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“I was waiting for you,” he says. “First at the bar when you said you were going to the bathroom, then outside the dorms. But you never came home last night. Were you with this hockey player all night?”
“I don’t owe you an explanation, Zack.”
“She doesn’t owe you anything,” Sammy growls.
“I wasn’t talking to you, Samantha,” he fires back. “I was asking why Devon left me standing there at the bar when she said she’d be right back.”
“I wasn’t there with you, Zack.” I’m trying not to pull my hair because he’s seriously grating on my nerves right now. Have been for a while. “We weren’t there together. I mean, you get that, right? You just showed up.”
“To see you—”
“That’s not her problem, dude,” Sammy says.
“This isn’t your business, Samantha, so shut up,” he spits.
Sammy recoils like he just slapped her, and the blood in my veins starts to boil over. My body heats up as the anger rises within me like a dark and malevolent tide, and before I know what I’m doing, I step forward and thrust my finger into his face, pulse pounding in my temple.
“Don’t you dare talk to her that way,” I snap. “In fact, don’t you dare talk to her at all. And while I’m at it, leave me alone too, Zack. You don’t own me. We’re not even friends. Not really. And I don’t owe you an explanation for anything.”
“You don’t mean that, Devon. We’re friends,” he whines. “We’re a lot more than friends.”
“Only in your mind, Zack. And from here on out, don’t you dare think about talking to me. Don’t even look at me. Just leave me the fuck alone!”
And with that, I grab Sammy’s arm and we head away quickly, leaving Zack standing there, his face red, his eyes narrowed, and people all around him whispering and giggling at his expense.
5
DAWSON
It’s hard to miss the furtive looks or hear the hushed whispers as I walk through the student union. I’m well-versed in ignoring them, though.
I’m on a mission. I weave through the maze of tables that fill the center of the cavernous room, my eyes in constant motion. It takes a few minutes, but I finally spot her. With a wide smile on my face, I make my way over to the table where she's sitting with half a dozen of her friends. When she looks up and sees me standing there, her eyes widen in shock and a startled laugh bursts from her throat.
“Dawson,” she gasps. “W-what are you doing here?”
“Practice ended early because we’ve got a game tonight, so I stopped by to see you.”
Three of the six other people at the table recognize me, and their expressions are even more shocked than Devon’s. They exchange looks and quiet words as she stands up and pulls me off to the side, her cheeks flushing and an adorably awkward smile on her lips.
Behind us, her friends are gaping at us and whispering amongst themselves, all while trying to keep from making it look too obvious they’re talking about us. It makes me laugh.
“How did you find me here?” Devon asks. “I mean, the campus is huge.”
“I pinged your phone.”
Her mouth falls open and she gapes at me. “You pinged my phone?”
“Well, I didn't do it. I'm not quite that tech-savvy,” I tell her. “I know a guy who knows a guy who did it for me though.”
She giggles again and shakes her head. “You could have just called me, you know.”
“Yeah, but you wouldn’t have been as impressed as you are if I just showed up out of the blue like this.”
“Who says I’m impressed?” She scoffs. “In fact, who’s to say I don’t think you pinging my phone like that is creepy and stalkerish?”
“Your eyes tell me you’re impressed.”
Devon giggles then bites her bottom lip in that adorably sexy way that drives me wild, making it increasingly harder to keep my hands off her.
