Page 79 of Mad Boys


Font Size:  

I gave him a thumbs up as I adjusted the strap of my bag over my shoulder. It wasn’t my backpack or my book bag, just a standard purse. I didn’t normally carry one on campus, but we weren’t allowed to bring books or other materials into the tests.

There were other students threading their way out. Jonas caught my arm when I reached him and pulled me to the side just as Payton stumbled and hit the door frame. Fuck, that looked like it hurt. She shot a look of pure venom at me and I rolled my eyes.

Whatever. Apparently, the day I’d been born, I’d pissed in her Wheaties. I didn’t care, especially not right now. “Hey,” I said to Jonas. “Thanks.”

“No problem. She hates you.”

“Feeling’s almost mutual.”

A flash of a smile touched his lips.

“Do you mind hanging out a few?” I hadn’t expected Ramsey to need to talk to me, but I also really didn’t want to do this alone. For now, it would be better if I limited my time with Lachlan and Ramsey to when we had company.

Safer for all of us.

“Nope,” he said. “You don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to.”

“I know.” I pulled the strap over crossbody and then leaned against the wall next to him as the testing hall emptied.

Lot of students in literature. The volume from the hall increased. It was like as soon as you passed through the door, you were free.

Yet, here I was waiting to talk to Ramsey. Why? Fuck if I knew. “It’s fine,” I told Jonas. “He asked. I don’t know what it is, but we’re almost done for the semester. Are you leaving Friday?”

“No,” he said, with a sigh. “Thursday night. No finals on Friday. Going to see my Dad before I go to Tahoe.”

“Cool.”

“You?” He eyed me and I lifted a shoulder. “Saturday. Aubrey has finals on Friday, and Yvette is driving down. We’ll fly together to California.”

“Spending the holidays—”

“Hey,” Ramsey said as the last student left. “Thanks for waiting.”

“Sure,” I said, facing him. Jonas didn’t say anything, but he was right there, like a comforting presence. There was something to be said about how quiet he could be. It irritated me when he would just sit there and stare before. I had no idea why.

Now, I got it. He didn’t talk unless he had reason. I could respect that.

“What’s up?” Suddenly, I wanted the biggest cheeseburger. Maybe fries and a shake. Oh, chili fries and a chocolate shake. No strawberry. My stomach growled and Ramsey shot me an amused look.

“I won’t keep you long if you’re hungry.”

He wouldn’t be keeping me at all, but I kept that to myself. Ramsey flicked a look at Jonas then at me.

“I have a couple of things I wanted to talk to you about. First…thank you.”

“For… what?” I was drawing a blank. “We just finished the test with everyone else.”

His expression turned droll. “For what you said to the dean.”

“Oh.” I shook my head. Fuck, that seemed forever ago. “Been a long week or two…” Actually, I didn’t even remember when that conversation was, other than it was done. “Yeah, no problem.”

Ramsey stared at me, a frown tightening his forehead. “They told me you cleared me for everything. That it was you who kissed me.”

“Why don’t you shout it a little louder?” I suggested. “People in the hall might not have heard.”

“They won’t,” Jonas offered in a cool tone. “These halls tend to be better about sound proofing for the tests.” Well, that was something. “Why did you defend him?”

I turned to Jonas. “I didn’t. He said some shitty things and he’s had some shitty opinions. I don’t need him to get fired because someone took a picture of us and sold it.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like