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“You like him,” she states the obvious.
“Duh.” I snort.
“No, Rory, youreallylike him. Like, you might even love him.”
“Shut up.” I roll my eyes, slipping out of my Converse and socks and into my shower slides.
“Look at you.” She lightly smacks the bed beneath her. “You do, don’t you?”
“Alina.” I give her a pointed look, not having the time for this.
“You spent the night with him. Why can’t you just admit you’re falling for him? Everyone can see it.”
“Fine. I’m falling for him,” I admit out loud. “Are you happy now?” I leave my cell on the dresser as I head toward the door.
“Extremely.” She squares her shoulders triumphantly, as if she’s just won some kind of medal.
“You’re ridiculous. I’m going to shower. I’m already so late.”
Without waiting for her to respond, I quickly tug the door open and step into the hall, praying that the showers aren’t too busy because at this rate, it’ll take a miracle to make it to class on time. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to give it my best shot, though.
Unfortunately, even my best efforts aren’t good enough, and I shove my way into Professor Osbourn’s class a whopping ten minutes late, meaning as soon as the heavy door thuds shut behind me, every set of eyes in the classroom swings toward me.
I duck my head, trying to hide the slight blush creeping up on my cheeks.
“You’re late, Miss Hensley,” Professor Osbourne states the obvious, drawing further attention to me.
Most professors don’t care if you come to class, don’t come to class, come in late—I guess they figure it’s your education on your dollar, so it’s up to you how seriously you take it. Professor Osbourne, however, is not quite so laid back. And of course, it’s her class I end up being late to.
“Sorry,” I murmur, taking my seat next to Lexi, who arches a curious brow at me as I settle in next to her, setting my bag on the floor before fishing out my laptop.
“Where have you been?” she whispers once Professor Osbourne has resumed her lesson.
“Overslept.” It’s not untrue, exactly.
“Liar.” She gives me a catlike grin. “You were with Archer.” She continues before I can deny it, though I’m not sure why I would at this point. I was in fact with Archer. “Tracy Chapman said she saw you going into his dorm last night. All the girls are talking about it.”
“They are?”
“Oh yeah. First you travel to an away game to watch him play wearing his jersey. Then you two are spotted eating out together. Followed by a party where I’m told you two were being quite handsy, and now this... Sounds to me like Archer Copeland has finally gotten himself a girlfriend. Lucky bitch.” She shoves my arm.
I open my mouth to... Well, I’m not sure what the hell was fixing to spill out before I hear a loud throat clearing, drawing my attention to the front of the room. Once again, Professor Osbourne is staring at me, along with half of the freaking class.
“You interrupted my lesson with your tardiness, Miss Hensley. The least you can do is pay attention now that you’re here.”
I want to stomp my foot and say it wasn’t me. I mean, it wasn’t. Lexi was the one gabbing like we were sitting in a restaurant sipping martinis. But instead, I only apologize and I do my best to pay attention for the remainder of the lesson.
And I do... Sort of.
I mean, I manage to avoid looking at Lexi even though I can feel her curious gaze slide to me every so often. But do I actually retain any of the day’s lesson? That would be a no. Because instead of listening to the material being taught, I’m too busy daydreaming about last night.
I can’t help it.
It’s like he left some kind of mark on me last night, imprinted himself so deeply that if I close my eyes, I can almost feel it. The brush of his hand. The warmth of his breath. The softness of his lips.
I thought I had control of the situation, but it turns out, I’m completely powerless. All the times I swore I would never give Archer the satisfaction of even looking at him and then here I went and fell in love with the bastard.
Shit... Did I just think that? I mean, yeah, I admitted to Alina that I was falling for him, but what I hadn’t actually stopped to consider is that I had already tumbled over that cliff days ago and have just been living in denial ever since.
