MY FIRST THOUGHT IS THAT it’s hot as balls in my room.
Kicking the covers off, I blindly reach for my phone and squint through the sunlight filling my small room to peek at the time.
Two o’clock.
PM.
Mouth dry, I pull a pillow over my head to block out the light, groaning. When a small, warm body snuggles up next to me, my eyes fly open. Peeking under the pillow, I spot bright purple tendrils sprawled on my chest and I sigh, smiling, pulling Shawna in closer.
“Morning,” she says, her voice hoarse.
I chuckle. “Morning.”
“I stayed the night.”
“You stayed the night.”
She pauses for a moment, thinking, then plants a kiss on my chest. “I’m hungry.”
I laugh just as my door swings open and Skyler bounds through.
“Scoot over,” she says, crawling into bed on the other side of me before I have the chance to say otherwise. When she notices the other girl in the bed, she smiles, blue eyes bright. “Oh my God, you must be Shawna! I’m Skyler, Bear’s Little. I’ve heard so much about you!”
“Same here, chica!”
“I brought bagels again,” Skyler says, tossing the bag in my lap. I’m still trying to process the fact that I have two girls in my bed right now.
“You da real MVP,” Shawna says, rummaging through it like a raccoon, hair a mess, mascara smeared from having my dick rammed down her throat last night.
Again, still processing here.
“How was the tournament?” I ask Skyler, propping my pillow up behind me.
“Long, but I won.” She waggles her eyebrows and I throw her a high five. “More importantly, how was the fucking Fratalina Wine Mixer?! Tell me everything.”
“Well, let’s see.” I rub my chin, the pieces of last night slowly coming together. “We had slap the bag tournaments. Ashlei and Bo actually won, believe it or not.”
“Those girls can drink some wine.”
“Indeed. And your Little showed up with that dude who bought her at the auction. She was dressed way differently than she usually is — all black, leather jacket, crazy makeup. Turned a lot of heads.”
“My Little?”
“Yep.”
“Cassie.”
“Cassie.”
Skyler chews on that for a moment. “Interesting.”
“Yeah. Your boyfriend was here, too,” I add, shifting a bit.
“Really? That’s awesome. I was afraid he wouldn’t come since I didn’t.”
“I think he enjoyed himself.”
She smiles. “That’s good.”
What I don’t tell her is that I didn’t just see Adam. In fact, I had a pretty drunken heart-to-heart with him after seeing the scene between him and Cassie unfold. I don’t know where the kid’s head is at, but I know for fucking sure that I’m not going to sit back and watch him dick Skyler or Cassie around — and I told him that. He assured me he would never hurt either of them, but I could see it on his face — confusion. Adam Brooks is caught up in a game I’m not even sure he knows he’s playing. By the time he left, I know I had his wheels spinning. I just hope he takes the time to think about what he wants right now.
“What about Ex?” Skyler asks as Shawna passes her the bagel bag, licking cream cheese spread off her fingers.
Focus, Bear.
“Yeah she was here for a while. She mostly hung around that dude from the auction.”
“She’s been weird lately. Distant. More controlling than normal.”
I laugh. “Is that possible?”
Skyler shakes her head. “I wish I was joking.”
The girls start talking about how Skyler got into poker and I take my opportunity to relieve myself. When I’m behind the bathroom door, I remember the interaction between Erin and me last night. She practically avoided me all night, which isn’t anything out of the normal, really, but when we did end up in the same place and I tried talking to her, she teared up, running out of the room without so much as a word.
And she was worried about me after we hooked up.
There’s a reason everyone calls her Ex.
I wash my hands and make my way back into my room, casually picking up the random trash from the night before. Skyler and Shawna are cuddled up, staring at something on Shawna’s phone and laughing.
“Are you cleaning?” Shawna asks.
“Just picking up a little.”
“Oh, can you put on a little apron?” Shawna sits up in bed, excited.
“Maybe use one of those little feather dusters?” Skyler adds.
“Yes! And talk with a French accent.”
They high five and I just stand there gaping.
“Shit,” I murmur, scrubbing my hands down my face. “I’m in real trouble with you two, aren’t I?”
They both giggle and settle back into the sheets, their direction fixed on the phone again. I shake my head just as a loud knock sounds at the front door.
“No making out while I’m gone.” I say pointedly, mostly to Skyler.
“No promises.” She winks and Shawna holds up two fingers, lewdly waving her tongue between them.
Lord help me.
I can’t quite shake that image from my head as I walk down the hall, but when I wade through the brothers sleeping on the floor and the trash spread everywhere and find Alec on the other side of the peep hole, my stomach drops.
Squinting at the sun as I open the door just a fraction, hoping to hide the mess inside from the one alumni who’s managed to shut us down for half a semester, I force a smile.
“Hey, Alec. What brings you by?”
His jaw is set, mouth in a thin line, and it dawns on me that I probably don’t want to know the answer to my own question.
“We need to talk.”