, humming under her breath.

"I know he is."

"I’m going to go talk to him."

"What?" I struggled to pile everything in my backpack while Zariah zipped around everybody else filing out of class. I booked it to the door just in time to see her shaking hands with a bemused Ryan.

"Zariah Contractor, witness to the unspoken attraction between you two."

Oh my god.

"Contractor?" Ryan raised an eyebrow. "Like—?"

"Yes, I'm Elijah Contractor's sister. Don’t hold the hockey team’s problems against me."

I grabbed her backpack and hauled her away. "Don’t you have class to be late for?"

Pointing down the hallway, I tried to ignore Ryan behind me. Which was damn near impossible but I’d seen two seconds of that smirk. It was all I had the patience for.

"Fine, I’m going." Zariah walked down the hallway, hands shoved in her pockets. "Love you, Kass!"

I waved her away and turned back to Ryan. I hesitated. "So…this meeting."

"We’re going."

"No, I know." And I was seriously regretting that decision. "Later, I’ve got class—"

"Now." Ryan left no room for argument.

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