Page 169 of Scrimmage

“I don’t think anyone has ever called me that before is all.”

“You said you had an ex,” he points out. “That would mean you were his girlfriend.”

“Not exactly. Infatuated, yes. Girlfriend, no.”

“You’re fucking with me.” He rolls his eyes and heads down the hallway.

I walk back to my room, setting the phone back on my shelf. “Usually, but no.”

“I thought he wrote you a fucking album,” he says with clear jealousy in his voice.

“Doesn’t mean he was my boyfriend.”

“So some random guy you were fucking wrote you an album?”

“He wasn’t random.”

He huffs with exasperation. “Please explain why some asshole wrote you an entire fucking album, Ashland.”

“I don’t think you’ll want to hear it."

“The more you pretend it doesn’t matter, the more I’m going to ask about it.”

I grab my favorite book from my shelf and flip through it. “Musicians do shit like that.”

Koda slides his key card in while his jaw ticks. I can hear the door hit the stopper and the clap of his key card on a dresser.

I glance up. “You really want to talk about my complicated relationship with my ex?”

“Yeah, Ashland, I fucking do.”

“Ugh,” I groan. “He doesn’t…It’s not like that.”

“Are you still fucking dating him or something?" He narrows his eyes. "Is that why you’re being weird about the girlfriend thing?”

“No,” I laugh. “We broke it off before my Freshman year.”

“Did Penny ever meet him?”

“Yeah, they’re friends.”

“She still talks to him?” he asks incredulously.

I shrug. “We both do.”

Koda tosses himself into a chair, and I’m pretty sure he might destroy the hotel room. “That means he’s still around.”

“We’re friends.”

“You had sex with him.”

“It’s kind of hot when you’re jealous.”

“Please do not go out of your way to make me like this.”

“Were you this obsessive about all of your girlfriend’s exes?”

He runs his tongue along his top teeth. “No, I didn’t really pay attention to them.”

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