Page 76 of Collide
My pointed look must convey my answer.
“I guess I have my work cut out for me then.”
24 | SUMMER
“LIKE A STIFLER’S mom situation?” Amara asks, shoveling a spoonful of cereal into her mouth.
“More like Stifler’s grandma,” I say, putting my laptop into my bag.
Amara chokes, mirroring my reaction when I found out about Dylan’s escapades. “Somehow, those guys continue to surprise me,” she says through a bout of coughs. “So, what’s your decision on the captain?”
I shrug. “I’m thinking about it.”
“What’s there to think about? He made you see stars. I’m pretty sure that checks all the criteria.”
I place my mug. “I don’t usually do this kind of thing.”
“Hooking up?” she supplies.
“We’re not hooking up.”
“You rode his face into oblivion. Sorry to break it to you, but that screams hookup to me.”
“I specifically remember you saying you floated off the couch,” Cassie chimes in when she enters our dorm.
“Great timing, Cass.” Amara smiles. “We also can’t forget how you two were stuck together like glue at his party.” Her knowing eyes tell me she saw more than I hoped.
“I was drunk.”
“Uh-huh, right,” she mocks. “So, let me get this straight. There is a super hot hockey player that makes you laugh and gives you mind-altering orgasms, yet you still don’t want to fuck him?”
Cassie lifts her fingers as if to count something that doesn’t add up. This is not the intervention I need this morning. I was hoping more for a long list of reasons on why this is a bad idea.
“Because we hooked up one time, and he pretty much ran out the door right after,” I try to explain.
“That wasafterhe left the ball in your court. Or the puck in your…rink. Whatever, you get it.”
“Time to net the puck. Pretty straightforward,” says Cassie.
I shake my head in disbelief. Are these girls my friends or are they praying for my downfall? “What do you want me to do? Go over there and ask him to fuck me?”
“Yes!” they exclaim in unison.
I blame Kian for this. If he hadn’t invited me to the party or dragged me to Starlight, I wouldn’t have these thoughts. I wouldn’t be thinking about how quickly he lifted me off the ground when I fell or how close he got outside the lounge. If he’d just let me rot in my dorm with a box of pizza none of this would be happening.
“Take my car.”
“I have class. I’m not going there for a nine a.m. booty call.”
Amara places her keys in my palm. “Do us all a favor and let that man do unspeakable things to you.”
Cassie high-fives Amara then they shove me out the door.
Five minutes later, I’m sitting in Amara’s car, making a mental pros and cons list that somehow only fills up the pros side. If I were well rested, I could make a more logic-driven decision.
Ten minutes have passed in my contemplation, which leaves twenty minutes until my class. I won’t be able to sit through one hundred eighty minutes of the most coma-inducing lecture on the planet without fixing this situation. The carrot dangles in front of me as I drive to the hockey house.
I make my way up the steps and see Eli in the driveway. “Back for more?” he asks.
