Page 94 of Out of Bounds

"They give you nicknames?" I snickered.

"Laugh all you want, at least I can get laid." Elijah leaned back against the door. "You on the other hand? Marked goods."

I frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"You don’t know?"

"Knowwhat?"

"What’s your body count for the semester?" Elijah smirked. "Let me guess. It’s only been Ryan. If you’re looking to break up with him, you’ll have to be cool with your vibrator because no one’s going to try it."

What the hell is he talking about?

"Don’t be gross, Elijah. And Kass, don’t encourage him." Zariah dug her first aid kit out of her nightstand and shoved it at Elijah, motioning him off the door again. "He’s just being stupid and looking for attention."

"I know something you two don’t," Elijah guffawed.

"Is it really Ruthless?" I asked, leaning up on my elbows. "After all the fights, shouldn’t they call you Toothless?"

"Kassie, is it really Four-A-Cross?" he taunted. "What kind of lame shit is that?"

The smile disappeared off my face and I threw up my middle finger before Zariah slammed the door in his face, turning back to finish scouring in the closet. My roommate was incredibly protective over her brother but I couldn’t deny it, it was nice to see her shutting the door on his bullshit.

"Okay, so, what’s the problem?" Zariah pressed, once we heard the front door close again.

"The contract that specifically says I can’t suck the soul out of his dick."

Humming under her breath, Zariah pulled out a few dresses and draped them over my bed. "I like him. When he comes over, he repairs things. Our fridge has a working ice dispenser again! If you fuck him, he might fix the elevator."

"Oh my god, Z. This isn’t porn. I’m not paying him in blowjobs."

"But just think…a better elevator…"

I rubbed my temples. "Z, I’m worried this’ll make things weird. What if he doesn’t—I don’t know—he’s got a lot more to lose than I do. What if I make a pass at him and he doesn’t feel the same? That’d ruin everything."

"Oh. Yeah, it would."

I turned to face her, exasperated, but Zariah kept taking things out of her closet, still talking.

"My hotel manager’s thirty-eight, going through a divorce, and he texted me some stuff about how he wanted to service my room with a bunch of eggplant emojis." Zariah shuddered. "Now we have to do mediated sexual harassment training. It took my Thursday mornings away!"

"Z."

She glanced back. "Yeah?"

"So I’m the divorced thirty-eight year old with eggplant emojis?"

A laugh burst out of her and she offered an apologetic smile. "Sorry. First thing I thought of."

"You’re a sophomore, why am I listening to you?" I muttered, squeezing my eyes shut. "This is crazy but yesterday, Ryan took this video for me. A campus squirrel got close to him and he started jogging after it to take a video. But he couldn’t figure out how to flip the camera on his phone so—" I pulled up the video. "It’s him sprinting after a squirrel, asking if I can use this for an art reference."

"Can you…use that as a reference?"

"No, it’s completely unusable." I sighed, gazing at my phone. "It’s so sweet, I want to suck his dick."

"Kass."

"Hm?"

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