Pushing Limits (Fighting Love #1) - kali cross Page 0,69
guess I’ll see you there. Did you start the paper for political science yet?”
“No.” I glance away. What now I exist?
“Have you decided which topic you’re writing on?” he asks.
I stare at him. What the fuck? What now we’re friends? “Uh-no,” I say, looking across the quad.
“I think I’m going to write on Political Action Committees.” His face is the very vision of someone who is damned pleased with himself. Really? My God, this guy is so full of himself. He asks, “Do you want to work together on it? We could meet in the library after your last class.”
So that’s his game. Dumb jock probably thinks he can charm me into doing his paper for him. “No thanks. I think I’m going to write on something else. I do a lot of my work in my room anyway.”
“I don’t mind working in your room if you would be more comfortable that way.” His smile is bright with a touch of a leer.
“Sorry, I think I’ll go it alone,” I say.
“That’s how you do a lot of things, isn’t?” He laughs. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? “You seem very independent,” he adds hastily, smiling down at me.
“Karen, we better go. We promised to meet Sally at the dorm,” I say, pulling at her elbow. This has all become too surreal. I need to go.
“Bye, Babe.” Karen kisses Jerrod on the lips, tenderly stroking his cheek.
“I’ll call you later, ok?” Jerrod says with a broad grin.
We make our way across the quad before Karen says, “What was that all about? I mean Bobby barely speaks to you, and now he’s trying to get you to study with him.” A romantic look crosses her tawny face as she says, “He is a hottie though, I must say. And, if you dated him, we could double.”
I stop dead in my tracks and turn to her. “Karen, do I look like a girl who goes on double dates?”
She giggles. “Yeah, that is definitely not your scene.”
“And…I have a boyfriend. Well, kind of a boyfriend, I mean I’m seeing someone. Anyway, I’m not interested in playing the field.” I smile to myself remembering Tommy’s comment, I don’t share. Thinking about it makes my stomach clench.
“Sorry. You’re right. You know he’s welcome to come with us on Friday.”
“I know. But, he can’t. He has to work on his ranch. I won’t see him for a few more weeks. Calving season.”
“Oh-ok. But you can still go out, right?”
I eye her and say, “Of course.”
Karen starts chatting on about Jerrod and the latest cool thing he did to make her feel special. I zone out feeling a pang of sadness. As we get closer to the dorm, a group of four girls merges in front of us on the sidewalk.
“I heard she bought her way in. I guess her mom made some huge endowment to the college when she got here. My girlfriend was waitlisted and she had a great SAT scores and top grades in high school. That’s not right.”
The blond says, “From what I heard, her family is rich. Like really rich. Bill Gates, rich.”
“I can’t believe someone can buy her way in. It’s wrong.”
Are they talking about me? How would they know about my mom’s endowment? They have to be talking about someone else. This school is full of rich kids. They have to be. I want to crawl into a hole. I hope they aren’t talking about me but what if they are? Shit!
The girls veer off to the student union, and I turn to Karen, hoping to get my mind off those girls. “So, it looks like things are going well with Jerrod.”
She smiles shyly, her face looking down to hide her emerald eyes. A light pink color hues her cheeks. “Yeah, things are going well. Being with him is going better than I could have imagined. Turns out, he was incredibly jealous that night in Mulligan’s.” She sighs. “Later, he showed me how much.” She smiles, looking away to hide her face again. “I worry if I’m going to keep his interest, you know? He’s had a lot more, uh, relationships than I have.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that. No two people are the same.” I wink, “if you know what I mean.”
Karen blushes again and shrugs her shoulders. “What if he gets bored with me?” She looks away. “I’ve only ever wanted Jerrod. I waited for four years for him to notice me. Don’t get me wrong; I dated.”