Page 85 of Zero Chance

On Monday, Alec and I left the campus printing and design office, chortling conspiratorially between ourselves.He’d designed the poster with a picture of Mystery Girl’s panties on it, and we’d written up a catchy slogan:

Screw the glass slipper; my Cinderella left these behind on Friday night, and I’d very much like to return them.

Call me.K.D.

Then I’d left my number underneath.

Fairly certain our flyers didn’t follow the campus’s community poster guidelines, we’d printed fifty copies, anyway, and just started handing them out to people as soon as we started down the sidewalk.

“Hey, check it out,” Alec called to a group of girls passing us as if he were some kind of carney trying to coax them into playing the ball throw at his booth.“If this is you or someone you know, please call.”

I shoved a page into the center of the chest of some guy strolling by.“Yo man, make sure these aren’t your girlfriend’s,” I taunted without even pausing.

It must’ve taken him a bit to peel the sheet off his shirt and read it because five seconds later, I heard him call me a dirty name.

I smirked and bumped my arm into Alec’s.“Let’s go this way.”

Faithful best bud that he was, Alec only shrugged and followed my lead.

* * *

By noon,I’d gotten three calls and nine text messages.

The few who’d been able to get past my first verifying question and guessed what K.D.stood for hadn’t been able to name the object tattooed to the side of my mystery girl’s wrist, so they’d all ended up being bogus.

The message Mr.Felter sent me from the Academic Integrity Department, however, had me a little concerned.I mean, I seriously doubted this was an offense that could get me kicked out of school, but I was mildly wigged out.Still… Whatever slap on the hand the student advisory council wanted to give me for passing out unsanctioned flyers, I’d gladly take.

More frustrated by the fact that I still hadn’t found Mystery Girl yet, I moped moodily through the buffet line at the student union and paid for my lunch before spotting Hudson and Faith sitting by themselves at his favorite spot near the corner windows.

As I approached, the two of them glanced up, only for Ivey to immediately shake his head in reprimand.“Dude,” he chided with a laughing cringe.“Are you fucking serious?”

“What?”I asked, no clue what he was referring to.

Faith slapped down a copy of my flyer onto the table between us when I sat across from them.“This was being passed around in my business marketing class.”

“Really?Sweet.”I snagged it up to glance over the poster again, nodding out another proud grin.Younger and I had totally rocked this thing.And it must be gaining some serious traction if Faith had already seen a copy.

At this rate, the real Mystery Girl might just call at any moment.

“Sweet?”Faith cried in outrage.“How in anything holy is thissweet?”

My brow furrowed.“What do you mean?”I was making Mystery Girl come to me.That was fucking genius!

“You posted a picture of this poor girl’s underwear all over campus, dumbass,” Hudson explained.

“I mean, seriously,” Faith added.“What the hell were you thinking?”

My mouth opened because I couldn’t believe they didn’t understand the utter brilliance of my plan.“Bro, this is going to make her come tome.”

“Yeah,” Hudson agreed with a scoff.“To kill you, maybe.”

“I would be so pissed at someone for spreading around a picture of my panties,” Faith explained, shaking her head in disbelief.

“And I would have to kill anyone who looked at them,” Hudson told her, pressing a hand to his chest.“Especially that white pair of yours with the bow on the front.Mmm…” He closed his eyes briefly as if remembering them fondly before gazing over at her.“It’s been a minute since you last wore those, you know.Daddy’s been having withdrawals.”

I snorted, purposely cutting into their moment.“Look.Pissed or not, it’s going to promptsomekind of action from her.”

“Murder,” Hudson whispered to Faith.“It’s gonna prompt murder.”

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