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The girl poked her tongue in the side of her mouth and dropped her duffle, which was at least as big as she was. “And I answered you, genius. Jude Tiernay. Hello, Baron. I guess we meet again.” She drawled the words out as though we were slow, then put a finger beneath her nose. “What is that stench?”
Baron ignored the last question and crossed his arms over his chest, which he hadn’t bothered to cover with a shirt quite yet. He looked strangely invigorated, his morning sluggishness boiled rapidly away. He spoke her name slowly. “Jude Tiernay. What are you doing here?”
She looked around again, one eyebrow raised behind a pair of librarian glasses that I liked more than I should. “Apparently, I live here.”
Baron and I exchanged a look. “The hell you do!” The words flew from my lips, and Ezra’s door flew open.
“Could you please keep—oh. Who might you be?” He eyed the girl with interest.
She bared her teeth. “Ask your buddies.” Then, ignoring us, she went to one of the several doors off the common area and opened it. Baron’s room.
“Excuse me, Pinky—” Baron started.
“No. You are not calling me Pinky. And sorry—obviously not my room. If someone would just tell me, I wouldn’t have to guess.” She opened the next door.
“That’s mine,” I told her. “Look, I’m not trying to state the obvious, but there must be some mistake.”
Moving past Ezra to the last door, she swung it open and poked her head inside before tossing the duffel to the floor. She looked back at me, one hand on a narrow cocked hip. “Well, duh, there’s been a mistake. I’m a female and you all are Neanderthals. I’m quite certain Housing didn’t stick me here because they were feeling romantic.”
Ezra stepped forward. “This seems like a simple matter to set straight. We’ll just call Housing and —”
The girl—Jude—waved a hand. “Don’t bother. When I saw dude names on the paperwork, I called Housing and asked about what would happen if we didn’t like the room assignment. They said since it’s so late in the semester we would need to suck it up if that were the case. I assured them that it wouldn’t be a problem. We’re all grown-ups, right?”
Baron grunted, his eyes touching on her ass. I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at her. She seemed a lot less worried about this than I would have expected. She averted her eyes. “Look, I’m not going to hex you with my female-ness or otherwise impinge upon this little bro love nest thing you have going on. I’m going to eat, and sleep, and occasionally go potty. Okay?” She swiveled to enter her room.
“Hey.” I could only think of one thing to say to stop this steam engine from rolling right over us. Flattening us.
“What?”
“Don’t be leaving any of your feminine products laying around.”
With a roll of her eyes, she disappeared behind her closed door.
The guys and I looked at each other. Baron released a laugh and threw himself down on the couch. “There goes the neighborhood.”
“At least she’s pretty,” Ezra murmured.
“Oh, no. None of that,” I told them both. “That’s… that’s like the highway to hell, right there. No—” I raised my hand as Baron started to interrupt. “And she’s lying about calling Housing. I can tell. We need to work, instead, on getting her out of here. This is not how we want to end our senior year.”
Baron and Ezra exchanged looks. “Dude—” Baron began.
I shook my head, stopping him. “No. We cannot do this. One, we have a good thing going here. It’s been us for years—just us. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to screw with that, not now in our senior year. And two… ” I rubbed the back of my neck. “She’s too fucking hot to be here and not cause problems. Especially with how busy we all are, with no one dating anyone. We’d be fighting over that easy access in no time.” It was crude, but it was true. We all had a type and Jude Tiernay was it for each of us in different ways. She had the rebellious thing going with the pink hair, which appealed to Baron’s sense of independence. Her ass appealed to him, too, from the way he’d been checking it out. Ezra had no doubt zeroed in on the size of her tits beneath that sweatshirt. And me...it was her mouth that had done me in almost immediately. A perfect oval, plump with a pronounced bow.
I had a thing for mouths.
Ezra and Baron looked at each other doubtfully. “Brothers?” I pressed, raising my eyebrows and demanding their agreement in the only way I knew how, by referencing the pact we’d made years ago to be true to each other before chicks or anything else.
They hesitated only seconds before giving it to me. “Agreed.”
Chapter 4: Jude
Inside my room with the door securely closed, I checked my watch and took a restorative puff on my inhaler. I had done it. I had bullied my way in here, faked the perfect amount of confidence, and had gotten my room.
Now I just needed to keep it.
The one that had opened the door was going to be a problem, I knew. I hadn’t asked their names, although I already knew Baron’s. And wasn’tthata kick in the pants.
His eyes had positively gleamed with wickedness, secrets, and promises. I would have to stay away from him if I wanted this to work. I couldn’t afford to get involved with one and then have the others aggravated. Boys were just as stupid as girls with shit like jealousy.
