Kiss King - Mickey Miller Page 0,40

been back from Italy. After all, it is my birthday.

We take the early train back and when we arrive it’s barely even ten a.m.

“Whoa, back already?” April says. “That was so quick.”

“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a person healthy wealthy and wise.”

April grins. “You’ve been hanging out with Grant.”

“Obviously. Where’s Alex?”

“She’s with DJ…obviously.”

I grin. “Well, good for her.”

The wheels in my head turn, and I look down at the last good night text I sent Jude. He never responded. I wonder what kind of night he had?

A devious grin pulls at my lips. Maybe he’d like a surprise.

“I’ll be back in a bit,” I tell April, and take off through the snowy quads for the Lambda house where Jude lives. I press the code to get in, see one of the frat guys Jeff who is playing video games on the couch in the main room.

I head up the stairs to the very last door on the third floor, where Jude lives in a single, and quietly open it.

Without even looking at him, I shut the door oh-so-quietly, then turn around with a huge grin.

My grin dissipates immediately when I see that there’s a long-haired redhead sleeping curled up in Jude’s arms.

12

Maya

“Are you. Fucking. Kidding me.”

My blood boils, and he spins around, his eyes drowsy. He reeks of booze.

Jude blinks his eyes open, and the redhead next to him stirs, too. “What…where am I…?” he asks to no one in particular.

I take a deep breath and run my thumb and forefinger over the bridge of my nose.

The redhead sits up, and at least she’s got a bra on. “Oh my gosh, J. You said you two weren’t serious.”

I look him dead in the eye. “Fuck you, asshole. I’m out of here.”

“Wait. Don’t go, Maya.”

I walk outside and slam the door as hard as I can and run quickly down the stairs. Jude catches up to me in the stairwell. “Maya, wait. Where are you going?”

I spin around to him, and I’m on fire, my eyes wet with tears. “The last week in Italy, I asked you if you wanted to keep this going. And you said, ‘yes, definitely.’ So, if you want to fuck around, just tell me!”

He rolls his eyes. “We were never exclusive.”

“Excuse me?”

“When I said I wanted to ‘keep this going,’ I meant just keep hanging out and having a good time.”

I raise an eyebrow. “So, you just never bothered to correct me all the times I introduced you as my boyfriend?”

He shrugs. “Boyfriend doesn’t mean exclusive… necessarily.”

“Don’t try to lawyer out of this like you’ve got some evolved morals. The bottom line is, it’s my birthday today and you slept with someone else. You’re a dirt bag.”

He opens his mouth to say something to that, but just closes it back up.

“Hope she’s worth it. You’ve made a choice. So, stick with it.”

He scoffs. “Oh, you’re acting like you’re such a saint. You were sleeping in a bed with Grant last night.”

“First, we slept head to toe. Second, I told you I was staying with Grant because I have nothing to hide because we’re not fucking each other, unlike you and—why am I still standing here? Goodbye forever, Jude.”

“Oh, my word,” Faith says as I sniffle into her shoulder. “What an uncouth man. Well, it’s better you found out now than, you know. After you’re engaged, or worse, married.”

“I know.” Not that an engagement with Jude would ever have happened, though. And my heart smiles on the inside hearing Faith use ‘uncouth,’ a word only she would use. “Yeah, I’m mad, hurt, feeling used but…I wasn’t that into Jude. In fact, I feel a weight off my shoulders thinking about a future where I don’t have to worry about his passive-aggressive remarks about me going on a trip with a friend when I invited him.”

“Jackass,” Faith quips.

Alex, April, Charlotte, and Donnie all hear the commotion and come out of their rooms.

“Well, there’s an easy solution to this,” Alex says.

“Oh yeah, what’s that?”

“Yeah,” she says. “Let’s go out and get drunk tonight. It’s your freaking birthday, babe! Happy Twentieth!”

Tonight, we go out and I’m happy as well as sad. Happy because I have a terrific crew of friends. Sad because I was so blindsided and feel foolish. How long was this going on for? Did he even take our relationship seriously at all?

We all stumble back and laugh too much, too loudly, acting silly. I notice Grant reading in the lounge and hang back with him.

“I