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“I’m inviting myself in,” he warns as he follows in after me.
I laugh as I wave him in. “Feel free, I guess.” I put my purse down on my desk and flop down on my bed, waiting for him to get to the point of why he followed me up here. I know he has a reason, he must.
“Cute llama,” he teases, pointing to the one I keep on my bed that Shelby bought me. I smile but wait him out. He starts to blush under my stare and it makes my grin grow wider. He runs his hand through his hair as he looks around my room without letting his eyes meet mine. He must be curious as to how I ended up here. Even if I didn’t want to stay in the house with the other female legacies, I could have just gotten my own place. He doesn’t comment on it though.
“You don’t love that asshole,” he declares all of a sudden.
I check my nails and click my tongue. “We’ve established that, yes.”
“You’re not stuck, or at least you shouldn’t be. You should have options, resources. Help,” he expands. I drop my hand and wait for him to ask his question. But he doesn’t ask one. “The only explanation is you have a plan. You said he found your price, but I refuse to believe it’s one you’re willing to keep paying. Not when things are going the way they are.”
I roll my lips together as I study him. No one knows about the blackmail. No one can know about it. “Okay?”
“I want to help.”
I open my mouth to respond but am quick to close it. Before I can formulate a response, the door opens and Shelby saunters in. “Oh hey. What’s Jake doing here?”
“Umm, have we met?” he asks, turning his attention to her.
“No.” I close my eyes and put my face in my hands. So much for playing it cool, Babe. “I’m Shelby. Bri’s roommate,” she introduces.
“Jake.” He reaches his hand out to shake hers. “But apparently you already know that?” He looks to me for confirmation. I just wave my hand at the pair of them, like at this point let’s all just roll with it.
Shelby shrugs, throwing herself down beside me on my bed. “I made it my business to know everything about everyone in the house with Carson.”
“She’s part of the plan,” he points out, as if it’s an argument in his favor.
“Oh, are we officially adding Jake to the plan?” Shelby beams at me. I roll my eyes at her.
“Am I unofficially a part of the plan?” he questions.
She hums to herself. “Well, not you, so much as your family.”
I throw my hands up in the air. “Why don’t you just show him his binder?”
“Oh, that’s a good idea!” she exclaims, popping up to go and find it.
Jake’s head whips toward me. “I have a binder?”
“It was sarcasm, Shelbs.”
She waves me off, clearly unconcerned about sharing this with him. I can’t think of any specific reason not to. He has proven to be trustworthy so far. I just never thought this would turn into a group project. I’ve felt so lost and alone this whole time, I almost don’t know what to do now that I don’t have to feel that way any longer.
“Apparently she’s taken a liking to you,” I muse as I stare at Jake.
He grins at me. Psycho isn’t even perturbed over the fact we’ve essentially been stalking him. “We’ve already agreed that I am a lady killer.”
“Yes, yes,” I tease. “You make all the ladies scream.”
“Ah!” Shelby pops back up on her feet, several binders in hand. “Here’s yours.” She hands Jake his, throwing the other two on the bed beside me. He starts flipping through the pages as I check out the other two binders she brought out. I point at them in question, but she just lifts a shoulder noncommittally. “Might as well get some more work done.”
“Umm you have my blood type in here?”
Shelby nods, deadpanning, “I’m very thorough.”
Jake continues to flip through the pages of his binder, scoffing and murmuring as he does. “Really my third grade test scores?”
I start to giggle, cause I’m actually on his side for this one. I have no idea how Shelby got her hands on some of the details she did, but not all of them are really necessary. Though they are fun.
