Page 23 of Darkest Obsession

“Perhaps we’re both wrong about each other,” Thomas says, killing my great comeback (which was just an insult) by diffusing the situation. I relax in my seat.

“Yes. You’re wrong about me.”

At least he’s admitting that he’s wrong.

“And you’re wrong about me,” he says, that voice making me look up at him for a second. Did his voice just change? There was something different there, something strange and familiar.

Our eyes flicker to each other and I quickly look away. It was nothing. Just douche bag Thomas Bainbridge getting under my skin and me falling for it by giving him any attention at all. I learned “don’t feed the trolls” early in life. I’d rather not make eye contact with him and give him anything to feed on.

“I’m very monogamous,” Thomas says.

What a damned liar. A man who gets his friends to steal a woman’s underwear in public isn’t a fucking saint when it comes to women. Thomas strikes me as a “sneaky link” guy — not some abstinent dude.

“Really? I’ve never seen you with a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend.”

Thomas chuckles. “A boyfriend. Yeah. No thanks. I’ve got five brothers. I’ve had enough of men.”

That makes me laugh – the idea that having brothers could change your sexuality.

“I have a little brother. And I still like men.”

He sounds friendly when he next speaks.

“Yeah,” Thomas says. “How young is your brother?”

He doesn’t know who I am. I mean, of course he doesn’t. My parents run a video blogging channel on the internet. We’re not real life famous, not famous enough for a billionaire’s child to know who I am. I’m relieved, but I don’t want to give him any more information about me that might clue him in that he could discover every weird detail about my life with a Google search. Everything’s out there — all my embarrassing secrets. I just have to hope I can stay irrelevant here.

“We should probably stick to the assignment. Sorry. I’m just very… academic,” I say to him.

Thomas chuckles. Either he’s not buying my lie or he finds the idea of anyone considering this ethics discussion academic amusing. I don’t get it. He rakes his fingers through his hair and lets the light brown waves cascade over his neck. I smell something familiar on his hair, but as soon as I take the scent, Thomas leans away from me and the brief whiff travels too far away for me to pinpoint the smell. It’s familiar, but I can’t place it.

“Right. Well, we agree. Monogamy is the correct choice. Let’s construct our argument then,” Thoma says authoritatively.

He takes out a pen and begins writing in absolutely perfect cursive. I forget for the next thirty minutes that he’s annoying as hell Thomas Bainbridge. He’s just some guy in my class and he’s not completely stupid. He cites his sources, he seems to have read nearly everything and he even gets the obscure pop culture references I make to tie our argument together.

We have a lot of time to work on this project, but it’s a big question, so we’ll need to write and rewrite our script together. We have to submit the script as an essay to our professor before our presentation a few days in advance, so we’ll have to be efficient.

When the bell rings to end class, Thomas turns to me with a warm smile, a smile that makes me forget he’s a complete prick.

“Can we finish this in the library later? I’ve got to meet up with Sylvia before practice, but I’ve got time after. Around 8?”

My stomach twists thinking about what happened to Sylvia, but also remembering how close she seems to be to Thomas. I don’t get their friendship at all. I bet he likes Sylvia. Everyone has a crush on Sylvia already, but she’s been clear and strict: no boys. I doubt that would stop someone like Thomas.

“Library’s fine. Sylvia’s really upset about this morning. She could use a friend.”

“What happened?”

“Sorry. She asked me not to say,” I mumble.

He sounds really worried about Sylvia, but it’s not my place to share her personal business with Thomas. At least I can take pleasure in disappointing his annoying ass.

“Fucking hell.”

“Sorry. Bros before hoes, Thomas.”

“Am I the hoe in this situation?” He grumbles.

“Yup.”