Page 20 of Faking the Play

I knew both guys by sight since they were on the football team, but I would’ve known who Otto was anyway. He had a…reputation with the women on campus, and it wasn’t a good one. As far as I knew, it was mostly him saying shit that he shouldn’t and just being a general narcissist who didn’t understand why every woman in the world wasn’t falling all over him.

Terrick saw us first and elbowed Otto who turned, his eyes going wide as he saw me and Ryan.

“Hey, guys,” Ryan said. “This is Amelia. She’s a psych major.”

“Nice to meet you.” Terrick sounded sincere enough, and he didn’t leer at me, which meant he either didn’t know about me, or he was a decent guy.

“How do you two know each other?” Otto asked.

It took him about half a second to start staring at my boobs.

“We grew up together, actually,” I said, finding my footing steady with Ryan holding my hand. “It’s been great reconnecting with them.”

“Is that what you’re doing?” Otto grinned at me, but there was nothing nice about his smile.

“And that’s your cue to get the hell out of my apartment.” Ethan suddenly showed up. “Let me walk you out, Otto, beforeyou end up in the hospital with a broken jaw and Coach is pissed.”

“Did you just threaten me?”

Otto glared at Ethan, and for a moment, I worried there was going to be a fight. Then, Logan appeared at Ethan’s side.

“Guess you aren’t as dumb as everyone says,” Logan said, his tone mild. “Now that we’ve got that covered, you need to go.”

Still fuming, Otto stalked off with Logan and Ethan following to make sure he really did leave.

“How about that drink now?” Ryan asked as he raised our joined hands and brushed a kiss across my knuckles.

A thrill skittered across my nerves as I nodded my answer.

I could’ve taken Otto’s words to heart, but having Ryan at my side, knowing Ethan had my back, and that Logan would too, made me strong enough to brush it off. And with every new conversation, every new person I met, I felt my confidence being built back up.

I lost track of time as we went from one group of people to another, the guys always somewhere talking about me. How they managed to do it without sounding like I’d hired a PR firm, I didn’t know, but people seemed to be listening. The alcohol probably helped with that.

It definitely helped Ethan convince me to play a version of Fuck, Marry, Kill that he apparently invented.

“It’s called what?”

He grinned at me, flashing those devastating dimples. “Flash, Kiss, Drink. If you’re picked, you either have to flash everyone, kiss the person who asked, or take a drink.”

“Why doesn’t it surprise me that you’d come up with a game like that.” I shook my head as he led me toward the hall. “You’re going to have people passed out all over your room.”

“We always have someone sober making sure things don’t go too far,” he assured me. “Now, let’s show everyone that even brainy girls can cut loose once in a while.”

Eight or nine people were already in his room, sitting wherever they could find room. The only free spaces were in the center of the floor and on his bed, and I had a pretty good idea of where he was going to go. As we sat on the bed, Ethan went around the room and introduced everyone. While I knew a few of them by sight, only two had shared classes with me that I remembered. Normally, that would have my stomach in knots, worrying about what I was going to say, but with Ethan next to me—and a bit of alcohol in me—I smiled at everyone and joined in the game.

“Since it’s my game and I’m host, I’ll start,” Ethan said. “And remember, everyone, you get one flash with underwear, and one chaste kiss. After that, it’s bare skin and tongue.”

A ripple of laughter went around the room as I held my breath, fully expecting him to pick me. Instead, he turned to the pretty blonde across from us.

“Felicity. Do you want Flash, Kiss, or Drink?”

She grinned. “If you’ve got ’em, flaunt ’em.” Going up on her knees, she lifted her shirt to flash a sheer pink bra. “My turn.” She scanned the group and pointed to a beefy guy sitting in Ethan’s desk chair. “Demo. Is it Flash, Kiss, or Drink?”

“Kiss.” He got out of the chair and came over to where Felicity was waiting. Bending down, he cupped the back of her head and gave her a thorough, definitely not chaste, kiss. When it was over, he went back to the chair and turned to the dark-haired girl perched on the edge of the desk. “Phoebe. Flash, Kiss, or Drink?”

The game continued on for several more rounds, during which I finished my beer after choosing Drink twice, and got a chaste kiss from Phoebe when I realized picking the same gender didn’t remove the Kiss option. We’d also made it through enoughpeople that we now had half a dozen undergarments in a pile in the middle of the floor and I’d seen more of Demo and Felicity than I wanted.

But we were having fun. No one was asking me about Professor Isenberg or those pictures. No one was asking if I’d cheated or slept my way into a job. And no one was leering at me like they were picturing me naked. Or treating me like a leper. I didn’t know if it was because these were the few people on campus who didn’t know about me, or if they’d heard what happened with Otto and figured it’d be better to play nice than get on the guys’ bad sides. Either way, I was more relaxed now than I had been in a group since those pictures went viral.

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