AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What the actual hell?” I turn wide eyes on my best friend. “Do you see what I mean? He did this on purpose. It’s a game to him. He gets some sick pleasure out of messing with me. Why?” I ask her like she’s going to have a single fucking clue herself.
“My guess, he wants to fuck you and this is his way in.”
“Shut up.” I balk.
“I’m serious. Why else does a man bother?”
“Because he hates me and wants to make me miserable?”
“If there’s one thing I know, it’s men, and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, he does not hate you. Men don’t look at women the way he just looked at you unless...”
“Unless what?”
“Did you ever stop to consider that maybe he likes you?” She grins like a sadistic alley cat about to pounce on an unsuspecting mouse. “Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you’re one of the only girls on campus who doesn’t fall at his feet. Maybe he likes a challenge and, Rory, you are that in spades.”
“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult.”
“The former.” She pushes upright, brushing off the grass on her hands onto the sides of her shorts. “I think maybe he wants to know what’s hidden beneath all this built-up tension you carry around, and he’s hoping he can relieve it, if you know what I mean.” She wiggles her perfectly manicured eyebrows at me.
“You’re reaching.” I shove my computer into my bag, no longer feeling like I can concentrate enough to do schoolwork at the present moment.
“Maybe.” She gives me a one-shouldered shrug. “Guess there’s only one way to find out.”
“I am not doing this project with him,” I insist, even though really, I don’t know if getting out of it is even possible. I’m guessing not. Still doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.
“Looks to me like you might not have a choice. Are you really going to let Archer Copeland keep you from getting an A?” She gives me a knowing look, knowing full well that isn’t an option. Laboe only accepts the best of the best, and there are far too few positions available for me to risk getting a poor grade in this, or any other class.
“So then what do I do?”
“If he wants to play, then play.”
“I’m not sure I know what that means.”
“It means, do the project. Play his game. And make sure you make the entire situation as uncomfortable as possible. Maybe then next time he’ll think twice.”
“Uncomfortable how?”
“You’re a smart girl. You’ll figure it out.”
“Make him uncomfortable,” I murmur to myself, the wheels starting to turn. “You know, sometimes I like the way you think.”
I may not be bold and outgoing like Alina, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a backbone. I’m just not quite so vocal about it. But if you push me too hard, eventually Iwillpush back.
I don’t know what Archer’s problem with me is. It’s like he walked into my class that day, took one look at me, and decided I would be fun to screw with. It didn’t help that we were doing paintings of the male form and the man was practically naked in front of me for days. I blushed crimson every time I had to focus in on an area close to the small strip of fabric that covered his only hidden body part. It also didn’t help that the asshole looked like he was chiseled from freaking stone perched on top of that stool, his piercing gray eyes seeming ever locked on me as I tried so hard to focus on my work.
After that, every time we’d see each other, he’d wink or smile, like he was remembering my reaction to his near naked form. And what’s more, like he enjoyed it.
He’s never said more to me than a few words here or there in passing. Just enough to make me squirm before sauntering off. At first, I was a little captivated by the beauty of him, I won’t lie. But I soon realized his qualities are only skin-deep. Not that I know him really, but I know his type and trust me when I say, he’s not someone you want to involve yourself with, especially if you have any real self-worth.
Alina’s right. I’m either going to have to fail, or suck it up and get through it. Unfortunately, neither one of them feels like viable options. I know what Alina said—that I should make him regret roping me into this, but at the end of the day, I’m not sure I can. I’m not that person. I mean, I wish I were. I wish I were strong and brave and unafraid to take on the world like Alina, but not all of us are wired the same way.
Even still, I’m not giving up without a fight. I will go talk to Professor Clemens in private before I accept defeat. Maybe I can make her see reason and save this project yet.
“Let me guess, she saidno?” Are the first words out of Alina’s mouth when I push my way inside our dorm room.
She’s lying on her stomach across the center of her bed, Enzo propped up against the headboard with his legs resting over hers, his cell phone just a few inches from his face. He lowers it to look at me when I plop down dramatically on my bed with an audible sigh.
“What gave it away, besides the look of utter devastation on my face?”
