Page 52 of Not Fooling Anyone

“What the hell, man?” His nostrils flare in annoyance, and beside him, his girlfriend dissolves in a fit of giggles.

“C’mon. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

“Do you know how disturbing this is?” He points to the TV dramatically. “You almost made me shit my pants.”

I flop down on the loveseat, not paying attention to the possessed doll on the screen. “Now that I’d pay to see.”

He rolls his eyes. “You would.”

Mia finally contains her laughter and gestures toward the coffee table. “I made some brownies if you want some.”

“You’re going to reward him after what he did to me?” Tyler asks her. He puts his arm around her, pulling her into his side, and kisses her temple. “You’re too softhearted,” he murmurs affectionately.

And that’s my cue to leave.

Seeing Tyler happy for a change was heartwarming at first, especially since I like to think I had a little something to do with the two of them getting back together, but I never would have taken him for a PDA kind of guy. Thank God we don’t share a bedroom wall, at least. I’ve already heard my fair share of them at night.

I stare at the brownies longingly as I get up, knowing I shouldn’t press my luck. I already have to inject my long-acting insulin before bed to stabilize me throughout the night. I don’t need to add a second fast-acting insulin to the mix too. You can never have just one of Mia’s desserts.

Returning to my room, I sink onto the bed, thinking about what next week holds. Shifts at work the next three nights, a test in Geotechnical Engineering on Monday, a scheduled training session with Steve at the gym on Tuesday, and on Wednesday…

Kissing Lexie?

CHAPTERTWELVE

LEXIE

“So when weuse variable costing, all manufacturing overhead costs are charged to expense in the period that a product is produced.” Dr. Perkins writes out what she’s saying on the whiteboard at the front of the classroom. “This is in direct contrast to…” She glances over her shoulder, expectantly awaiting an answer.

I glance around, but no one appears keen on answering her. It’s absorption costing.

“Absorption costing,” she says, disappointment in her tone.

Damn. I should have answered her.

I angle my gaze down, focusing on my notebook and writing down what she says. When she goes off on a tangent about product cost versus period cost, my mind drifts, returning to the one thing I haven’t been able to get out of my head since last week—kissing Ethan.

I’m actually surprised he didn’t bring it up in class yesterday. Then again, I’d hightailed it out of there as soon as Dr. Clark had dismissed us, claiming I needed to be at Russian Lit early to review for a quiz.

I mean, it wasn’t a complete lie. I needed to look over the new book we’re on,Eugene Onegin, but only so I wasn’t a deer in headlights if Dr. Kroft called on me. He doesn’t seem to understand that not everyone gets these books as well as him.

Okay, I need to focus. Dr. Perkins is talking about… Oh, it’s still product cost. The material in this class isn’t the most exciting, but neither is accounting in general. If I can get a job in the field, though, it’ll make for a nice, comfortable life. A stable career. No moving from place to place. No more worries about if I’ll have enough for rent. I can buy a house of my own, in a nice neighborhood with no junkies on the corner. With a backyard instead of a filthy, piss-stained alley. Where cops patrol to keep people safe rather than looking for someone to bust.

I shake off my train of thought. I won’t be able to buy any house if I don’t pass this class. I should concentrate.

Even though I know what’s coming up in just an hour and a half.

Kissing Ethan.

No, I can’t be sure about that.

But Christian and Amber say they did it.

Maybe they assign the tests randomly.

Or more likely they rotate them because everyone can’t do the same tests on the same days.

Okay, what would be the worst that could happen? We give each other a quick peck on the lips and call it a day. Like Ethan said, not a big deal.

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