Page 20 of Shutout
Subject: Hey bestie
Aceituna,
To answer your question, I’m taking this elective too.
Best,
Your bestie
I seriously have bad taste. What possessed me to ever fall for a little pest like this?
From: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Hey Bestie
WHY???
P.S. You are NOT my bestie.
P.P.S. Stop calling me Aceituna. I am not food.
Brooklyn takes a hot second to read my short missive and slowly turns to cock an eyebrow at me. His eyes lower to my lips, and the traitors part with a gasp. His stretch into a little smirk, and then he’s typing another response.
From: [email protected]
Subject: RE: RE: Hey bestie
Oliva,
Because we made a promise in freshman year and I’m a man of my word. And I think you are too, otherwise you wouldn’t have signed up either.
P.S. We’ll see about that.
P.P.S. Kindly disagree, you are delicious.
Heat explodes in my skin when I read his latest response and I cast my face down. At this second, I regret chopping my hair off so short because I’m not sure it hides the full extent of the blood rushing up my neck.
He chuckles through his nose softly. I wish nothing more than to sock him a good one.
From: [email protected]
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Hey Bestie
Body odor,
I am not amanof my word. I am awomanseeking an easy class to reduce my stress levels, which you are increasing right now.
Bye.
I’m not even going to deign his postscripts with a response. They’re contradictory. In the first one, he’s threatening with what, becoming my bestie again? In the second one, he’s outright flirting.
Except Brooklyn never flirts with me, and if he wants to start doing that now because of that kiss, I’m gonna shut that shit down ASAP. Kissing him would’ve been a dream years ago—and on a physical level, it still is—yet it happened not because he wanted to, but because I appealed to his competitiveness.
