Page 35 of Race to Me

“It does to me. None of us deserve you. I don’t know why you can’t see that. We’ll only bring you down—and Callum? He’s not the prince charming you think he is.” I laugh, wondering why he’s assumed I’m thinking that. “I’m just a fucking idiot.” he finishes.

“Glad we can agree on something.” I tell him, then I hang up.

∞∞∞

I wake to Kate yelling at me while she holds her aching head in her hands. “Why are you on the floor?”

I wipe my tired eyes, checking the time frantically. Class doesn’t start for another hour, so I’m good. “I didn’t want to wake you up.” I explain with a yawn.

“Skyler!” she huffs, then grips her head from the loud noise. “You could have just shoved me off the bed.” She groans, “I drank way too much last night. I probably scared off Ryder.” Kate’s faces scrunches in embarrassment as she recalls bits and pieces of how she acted the night before.

Her budding relationship makes me smile. It’s much better than thinking of my own ridiculous feelings. “You didn’t mess up anything; he’s crazy about you.”

She grins but shakes her head. “I don’t even know how I got home.”

“He took you in my car.” I explain.

With a quirked brow, she takes some Motrin. “You weren’t there?”

I sigh, knowing this is going to be confusing. “I rode with Callum.”

Her eyes widen in shock. “Wait, what about Foster?”

I stand, grabbing a brush and pulling it through my hair. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore.” I respond quietly, and she nods. Then, she pulls out a really cute outfit for me to wear. Her grin reminds me that in a short forty-five minutes, I’ll have to be in front of Foster again.

“Ignore him then, but at least make sure you look your best doing it.” She gives a really bad wink because she’s too hungover, and with a flop, she’s back under the covers. “I’m not going to class today.” she states, and I almost want to join her. But I need to work on this project, and I don’t want Foster messing up any more of my day.

∞∞∞

I grab a latte, trying to perk up for my dreary Monday morning. I get to class, but Foster doesn’t show.

On Tuesday, there’s no sign of him either.

Fourteen

Wednesday rolls around and when I walk into class, I see the newly familiar sight of an empty seat at the table. I try to push down my worry from Foster not showing up all week.

I sit down, pulling out my colored pens and binders, not understanding why I’m so discouraged that he hasn’t been here. I don’t know what I expected. That he would have called by now, maybe? At least sent an apology text, I guess. I’m not sure. He’s been absent before, so he’ll be back, but it won’t change the fact that I’m upset.

Upset that he would be so sweet and then so cruel.

Kissing me in the rain, climbing up to kiss me at my window, and then ignoring me in front of his friends and locking lips with someone who has been awful to me right in front of my face.

But he warned me not to come to his place; I should have listened. I should have seen that he was embarrassed by me.

“Okay, class, the deadline is quickly approaching for your group project.” Professor Dyer takes a seat, distracting me from my spiraling thoughts. “Two weeks. That’s all you have left.”

I breathe out a sigh. I’ve broken the project into four parts, with each of us taking care of two.

I’ve finished my portion. The internal organs, along with the diagrams of the male and female bodies. Naturally, I did that with the assumption that Foster would do the other two: reproduction and the short essay on human anatomy. I’d text him, but I don’t want to engage first. I don’t even know if I want to talk to him at all.

But my mind keeps floating back to him, which isn’t a surprise since he’s been completely dominating my thoughts ever since the moment my eyes landed on him. But now, instead of his dimpled smile or the way his hair looks when he pulls his helmet off, all I can see is his hand cupping her face and her lips touching his.

I can’t close my eyes without seeing it.

To distract myself, I work for the majority of the class, focusing on perfecting my part of the project. I’ll finish the other parts over the weekend.

“Glad you could join us,” the professor announces.

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