Page 39 of Of Pranks and Passion

We all headed out together, and Carter locked up behind him. Gary would probably be too exhausted to go out, even if he woke up before I got back. I wasn’t worried about stealing his key. It wasn’t the first time I did it while he was napping. I spun the keyring on my finger, my eyes on my phone as we took the elevator down. I didn’t notice London edging closer until her hand brushed my arm. Jerking away, I frowned at her. She was close enough to Carter that he hadn’t noticed, but from the look on her face, it wasn’t an accident. She batted her eyelashes at me, biting her lip like she was trying to turn me on. Gary pulled it off better.

“Don’t touch me.”

I didn’t bother whispering. I didn't care enough about her to spare her the embarrassment of trying to explain things to Carter. He frowned at us both, and I almost wanted to stick around for the chaos that was about to ensue, but I just happened to see that asshole who insulted Gary walking past the building when the doors opened, and I didn’t want to have to find him again later. I ducked out of the elevator, smirking as London backpedaled and tried to claim it was an accident. Hopefully, Carter would pull his head out of his ass long enough to figure out his girlfriend was a cheater and dump her. Even I wasn’t that messed up and the only relationship I ever had was fake.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

GARY

Oh.My. God. I was dying. That was the only explanation on why it hurt this bad. Every single muscle screamed at me like I did them an injustice by working out with Easton. Not even my first time having sex hurt this bad. I whimpered, burying my face in my pillow, but even that movement hurt.

“Here.”

Peeking one eye open, I frowned at Easton. He had a handful of pills and a bottle of water held out in front of my face. He’d changed out of his workout clothes, which was disappointing. I felt like I deserved a nice view while I was suffering like this. He wiggled the bottle at me impatiently and helped me sit up when I struggled. He didn’t let me lie back down until the pills and the water were both gone, no matter how much I glared at him. I settled back with a groan.

“I don’t like you,” I carped.

“Yeah, you do. But I may have gone a little overboard. That was only my warm up, so I thought it’d be easy enough, but–”

I spluttered, my eyes flying open in shock. “That was your warm up?! It took hours!”

That made him laugh. “It doesn’t take me that long. You dragged your feet through most of it.”

Incredulous, I reached out to try and whack him, but A. he was too fast, and B. I hurt too much to really pull it off. I nearly toppled off the futon because I didn’t have the core strength to keep myself upright, and Easton had to right me back into my spot. He was still laughing, but at least he didn’t let me fall to my doom.

Once I was settled again, I frowned at him. “What do you do for your workout?” Surely, it couldn’t be that different.

He shrugged. “Depends on the day. There’s not a machine in the gym I don’t use on any given week.”

Ugh. That sounded awful.

“You’re not going to make me do that much, are you?”

For a second, he flashed me a mischievous grin that made me a little nervous, but then he shook his head. I let out an enormous sigh of relief, which had him cracking up again.

“I’m glad my pain amuses you,” I pouted. I really was, though. I liked making him laugh. This whole situation was stressful, but Easton was an expert at distracting me and making things fun.

“Your roommate offered to create you a workout more at your level. He said he’s going to become a physical therapist and has to make things like that for class assignments.”

Slapping my palm to my forehead, I groaned. “I forgot about that. Maybe he won’t be as sadistic as you.”

The laugh that came out of Easton could only be described as a cackle. Evil, evil man.

The next fewweeks were pretty quiet. Carter’s workout plan was much more manageable, even though he said he’d update it frequently so I wouldn’t plateau. Whatever that means. I got through midterms without completely bombing my classes, which was a boost to my self-esteem. Especially since I couldn’t be as diligent in my studies as I had been before I started fake dating Easton. He was determined to distract me and make me take breaks, and since like eighty percent of the time he distracted me with sex, I couldn’t find it in me to argue.

Seriously. I went through my whole life without having sex, but now that I knew what I was missing, I couldn’t get enough. The only time I ever wasn’t into it was the first two days after my first workout with Easton. I hurt too much to breathe at that point, much less have sex. I didn’t get my reward blowjob until the following week, since Easton had his fights to go to and didn’t visit on weekends.

Most weekdays, though, he came back to my room after dinner and had his wicked way with me before slipping out to go home. Carter was somehow always busy for at least two hours after dinner, so we were never interrupted. I got the feeling there was a discussion there I missed, but I didn’t want to know. I was just starting to feel like I didn’t need to be embarrassed about having sex.

I was starting to relax more around campus. I figured the rumor about me being taken was working. No one had approached me in a while, since I was usually with Easton on weekdays and Carter on weekends. He was still nice and invited me out so I wouldn’t end up eating my meals alone. His birthday party had been a blast, and a real eye opener on what I’d missed out on all those years. Even Easton had fun, racking up the most shots each and every game. I mentioned to Angel that I wanted to do something fun for my birthday, too, and he promised me we’d make it epic.

Maybe I got a little too relaxed. I somehow convinced myself it was a good idea to go to the cafeteria for dinner on a weekend where Carter was at an away game and Easton was at a fight. Or at least getting ready for one. He still hadn’t allowed me to go to one yet, so I had no idea how late they were.

The trip to the cafeteria itself was fine, even though it was already after dark when I realized how hungry I was. I managed to snag a meal right before they closed the kitchens, and the dining room itself was pretty much empty, so I ate there instead of heading back right away. I studied while I ate, only half paying attention to my meal. Maybe if I’d focused more, I would’ve clued in to the fact that I was being followed.

It was pitch black, only the lights above the sidewalks lighting the way. I felt my stomach swoop, biting my lip uneasily as I made my way back to the dorm. It wasn’t far, but it felt like the shadows were watching me, and it made me really uneasy.

On a whim, I pulled out my phone to text the group chat Angel invited me into. Maybe one of them was free to talk to me on my walk home.

---