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“Not that often.” Nicole shrugged. “Like I don’t do anything bad, it’s—”
“Your clothes,” Jesse filled in.
Trinity had a uniform all students were required to wear during classes. However, most students changed into something more comfortable as soon as the final bell rang, and Jesse and Nicole were no exception.
“Yup.” Nicole sat up, grabbing a thin hair tie from around her wrist and gathering her dark curls into a high ponytail. Her hair swished around her shoulders as she wound the hair tie through her tangled hair. “I should wear my longer skirts and non-cropped shirts, but that involves going home to pick them up, which I don’t want to do. Edgewood didn’t have a dress code, so I left all the clothes I didn’t like at home.”
“Going home’s not so bad,” Jesse said tentatively. “Have you tried talking to your parents since you transferred back?”
“Nope. Don’t want to.”
“You can’t avoid them forever.”
Nicole leveled him with a flat stare. “The last time I heard from my parents, they emailed me to say not to pay attention to the news articles being published about them. Oh, and if I cared, my mom was signing onto a three-film contract, and my dad bought and knocked downyet anotherhotel. No questions about how I was doing. No asking how I was settling back into Trinity. Nothing. My mom thinks she’s the mom of the year because she sent me to her alma mater, never mind that I hated it.”
Jesse let the subject drop, standing and wandering over to two desks pushed against the wall. He picked up a pen and lazily spun it in his fingers before dropping it on top of a stack of unread textbooks. Jesse was pretty sure they were his, but he hadn’t touched them in months. One of the good things—if not the only good thing—about being dyslexic was that he often got away with skipping the assigned reading. If there wasn’t an audio version of the textbook, Jesse would watch a five minute video on YouTube and call it a day.
“I’m bored.”
Nicole barked a laugh. “Well, you have me for another few minutes, but then I’ve got to go. Better things to do with my time and that shit.”
Sighing, Jesse flopped back down on his bed. “I could do my homework,” he said, slinging an arm over his eyes. “But it’s Monday, and I’m tired, and I don’t want to.”
“So don’t do it.”
“I’m not. But I don’t know what else to do.”
“Read a book. Watch a show. Write in your diary.”
“I don’t have a diary!” Jesse objected, tossing a pillow at his best friend.
It landed in Nicole’s lap, and she cleared her throat before using the pillow as a makeshift desk for her invisible pen.
“Dear diary,” Nicole said mockingly, pretend-writing on the pillow. “Today I pretended to like a guy to get close to his cousin! And I’m sure he has no idea, because he’s a fool and can’t see that I’m playing him! Love, Raina!”
“Nicole!” Jesse shot off the bed, his chest heaving as he glared at her. Did Nicole have to bring this up every single time they were alone? “Stop it. You’re not funny.”
Nicole rolled her eyes, the pillow falling off her lap as she stood. “Fine. I’ll just go to tutoring then.”
“Nicole—”
But the door was already swinging shut. Scrubbing a hand down his face, Jesse sunk back onto his bed.
How did his life get so complicated? A little over a month ago, everything was simple. Both his crush and his best friend were at Trinity, a new couple had blossomed, and everything was going great.
Now, Jesse was desperately trying to get over his feelings for Raina, and Nicole wouldn’t stop rubbing salt in the wound. Jesse had been forced to choose a side, and he’d chosen Nicole’s—but she didn’t always make it an easy decision.
ChapterTwo
The best part of having cousins was that he had easy targets. And it didn’t matter to Jesse whether or not his cousins were conscious when the battle lines were drawn. A smirk crept onto his face as he took another step closer to a sleeping Theo, pillow held high above his head. It flew downward in a swift motion, nailing Theo in the face.
“Wake the fuck up!”
“No,” Theo moaned dramatically, draping a hand over the side of the bed. “Sleeeeeep.”
Jesse rolled his eyes before yanking Theo’s blanket away. Ignoring his cousin’s cries of protest, Jesse made his way over to Dean’s bed and prepared the pillow.
“I’m up,” Dean said before Jesse could swing, shoving himself into an upright position. “I’m up.”
