Page 5 of Untouchable Player

Nate

Katie is holed up in her usual spot at Bean There, surrounded by books and flash cards. She shoves a set into my hands as soon as I sit down and asks me to quiz her. When she finishes one round, she tells me to quiz her on another.

“You need to take a break,” I tell her.

“You can talk.”

“I’ll let that go because you’re probably tired and overstimulated.” I gesture to the empty coffee cups piled up on the table.

“You’re right, I need more coffee.”

“This isn’t a bar, just relax and have something to eat.”

She sighs. “You’re right.” She orders a panini and a cookie and drinks some water.

“Distract me,” she says, closing her laptop, “what’s going on with you, and I don’t mean studying.”

“What else would be going on?”

“We need some new friends.” Katie smiles and I kick her under the table.

“Can you at least get a love life so I can live vicariously through you?”

“You have a love life… sometimes.”

“Stop changing the subject. Any cute guys on the horizon?”

I shake my head and try to push out the image of that bison tattoo and my suspicions of Harrison’s teammate.

“Why are you blushing?”

“I’m not.”

The barista brings Katie’s food over and she starts cutting into her panini.

“Nate, if I thought you were saving your virginity for like, religious purposes or something, I’d back off, but you’re not…”

She’s talking way too loud “be quiet, do you want to ring a bell and announce it to the whole world?”

Katie rolls her eyes, “it’s nothing to be ashamed of, I’m just saying…”

“Well don’t.”

She raises her eyebrows.

“Sorry, it’s just… I’m trying, okay?”

“Have you talked to anyone online recently?”

I shake my head. “Not for a while.”

The last time I was chatting with someone, they made it very clear they thought my body and my whole general appearance was a fetish. Like I’m so beyond the realms of normal beauty standards you’d have to have a fetish to want to have sex with me.

“I still think you should let me take you to a gay bar.”

“We’re not 21.”

“You’ve got a good fake ID,” she flashes me a smile, because she somehow got hold of my student ID picture and gave it to some back-alley scammer to buy it for me.

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