False Start - Jessica Ruddick Page 0,18
snap out of it. It wasn’t her fault I was short on brain cells. I’d known she wouldn’t help me much with the assignment, but when I had mentioned it to her and she’d offered to stop by, I hadn’t declined. Any excuse to hang out with Ziz was good enough for me. Besides, we’d been doing homework side by side for the better part of a decade. I knew I was more likely to actually do the work when she was there.
She took a notebook out of her bag, and a pink paper fluttered to the floor. I picked it up, but she snatched it out of my hand before I saw what was on it. So of course I grabbed it back and held it out of her reach so I could read it. She should have known that was coming. I’d been pulling that move forever.
“VVU homecoming court.” I grinned at her. “What’s this about?”
I let her take back the paper, and she immediately shoved it in her bag. “It’s nothing.”
Oh, Ziz. Sometimes for as smart as she was, she could be dumb. If her dismissive retort hadn’t given her away, her pink cheeks would have.
I laughed. “Aw, is my little Ziz going to be a princess?”
Her nostrils flared, a sure sign I’d struck a nerve. Interesting. She was easygoing about almost everything. As much as she’d hung around Roman and me growing up, she’d quickly developed a thick skin.
“It’s homecoming queen, not princess. And why is that funny?”
I shrugged. “You’re not a homecoming court kind of girl.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Shit. She was still flaring her nostrils. I’d done it now. Abort! Abort!
“It’s super girly.”
If looks could kill, I would be six feet under. So much for aborting. But what I’d said was true. She’d played field hockey in high school and was the type of person who would much rather be playing on the field than strutting across it.
“In case you hadn’t noticed, I am a girl.”
I’d definitely noticed. Too much. I shouldn’t appreciate how sexy she looked in those glasses, and I really shouldn’t have gotten a hard-on the other night when her tits rubbed against me while she was drunk. This was Zizzo, Roman’s little sister. My job was to scare off other guys. The trouble was I was the one who needed a good ass-kicking for the thoughts I’d had recently. But hell, she’d played with my nipples. I wasn’t necessarily into that, but any red-blooded male would react.
She was still glaring at me.
“Yes, you are,” I agreed. It seemed like the safest response.
She ripped her hair tie free, and her hair cascaded over her shoulders. If this weren’t Zizzo, I would think she was pulling a cheap move to show just how feminine she could be. But it was Zizzo, and it pained me to say the move worked. She tossed her head to throw her hair over her shoulder, creating a scene that would fulfill any adolescent boy’s naughty librarian fantasy.
Christ. I hoped they fixed the dry air problem in the engineering building soon so she could get back to wearing contacts. If she pulled that move around all those engineering nerds, one of them was bound to jizz in their pants. Hell. Who am I kidding? I was liable to as well.
“The other WIE girls want me to represent us on the court.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
“It just doesn’t seem like your thing.” Ziz had never been into traditionally girly stuff. She’d been happy to hang out with Roman and me throughout high school. While she’d had some girlfriends, she’d never been particularly close to any of them.
She met my gaze, and I couldn’t figure out what was going through her head. I knew Ziz better than anyone else at VVU, and the Ziz I knew would never want to be on homecoming court. I didn’t understand what was going on here.
“I’m going to do it.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
“I’m going to do it,” she repeated, nodding like she was still talking herself into it. What the hell? Just why? The experience would probably be miserable for her. But from the expression on her face, I knew it was something I wouldn’t be able to talk her out of. Ziz was stubborn once she made up her mind.
“Okay,” I said again. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”
“Tell your friends to vote for me, I guess.”
“I’ll tell everyone I know.”
“On second thought, just tell guys. Not girls.”
“Why?”
“Do you have