Page 7 of Vexing the Viper

I give up on waiting for anyone to get home, so I turn off all the lights and crash for the night.

I blinkopen my eyes from the sunlight and flinch when a crash comes from the other side of the door, followed by a whispered, "oh, shit." Curious as to what's going on, I toss the blankets off my body, snatch my glasses off the dresser, and put them on before I run out of the room.

My eyes greedily take in the perfect ass bent over directly in my face as I exit my bedroom. I tilt my head to the side, glancing around him to see he's dropped a full box. I could help him, or I could go back to admiring his ass.

Straightening up, I look at his backside again, encased in basketball shorts that hug everything so perfectly. While clearing my throat, I wait for him to turn around. However, once he does, I have to stop myself from rolling my eyes.

You have got to be kidding me.

Standing in front of me is the dude-bro frat guy that was grinding with Vanessa last night.

"Uh, hi. Who are you?" I ask.

"Um. Hi. I'm, uh..." His voice trails off and his eyes go from scanning my body to stopping on my head. Patting my head, I realize I forgot to put my beanie on, and my snakes are wriggling wildly.

I mutter, "Fuck," before turning around and heading back to my room to find a beanie to tug on. Coming back out into the hallway, I notice he's missing, so I try to see if I can find him.

I skid to a stop at the end of the hallway when I see he's standing by the couch with Mateo. He’s pretty tall, at least six feet. Dark brown hair peeks out and curls up under his baseball cap. He’s wearing one of those sleeveless tees, and when he moves to the side, I can see a sliver of tan skin from his chest.

"I am so sorry. I was moving my stuff, and the bottom of the box gave out on me and everything fell to the floor. I didn't mean to wake you up. Also, I'm King. It's nice to meet you. I'm your new roommate," he chirps with a huge smile on his face.

"I'm Niko." Mateo glares at me from behind King's shoulder. Rolling my eyes, I stretch out my hand. "Nice to meet you, too."

"Sorry about staring earlier. When I saw the snakes, the first thing that ran through my mind was Coach Mahone. He has similar snakes on his head."

"Ah, well, he's kind of my dad."

"No way. That's awesome! Well, maybe… I don't know yet. Living with my coach's son could be awesome. Maybe." He rambles on, and I find myself getting annoyed. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you. I was just telling Mateo we should go get some breakfast or something. We can all get to know each other."

As much as I want to say no, I don't. First, Mateo would kick my ass, and second, King's right: we need to get to know each other since we'll be living together for the next year.

"Fine, sounds good. Let me get ready."

Out of the corner of my eye, Mateo gives me a subtle thumbs up.

Ugh, whatever.

4

KING

My sexy-as-hell roommate walks away,and I can't stop staring. I might’ve lied and said I was gazing at the snakes slithering along his head, but I was actually ogling the rest of him.

He's fucking gorgeous. He’s a few inches shorter than me, with a lithe body and these beautiful, light green, snake eyes. He ran out into the hallway in a pair of gray sweats and no shirt, and I was mesmerized.

"Sorry about him.” Mateo's voice cuts through my thoughts, and I whip around to face him. “He's actually a cool guy; he just has a lot going on right now."

"It's all good. I hope we didn't get off on the wrong foot, though."

"Nah, he'll be okay. Going out to breakfast is a great idea. Let me run and change. You should probably do the same."

Looking down at my outfit, I shrug. "Nah, this is what I usually wear."

"You usually wear basketball shorts and a sleeveless tee?" he asks, bewildered and gawking at my clothes.

"Yeah, what's wrong with it?" I glance down at myself, tugging at my shirt. Ninety-nine percent of my clothes look like this. I never saw anything wrong with it before.

"Uh, nothing. You look fine. I'll be right back, though."

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