Page 18 of Subscriber Wars

“You want to be on our team?” Baylor, a third baseman I recognize from Drew and Fenn’s baseball team, holds his hand out like he means for Aspen to take it and cross over to the dark side or something.

I smack it away. “Thanks, but we’ll take the other team.” The one without the baseball players with a death sentence. Had Bennett saw Baylor offer his hand to Asp, he would have been drinking his meals through a straw for the next two months.

Baylor eyes me with a look of disgust. “I wasn’t asking you,” he says with a sneer.

Really? How many times do I have to watch this rerun? Guys like him think they really hit girls like me where it hurts by insulting us with comments like we’re somehow not as hot as the woman beside us. Well, let me give all the men in the world a little tidbit. Women come in all shapes, sizes, and attitudes. Just because we don’t look like Malibu Barbie or dress like Gigi Hadid does not make us any less likely to get a man. Not only can we get a man, but we can keep that man until the mood strikes for us to let him go. I don’t need an asshole like Baylor in my panties, and I certainly don’t need him in my damn face.

I open my mouth to tell Baylor where he can take his chauvinist ass when an unfamiliar voice stops me. “I’m sad to see that black eye Jameson gave you last semester didn’t teach you a lesson, Baylor.”

“Vance!” Aspen jumps up and down and wraps her arms around the guy who is almost as tall as Drew. “I’m so glad you could make it!”

“Anything for you,” he says, placing her down gently.

Aspen nods and sends me a wink that she does not disguise at all.

“This is Vee, my best friend and roommate. She just moved in with me this year.”

Vance’s eyes are the darkest green I think I’ve ever seen. “Hi,” I say, extending my hand and proving Baylor right that I’m not much of a lady. But what else was I supposed to do? Curtsy? I think not. Vance might be tall, dark, and pretty damn fine, but a king he is not.

A deep rumbling of laughter explodes from his chest as he takes my hand, giving it a firm shake. “It’s nice to meet you, Vee. Any friend of Aspen’s is a friend of mine.”

I’m sure it is. You’ll excuse my jaded opinion. I’ve heard this line many, many times and it goes down like this: they are my friends when Aspen is around. When she isn’t around, neither are they. This includes girls, too.

But it doesn’t bother me. One, I’m new here, considering I’m just a freshman and two, I don’t have the time to maintain many friendships given my after-school activities of annoying my neighbor and keeping up my MyView videos.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I return, pulling my hand back and tucking my hair behind my ear. Why? I have no idea. I guess just feeling Sebastian’s eyes on me as he watches from my chair is making me seriously nervous. What the hell is he doing over there anyway?

I fight the urge to glance in his direction and instead give Vance my best smile. I’m sure he didn’t really care if he met me, but he’s being decent, so I will be too. Even if I would love to turn around and see what the demon next door is up to.

“Vee is also into all that, right, Vee?”

Wait, what?

“Uh…” I hesitate and wince, making Vance laugh.

“That’s alright, Valentina. You wouldn’t be the first woman I bored with my talks of conservation efforts.”

Dammit, Vee. Look at what you did. Here’s a nice guy who isn’t stealing your shit and you can’t even bother not zoning out when he speaks to you.

“Oh, no. That’s not it at all,” I apologize. “I am into conservation.” I shrug. “Well, more like recycling. I haven’t had a whole lot of time with much else, but I try to help out where I can.”

“Awesome,” Vance replies. “If you’re interested, I run the Stay Green program at Havemeyer, we’re always looking for more volunteers.”

As cute as he is and as much I love the cause, it sounds like way too much peopling for me. “Oh, wow. How often do you meet?”

Maybe I can squeeze in a session or two. I mean, it’s for a good cause, even if I have to suffer through a few conversations with people I don’t know.

“Three times a week.” Vance flashes me a boyish smile that I don’t hate. “You should come.”

At least the view would be good, right?

“Yea—”

“Valentina.”

The voice that makes me gag every time I hear it sends a cringy shiver down my spine when he says my name.

“Malcolm.” I turn and smile with a fake friendliness. “So awful to see you. Are you here to clean up?”

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