Page 108 of The Wrong Play

“Jace.”

I peeled my face off the floor just in time to see Matty’s furious, sleep-creased face peeking down at me from the edgeof the bed, his eyes bloodshot, his hair sticking up in seventeen different directions.

“What,” he said, his voice flat, dangerously calm, “are you doing?”

I blinked at him. Took a second to assess.

Right. I was in his bed. Not mine. That made sense. After barely surviving the trial from hell, I must’ve crawled in here at some point.

“I was snuggling,” I admitted, pushing myself up onto my elbows. “Duh.”

Matty’s nostrils flared. “With WHO?”

I squinted. “With you, obviously. You were just asleep for it.”

A vein in his forehead visibly pulsed. “So you got into my bed—without my consent—and snuggled with me?”

I scratched the back of my head, offended that he looked so angry. “I mean…yeah. No one was around to distract Riley’s roommate, so I had to snuggle someone after my NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE!”

Matty launched a pillow at my face.

The door creaked open just as I caught it, and Parker walked in because, even though he lived next door with Casey, apparently he had to start the day with his bestilicious bros.

He stopped short, eyes flicking from me on the floor, to Matty looking homicidal, to the fact that there were clearly two people crammed into one bed before my abrupt eviction.

A long pause.

A very long pause.

Then, slowly, Parker nodded to himself, pivoted on his heel, and walked back out without a word.

Matty threw up his hands. “See?! Even Parker knows this is fucked!”

“Yeah, but he also just accepted it immediately,” I pointed out. “Which, honestly, says more about us than him.”

Matty groaned and flopped onto his back, muttering something about needing a new roommate and possibly an exorcism.

He kept mentioning that—an exorcism. Maybe I should just contact a church on his behalf. Or the Ghostbusters. It would be a nice little surprise for him.

I tossed the pillow back onto the bed and grinned, stretching like a cat.

“Anyway,” I said, standing up and cracking my back. “We cuddling again tonight or what?”

Hopefully by tomorrow, when my plan went into effect, Riley would be the one cuddling me, but in a pinch, Matty would have to do.

CHAPTER 18

RILEY

Istepped into the hallway of my dorm, my stomach full but my nerves frayed from the long day. All I wanted was to crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head, and pretend the world didn’t exist for a few hours.

But as I got closer to my door, the heavy bass thudding against the walls sent a spike of dread down my spine.

What the hell?

A burst of laughter rang out from inside my room, followed by the unmistakable sound of a beer can being cracked open. I quickened my pace, sure that Emma must be watching a movie or something because there was no way?—

I shoved the door open…and about passed out. The room was packed wall-to-wall with bodies. I hadn’t even known it was possible to fit this many people into that small of a room. Strangers lounged on my bed, red Solo cups in their hands. Smoke curled toward the ceiling, the thick pungent scent of weed mixing with stale beer. A group of guys were by the window, shouting over the music, a bottle of something dark being passed between them. Someone had draped a string of blinking lights over my desk, turning the entire space into a makeshift frat house.

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