Page 71 of The Plus One
But the sound of the front door crashing open, a booming voice, and footsteps in the hall ripped through their haze like a needle scratching over a record.
“Collin is going to kill you two!” Jeremy yelled, voice growing louder each second. Jude could hear a muffled knock on Indira’s door next to his room, followed by a banging on his own.
Jude and Indira froze in place, their faces only centimeters apart, causing them to stare in cross-eyed horror at each other.
“Wake up!” Jeremy’s footsteps paced between the two rooms as he continued to bang on the doors.
Jude somehow managed to give his head a frantic shake, untangling his hand from Indira’s hair to hold a finger to his lips in a signof silence. Indira stayed frozen, her features almost like a cartoon character in their uncompromised fear. And the ridiculousness of that look, combined with the giddiness of waking up next to her and the absolute absurdity of it all, made a rough laugh bubble out of Jude’s throat and roll off his lips.
“I can hear you, Jude,” Jeremy said. “Our yard is fucking trashed!”
The unmistakable sound of a hand grabbing a doorknob echoed in the room.
Indira’s face morphed into even greater horror, her mouth gaping open like the painting ofThe Scream. She started moving then, shaking her head and waving her arms at Jude like he wasn’t also in sheer panic that her older brother’s fiancé was about to walk in and catch them naked together.
“Don’t!” Jude yelled. “I—It’s—Wait!”
Indira clamped a hand over Jude’s mouth but it was too late. As if in slow-motion, the doorknob turned, and they both stared at it.
The door started to glide open, Jeremy’s angry voice trailing behind it. “You had one job! Protect our property from the youths!”
With stunning acrobatics, Indira log-rolled across the bed, projecting herself off the side of it with a not-so-subtle thud.
And taking all the covers with her.
Jude was fairly certain his brain would explode from being pulled in two opposite directions, one half scrambling to listen to Jeremy and formulate words that would get him to shut the damn door, and the other screaming at him that he was lying on his bed completely naked with a rather obvious boner and needed to get the sheets back from Indira.Now.
“There’s a thousand forks in the lawn! Someone put pads all over the windows!” Jeremy continued to say.
As the door creaked the final inches open, Jude flipped over onto his stomach, a nice cool breeze caressing his bare ass that was now on full display to Jeremy.
“Oh shit,” Jeremy groaned, catching sight of Jude. “God, didn’twant to see that.” Jeremy’s gaze snapped from the mattress to the floor near the foot of the bed, one hand shielding his eyes.
There was an awkward beat of silence before Jeremy recovered his outrage.
“How did you two let this happen? Indira, wake-up!” Jeremy added, glancing at the wall she and Jude shared.
Jude wanted to tell Jeremy that he would pick up every fork with his teeth, buy Jeremy a new house, literallyanythingif he would get the ever-loving fuck out of the room.
But Jude couldn’t do much besides make choked gurgling noises as he stared at Jeremy.
And that was when he saw Jeremy’s face change from embarrassed sweeps of the floor to locking on to something at the foot of the bed.
“What… what the fuck?” Jeremy said, eyes going wide.
Dread curdling in his stomach, Jude slowly pushed up onto his elbows, following Jeremy’s gaze.
And, sure enough, two big, adorable feet with pink-painted toenails poked out on the floor at the end of the bed.
“… Indira?” Jeremy said, face going white, then a violent shade of pink.
In a flash that startled both men in the room, Indira jolted to standing, covers clutched around her body.
“What are you doing in here?” she screeched, pointing at Jeremy. “Get out!”
Jeremy, caught off guard, stumbled back a step, raising his hands in defense. “Sorry. Sorry. I… wait. No. What areyoudoing in here?” he asked, regaining some of his composure.
Jude—ass still fully on display—was helpless to do anything but stare at the soap opera unfolding in his bedroom.
