Page 68 of Out of Bounds

"What thefuck?" I demanded.

The shower knob was gone. The only thing left was a pressure balancing valve, moved simply by a pair of rusty pliers. A pair of rustypliers?What if someone dropped the pliers and Kassie scratched herself with them? I left the bathroom as soon as I stepped in, overwhelmed with the idea of Kassie gettinghurtinside her own dorm. Where I couldn’t keep an eye on her.

"Kassandra Rager," I breathed through my nose. "What were youthinking?"

Slowly, her eyes flashed between me and Zariah. "Did you…just call me Kassandra?"

"This is unacceptable." I strode up to her, and she watched me, surprised. "What if someone dropped them—what if you dropped them? What if youscratchedyourself with them? What if you got hurt?" I crossed the distance between us. I needed her to understand how serious this was. "In the shower, Kassie? Where you’re—"Naked. Completely fucking naked."—without clothes. Goddamn, what were youthinking?"

For once, she had nothing to say. In fact, the irritation swept away. Kassie gazed up at me. Quiet.

"I should’ve known about this before," I said. "You should’ve told me."

Her breathing slowed.

"I would’ve fixed this on the firstday," I finished, bringing the phone back to my ear. "Miles, we’re not doing this Sunday. We’ll start tomorrow. And I’ll be here tonight."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kassie break out of the frozen stature and grab her roommate, dragging her over to the bathroom.

"Just to be clear, I consider thisallyour fault."

"Girl, be realistic." Zariah sighed. "I’m tired of the pliers."

Kassie and Zariah continued bickering while I took a long look at the shopping list on the counter, next to Kassie’s sketchbook. Miles added to the list and I scribbled down the last of it, half-listening to the argument in the bathroom.

My girlfriend wouldn’t be living in a place like this. No fucking way.

"Because it’ll cost him money! That’s why!" I could hear Kassie snap.

"If he wants to blow a stack, let him! You’re barely in the dorm anyway!"

I focused on Miles, talking about the possible ways to fix the garbage disposal. My eyes wandered over to Kassie’ssketchbook, the only thing she would be taking because she couldn’t find the art history book.

A paper poked out from the others. I didn’t hesitate. I flipped it open.

Kassie.

She must’ve drawn it while looking at a mirror. The paper was covered in little sketches of Kassie trying out different expressions, scrawling notes in the corner. The one at the bottom was the one I focused on. It was Kassie with her hair down. It tumbled over her shoulder in dark waves. Her face was soft. Her lips parted. The description saidneutralbut my fingers curled into my palms, gazing down at it.

"Ryan?" Miles’s voice cut through the haze.

"Yeah?" I pulled the loose paper from the sketchbook and folded it, slipping it into my back pocket. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said I’m available tomorrow."

"Good to hear." I ended the phone call just as Kassie walked up to the kitchen counter. She wasn’t irritated anymore. Her eyes kept flickering back to me, reluctantly defeated in the fight against upgrading her dorm.

"Oh my god, Ryan." She frowned. "You have mybook."

Kassie was right. The one I’d passed over to Zariah to use as a clipboard was her art history book. "It was in the microwave."

"Christ," Kassie muttered, taking it from me. She held the front door open for me. And we did have to go.

"If there’s any more surprises, I want to hear them," I reminded her.

She didn’t say anything. In the elevator, Kassie rocked back on her sneakers. She stole a look at me and turned just as quickly when she saw me, gazing at her too.

"I have to pay for something,” she finally insisted. “I can’t let you pay for all of this.”

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