Page 76 of Cheater and the Saint
19
Leo
“Tell me again why you waited until the weekend before it’s due to work with me on our project?” Jacob asked before tossing anM&Mat me. “Other than laziness?”
Our project for British lit was due Monday, and it was the Saturday before. Oops. Our topic was over eighteenth-century English literature, an era called Classicism. We were in one of the private rooms in the library that afternoon. The students could work on projects in the rooms without being too loud for the other people studying. It was a small square room with a glass wall to see out into the main part of the library.
“Laziness pretty much covers it,” I answered, earning another chocolate candy to be thrown at my head. “Dude, chill. It won’t take long to do. We still have two days.”
The project had to be at least three minutes, and we had to discuss the ideals and popular themes in the period, both within the published works and also within society. The latter usually had a big effect on the expressed beliefs within the works, like when science and logical reasoning became huge instead of the blind faith of religion.
Jacob explained all of that to me, while I napped on the table. He kicked my leg.
“Are you even listening, jerk?” he asked, kicking me again.
“Sure. Science and stuff. Got it.”
“You keep this up and I’m going to text your boyfriend to come kick your ass.”
I grinned up at my friend. “Oh, don’t tease me.”
It was still strange to have Saint referred to as my boyfriend, but not in a bad way. More like an “I can’t believe it’s happening”way. Not much had changed between us. We still talked and bantered back and forth every morning before class, had sex every night with some quickies in between, and we watched movies—that I got to choose because he was banned from doing so.
I was a bit more romantic toward him, well, as romantic as I was capable of being. I said sweet shit and stuff, which he mostly scoffed at, and I kissed him more.
“You guys still doing okay?” Jacob asked as he typed more notes on his laptop.
“I haven’t cheated if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Have you wanted to?”
“What’s with all these questions?” I didn’t know why I was getting so defensive. “I haven’t cheated, and I don’t plan to, okay? I’m not a complete asshole, you know. For fuck’s sake, can we get back to work?”
Never thought I’dwantto do school work, but it was less irritating than having to defend my character. I’d been a fucking piece of shit boyfriend in the past, but Saint was different.
“I’m sorry,” Jacob said.
“It’s okay.”
Thankfully, the subject dropped and we got a huge chunk of work done. We—meaning Jacob—researched all the facts, and I put them into a PowerPoint presentation, actually finding it fun to create all the slides. I didn’t realize I had a creative side until then. After we finished, I said bye to him and left the library.
Tayte was leaving the library, too, and I jogged up to him and tore off his beanie. His floppy brown hair was a mess, and he flipped around with surprise.
“Leo! You ass.” He grabbed his beanie and put it back on his head. “What the hell are you up to, man?”
I walked beside him. “Ah, nothin’ much. Just finished some stupid project, and now I’m heading back to the dorm. You?”
“Same. Hey. What’re you doing tonight?”
“I don’t have any plans yet,” I said, putting my hands in my coat pocket. It was only fifty degrees that day and cloudy with a near constant breeze, so I was freezing. “You wanna go out?”
“Hell yeah.” Tayte gave a lopsided grin. “Half price drinks at the Cowboy tonight.”
He walked with me until we got to the dormitory, and then he branched off to talk to a group of girls. I snorted at his stupid pickup line before going into the lobby and up the stairs to our floor.
When I walked through the front door, my heart skipped a beat at seeing Saint.
He sat at the kitchen table, wearing nothing but his sexy nerd glasses and a pair ofmyboxers as he typed on his computer.
