Page 234 of Out of Bounds

I put my hand on her knee and ran my hand over her thigh while she nodded to the phone. The sound of the phone call eased up as I stared off at the van’s side. I earned her smiles. Getting Kassie to come with me was an entirely different obstacle.

But how do I leave her behind?

“They emailed me this morning,” Kassie sighed, her voice low while the hold music played over her phone again. “They wanted to reschedule, thirty minutes ago.”

Oh, fuck.

If she would’ve seen the email instead of me pushing her out of bed, she would’ve made it. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the side of the van while we finally drove away from the zoo.

How do I convince her to stay?

I slipped out my phone too and typed the name into the search bar immediately. Kassie needed to know I was serious. I typed up everything I needed and put in the credit card information from memory.

“Ryan?” Kassie whispered. She leaned against me and her dark hair cascaded over my shoulder. Her dark eyes lifted to mine. A small smile crossed her lips. “I love you too.”

For how long?

95

Kassie

Bluetooth Speaker Connections

When we made it into the actual playoffs, the entire campus was washed in dark blue jerseys. I literally couldn’t walk anywhere without seeing a Four-A-Cross hat or a Marrs Manwhore hoodie or one of those huge Roman helmets that people converted into beer guzzlers. And for the first time in my life, I was actually excited too.

"So, what you’re saying is that Ican’tgo to the ceremony?" Zariah took a long look between June and I, her eyebrows raised.

"You have to be football-affiliated," June pointed out.

"Just ask Adam to be your date." I nudged her shoulder. "You can come party with us. Every time they run one of these events, it’s open bar."

The ceremony at the end of the semester was in the first week of December and we were all expected to show up, dressed to thenines. The Birchwood Bowl wasn’t until January so it was the nice send-off before Christmas break.

Zariah looked rueful and pushed open the door to Roman Forest. "I wish hockey had stuff like that."

"They’d have to actually win games for that to happen, Z."

At the other side, June burst into giggles but Zariah gave me an unamused look. Reluctantly, she conceded with a shrug. "Okay. Look. You’re notwrong…"

"Kassie Ragar?"

I grimaced before I even saw who it was but my shoulders relaxed when I recognized the desk assistant, who started piling packages on the counter. He held them out and the postal addresses confirmed they were for me.

Packages that clearly looked like they were tampered with.

"Uh…okay?" I picked up the first box. "What is this?"

"Oh my god, it’s the makeup." Zariah laughed and held up one of the boxes, showing off a brand new bottle of the exact makeup that had shocked Ryan with its expiration date.

"You needed all of this?" June asked, mystified.

I popped open one of the boxes with a pair of scissors and pulled out a bottle of shimmering body oil, four bottles altogether. And another one. And another one underneath the packaging. I couldn’t keep in the laughter. "Uh…you know what? The thought was there!"

"Kass, do youneedfive bottles of body oil?"

"Seven," I corrected her, shaking the box. With a grin at the girls, I shook it again. "Does he really think I’m going to use this all up beforeitexpires?"

June hummed under her breath. "I don’t think Ryan’s ever thought about makeup for more than five seconds."

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