Page 52 of Fair Catch

I’m primed with anticipation as I shove my key into the lock of the apartment door, goodies loaded up in my bookbag, and one thing on my mind.

The Midnight Meat Train.

With October being the best time for horror movies, Kason and I made plans to binge a different, obscure horror flick—every night this month—that neither of us have watched; a feat that’s proven to be difficult in itself because of how many we’ve collectively seen. But tonight is night five of the month-long marathon, and more importantly,myturn to pick.

Kason’s face when he sees the title of what I’ve chosen is gonna be fucking priceless.

I cut my study group in the library early this evening to stop by the store to grab some snacks—Reese’s Pieces and popcorn being the must haves we’ve long since run out of—and the movie is ready for streaming.

Everything is set to go…except Kason.

“Kase!” I call, dropping my bag on the kitchen counter and heading toward his room. “You ready for—”

I halt in my tracks when I notice Kason isn’t in his room. He’s styling his hair in the bathroom mirror, wearing a dark purple dress shirt, jeans, and dress shoes.

The fuck?

“Why the hell are you dressed like that?”

His green gaze collides with mine through the mirror, and he frowns at me. “I’ve got a date.”

I blink, confused. “Since when?”

“I told you about it like four days ago, and that we’d do a two-for-one tomorrow.” He sighs and drops his hands, clearly done trying to fix his hair that looks to already be perfectly in place to my eyes.

I wrack my brain, trying to think of when the hell this came up in conversation, only to come up short. In fact, after the last couple dates he went on that went horribly wrong—one catfish, the other a complete creepy clinger—he has barely made any mention of going out again, despite the few prospects I’d approved recently.

Surely him setting up an actual date with one of them would’ve come up between then and now.

“Are you sure you did?”

Nodding, he says, “Granted, you were in the middle of doing some reading for class—”

“So I definitely didn’t hear you,” I cut in, cursing myself internally. “Well, hell, I was really looking forward to making you watch my movie pick tonight. I even got a little recording camera set up in the living room so I could catch you jumping in my lap. Y’know, since you seem hell-bent on claiming it never happened last week duringSinister.”

“Because it didn’t, and I know you think you’re funny, but trust me, you’re not.”

“You’re right, I’mhilarious.”

His eye roll makes it very apparent that he disagrees with me on that matter, and while that would normally brush off my back, I find myself irritated. Or maybe I’m just irritated that he won’t be here tonight when we made these plans for our horror-thon.

I do my best to shove the annoyance down, though, and lean against the door jamb. “So which guy is it?”

“His name is Madden. He plays baseball for Blackmore University.”

I frown, cocking my head to the side. “Isn’t that our rival school on the other side of the city?”

“It is, but he was on your list of approved guys that I matched with. Though with only two guys left after you were done with them, I guess I can hardly call it a list.”

After the last few horrible dates he’s gone on, I’ve gotten a lot more picky about who I say yes to. Listening to him complain about how shitty they were afterward was the furthest thing from entertaining; I just felt bad for him wasting his time on fuck-knuckles that I’d approved in the first place.

“Two is better than none,” I point out.

“You say that, but you’re not the one who’s actually going out with the slim pickings you’re giving me. Which haven’t been all that great so far, by the way.”

Quit reminding me. I already feel bad enough.

“No, but should he be therightguy, I’ll have to meet him eventually. This way, he has gone through a thorough vetting process to get my stamp of approval.”

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