Page 14 of Wicked Games

I rolled my eyes and turned my music up, but the moans grew louder and louder, peppered with the occasional gasp or scream. It all sounded unbelievably performative. Clearly, Jasmine andMaverick had decided to have extremely loud sex just to bother me.

I kept turning my music up in a futile attempt to drown out the noises, but then I couldn’t concentrate on my work. Finally, after a particularly loud, drawn-out shriek, I snapped and shouted toward Maverick’s section. “Can you fuckingstop?”

The noises abruptly ceased, and Maverick called back to me. “What?”

I ripped off my headphones, stomped over to his section, and yanked the curtains back. Jasmine was hiding most of her body under the blankets, and her hair was mussed. “Um, can we help you?” she said in a snide tone.

“Yeah, you actuallycanhelp me, by shutting the hell up. It’s obvious you’re totally faking it anyway.”

“What are you talking about?”

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Listen, Jasmine… you might like bouncing on Maverick’s dick, but everyone else in the building is sick of hearing it. Especially me. So please,shut the fuck up.”

She batted her long eyelashes at me. “We weren’t having sex. We’re just studying.”

“Sure.” I snorted. “That’s why you’re hiding under the blankets.”

She pushed the duvet off herself, revealing that she was fully clothed. “I only got under here because I’m cold, and I know Mav isn’t a total creep who’ll try to touch me,” she said. “You really have a dirty mind, Crim.”

“So what the hell was that noise, then?” I asked, eyes narrowing. “I know what I heard.”

“Oh my god, who cares? It wasn’tthatloud.”

“Yes, it was,” I snapped. “I had noise-canceling headphones on at my desk, and it still sounded like I was working at a porn shoot.”

Jasmine sighed. “It’s a horror movie, okay? We’re watching it for our film studies class. See?” She paused and grabbed a laptop from the end of the bed. Then she turned it to face me and hit the space bar on the keyboard.

She wasn’t lying. Onscreen, a crying girl was crawling through the mud, letting out the occasional moans and screams as a killer slowly stalked her, dragging an axe by his side.

“Right,” I muttered, feeling stupid. “Whatever.”

She batted her long eyelashes. “So… you want us to turn it down?”

“Yes!” I threw up my hands. “That’s literallyallI want right now. Some damn peace and quiet.”

“You got it.” She smiled sweetly at me and lowered the volume. Next to her, Maverick stared at me, lips turned upward in a smirk.

I turned away, and Jasmine called out to me. “It’s totally obvious, by the way.”

I looked over my shoulder. “What?”

“Your crush on Mav,” she said in a taunting tone. “It’s so obvious. Why else would you be making up these crazy jealous scenarios about him fucking other girls right next to you?”

“Oh, sure,” I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “You caught me! I totally have a thing for annoying, entitled assholes!”

With that, I strode back over to my side and whipped my curtains back around my section so hard that they almost came off the temporary rail. My face felt hot, and my legs were trembling.

As much as I hated to admit it, Jasmine was partially right. Obviously, I didn’t have a crush on Maverick, because he was a total prick, but Iwasattracted to him. Only in the most private way, of course. I would never admit to him or anyone else that he was the sexiest guy I’d ever seen. I would never act on theattraction, either. His shitty personality rendered him utterly undatable and unfuckable.

The evening finally rolled around, and I went to the dining hall to meet up with my friends for dinner. When I returned, Maverick wasn’t in our dorm, and his curtain was open all the way. He didn’t return while I watched TV and TikTok for the rest of the evening, and by the time I went to bed at eleven, his side of the room was still unoccupied.

I woke up several times throughout the night to pee—I drank way too much water during dinner thanks to the spicy Madras curry I’d enjoyed—and each time, I noticed Maverick still hadn’t come back yet. For once, I was sleeping alone in our shared space.

That was fine by me. With him out of the dorm, there was no chance of him harassing or annoying me.

At three-thirty in the morning, I settled back into bed after my fifth bathroom trip and lay my head on the pillow, letting out a deep sigh of relief. My alarm wasn’t due to go off until seven-thirty, and my bladder finally seemed to be empty, so I could enjoy another four hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Just after six, my phone started going off. Groaning, I picked it up to silence it, sleepily thinking that I must’ve set the alarm wrong. I spotted a flurry of notifications instead. Someone had tagged me in something on Instagram, and people were commenting on it like crazy despite the early hour.

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