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The link loads, I follow the line next to my name…and everything comes crashing down.
“What?” I gasp. I press my index finger to the screen and trace the line from my name to the C minus. There must be an error. I handed this in on Tuesday, and it’s Thursday. He corrected them way too quickly. I spent hours on this essay…how?
The happiness that was in me seconds ago turns heavy. I’ve been working on this essay in between seeing Xi and doing all sorts of stupid tasks for the Xi Ep initiations.
My phone ringing practically makes me jump out of my chair. I look down at Xi’s name and answer right away.
“I’m in front of your window, cupcake.” It’s always strange to hear a sweet nickname in such a flat tone. Xi has this weird way of making everything sound like it’s nothing to him, even though I know I get more human emotions from him than anyone else. A cute nickname is probably his best effort.
My eyes are still on the catastrophic grade I just got, my brain anticipating the disappointment from my dad when he learns about it. I can’t tell him.
“Hello?”
“Uh, yeah, sorry.”
“I’m not coming in tonight. You’re coming out.” His calm order is everything that defines him, and it pulls at something inside me. Wouldn’t everything be so much simpler if all I had to do was listen to Xi? But that’s not how life is. Life is college and money. It’s pressure from my dad, the Stoneview world, and the girls I surround myself with.
Life is more complicated than falling for the heartless boy from the wrong side of town.
“It’s a Thursday,” I tell him without much fight in my voice.
“Oh no, please don’t tell my mom.”
I roll my eyes even though he can’t see me. “You know sarcasm is meant to have at least an undertone of mockery. You can’t make jokes with a flat tone.”
“I seem to be getting away with it just fine. Come out.”
I head over to my window and glance down at him on the front lawn. He’s wearing a black hoodie with a black baseball cap and black jeans.
“How many black hoodies do you have? I already have one of yours.”
“Keeping it for when you miss me, cupcake? Give it back. You can have me whenever you want.”
“It’s mine now, sorry,” I say playfully. “I own it.”
“And I own you. Full circle.”
I have to refrain myself from sighing with pleasure. I feel like the main character in the songStyle, knowing there is this man who has the strangest effect on me, and there’s no way I can control it. Knowing that he could be so bad for me, yet only wanting more of him. He taps into some unexplored desires I want to show him.
Being owned? By Xi? Yes, please.
“Are you going to come down, or do I have to come up and get you?”
“Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou Romeo?”
“Romeo is going to spank your ass if you keep quoting Shakespeare instead of coming down.”
“Big fan of British literature, too, huh?”
“Alex,” he growls. “Why are you diverting the conversation?”
I huff, aware I’ve been completely caught. “I received a bad grade.”
There’s a moment of silence as I watch his unmoving shadow on the lawn. I imagine him blinking at me and not understanding why I’m so upset. I expect Xi to mock me. Wouldn’t even take it the wrong way if he did. I know how ridiculous I sound. He’s twenty-four and didn’t go to high school. Worrying about grades has never been an issue for him. Even my friends don’t understand why I make such a big deal out of it. They don’t know the pressure I’m handling at home.
“Okay,” he says slowly, as if thinking twice about what to say. “You’re upset. Do you want to talk to me about it?”
Oh, God.I expected anything, but I did not expectthat.
