“I can’t believe the Pied Piper of all daredevils got injured at home. Are you sure you weren’t doing tricks with your skateboard?” she asks.
Troy chuckles. “No. I wish that were the case.”
He glances in my direction, catching me staring at the duo like an idiot. The girl follows his line of sight, and for a couple beats, her expression darkens.
“You must be Troy’s new roommate,” she says with a tight smile. “I’m Brooke.”
“Nice to meet you.” I get up from my seat with my plate in hand.
Troy arches his eyebrows. “Where are you going?”
“Now that you have company, I won’t feel bad for eating dinner in my room. I have lots to do before hitting the sack.”
He seems disappointed, but my eyes don’t linger on his face long enough to be sure that’s the case. Besides, why would he want to hang around me when there’s a Victoria’s Secret model standing in front of him?
Ugh, I sound like all those loser heroines with too much low self-esteem. When did I become that person?
16
CHARLIE
The drawback of bringing fajitas to my bedroom is that it stunk up the place. Food smells don’t belong where you sleep.
It was all for nothing anyway. Troy’s comment about our kiss and then seeing him with Brooke stole my appetite. I ended up having to throw the food away because I refused to return to the kitchen while they were still in the living room.
It was hard to concentrate on my work while their voices and laughter carried upstairs. The noise-canceling headphones helped, but then my imagination took over. I kept imagining Brooke smiling and touching Troy in an intimate way, and that kept my mind trapped in an endless torture loop. In the end, I gave up trying to work and called it a night.
I snuck out of the house pretty early, all in the hopes of avoiding Troy. My plan was a success, but that meant I was a zombie, and staying awake during classes could only be accomplished with copious amounts of coffee.
The good thing about today is that I’ll escape a Troy ambush again. There’s a game night at Fred’s, and those usually run late. Funny how yesterday I wanted Troy to answer my question, but today my bravado is gone. I don’t want to know if he was serious or not because if he was, I have no idea what I’ll do. Even if Troy is no longer acting like an asshole to me, he and I don’t mesh well together. We’re from different worlds. He’s a jock who enjoys extreme sports; I’m a nerd who gets excited by pretending to be a magical being on the weekends. There’s nothing wrong with our life choices, but we have nothing in common.
I’m on my way home to shower and get ready for tonight when Fred texts me.
Hey, it seems my place is double-booked. My roommate planned a special evening with his lady, and he’s begging me to postpone game night.
Crap on toast. I call him right away. “Hey, so what are you thinking? I was looking forward to tonight.”
“Me too. Do you think we can go to your house instead? It’s big enough.”
I groan. “I don’t know. I was hoping to avoid my roommate.”
“Oh shit. Is he still super mad about the chicken incident?”
“Yeah, something like that,” I lie.
I can’t tell Fred the reason I’m avoiding Troy is because we kissed. Fred has a big mouth, and he’d tell everyone he knows.
“Ah, don’t worry, Charlie. We’ll be there to defend you in case he decides to be a prick.”
“I don’t think he will. Let me check with him first, and then I’ll get back to you.”
“Okeydokey.”
Damn it. There goes my plan to avoid Troy for one more day.
I wait until I get to the house to text him. His reply comes a minute later. He doesn’t mind. I didn’t think he would even though I was kind of hoping for a negative answer.
An hour later, Fred and Blake are at my door, carrying all the food for tonight’s sustenance. It’s only Tuesday, and while the board games we play usually run for hours, none of us have classes in the morning, so it works perfectly. It’s the only day of the week we can make it happen since we’re usually too busy on the weekends.
We’re just about to start when someone rings the doorbell.