Page 57 of Cheater and the Saint
“Murder is a crime. Murder is a crime,” I repeated, closing my eyes. Leo knew I hated loud noise. I wouldn’t give him what he wanted by going in there and bitching at him.
Gunfire. Cars crashing. Rap music thumping.
A ping in my email snagged my attention, and I smiled when I saw it was a response from Angel:
Thx! You’re a real saint, you know that? ;) Yeah, yeah. I know it was cheesy. Don’t judge me.
-Angel
I chewed my thumbnail as I debated on whether to respond. Should I message something clever back to him or leave it at that? There’s no reason to respond and keep a conversation going. Right?
But if I didn’t respond, would he think thatIthought his message was stupid?
Ugh. Damn anxiety.
“Screw it,” I said before typing back:
I’m only judging you a little :p now get to work and stop letting me distract you.
-Saint
After clicking out of my email, I pulled up an assignment for sociology. It was a multiple-choice quiz about the terminology over the current chapter, and as I went through it, Leo turned up the TV even louder. I made it another five minutes before losing my cool.
I jumped up from my chair, flung open my bedroom door, and marched down the hall.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” I shouted over the noise.
Leo, who was slouching on the couch, legs spread wide and eating chips straight from the bag—which he knew I hated, too—looked up at me with an innocent expression. “What? Sorry. I can’t hear you over the TV.”
I slapped at the power button and shut it off.
“Hey!” He sat up. “I was watching that.”
“No, you were trying to piss me off,” I said, glaring at him. His arrogant smirk made me want to punch him. “Congratulations. It worked. And get a fucking plate for Christ’s sake. Stop eating out of the bag.”
That irritating smirk turned up even more. “If I knew this is what it took to get you to actually talk to me, I would’ve done it days ago.”
My anger waned as shame took its place. “We had sex. So what? It doesn’t make us close or anything. You of all people should know that.”
“Yeah, but before we fucked, I thought we were friends,” Leo said in a dejected tone. His eyes reflected that hurt. “And now you barely even look at me, Frosty.”
Hearing my nickname softened me up, and with a defeated sigh, I plopped down on the loveseat. “I’m sorry for being an asshole, okay? I freaked out and didn’t know how to act around you after that.”
“Is that why it took you so long to fuck me?” Leo asked, tossing the bag of chips on the coffee table in front of him. “I thought you were just playing hard to get all those weeks. I threw myself at you constantly, and you never budged.”
“Yeah,” I said, bringing my hand up to chew on my nail before catching myself and dropping it again. “I know the kind of guy you are, Leo. Fuck ‘em and then leave ‘em. You’ve said that you hate relationships and monogamy. That you cheat anytime you try to be with someone. I didn’t want to get hurt.”
“Because you can’t casually fuck a guy?” He rested an arm behind his head and kicked his legs up on the table.
Oh, I could. The guy I’d had a fling with over the summer was proof of that.
Leo was different, though. He was all the annoying things I normally avoided in a person; loud, messy, and partied too much. But he also made me laugh—genuinely laugh—and helped me get out of my head when I needed to the most. He poked fun at all my weird habits, but he also had a big heart and cared about people—like his friend Jacob.
I couldn’t tell him any of that without sounding totally pathetic. Plus, it was way too soon to feel so connected to him. He’dreallythink I was a freak.
“No. I can’t.” I met his gaze. “It’s not who I am. I want commitment. Not casual sex.”
Okay, it was kind of the truth. I’d had no-strings-attached sex before and enjoyed it just fine. I knew there’d be nothing casual with Leo, though. He was the type of guy that left an impact on someone, the guy you never forgot.
