Stay For Me - Megan Smith Page 0,11

like to love someone and have something happen that prevents you from being with them or making a life together? To fight against what you want the most?

If it is, I’m glad I’m still single. I couldn’t deal with what they are going through. You can see that they are still in love with each other but something huge is standing in their way. And until they are at least able to meet halfway, they won’t be able to get past it anytime soon.

Layla

A few days after the opening of Fierce, Jaylinn finally opened up to me about what happened with her and Cooper. She started off by telling me she met Eli through Cooper and Mason back at Boston University, he played baseball with them, and they became friends quickly. It was like having another big brother she said.

“That’s a hard life to live having Eli as a pseudo big brother, I bet.” I say, rolling my eyes.

She giggles. “Oh, it was hard alright.”

Eyes wide, I stare at her. “Do you mean what I think you mean?”

She nods.

“How do you know this?”

She blushes and turns her head. “Well, it was hard to miss. One night the guys went out to a party and I was hanging at Cooper’s doing my homework. They came home sometime in the middle of the night and I was asleep on the couch. When I got up the next morning Eli was laying on the other couch. His clothes were stripped off in a pile on the floor, one arm up above his head and the other laying low on his stomach; he was clutching the blanket that was barely covering him. I was trying to be quiet when I got up to go to the bathroom but I stubbed my toe on the coffee table. Eli must have turned and the blanket slipped off. I fell down on my knee holding my toe on the other foot trying like hell not to scream from the pain. When I finally caught my breath, I opened my eyes and was eye level with his crotch. I looked up to see if I woke him up, and, of course, I did, he was just lying there smiling like a Cheshire cat.” Jaylinn shakes her head. “Then he had the nerve to tell me to make myself useful while I was down there. I about freaking died.”

I almost fall out of my chair laughing. It’s a snorting, holding your stomach, cheeks hurting kind of laughing. The look on her face was priceless while she told me the story. She made it out to be like she’s never seen one before and that thought sobered me up. “Wait, you’ve seen a penis before, right?”

Her cheeks flush again. “Yes, I’ve seen one before.” She whispers.

I throw my head back laughing again. “Say it.”

“Say what?”

I raise my eyebrows at her. “Say penis.”

She looks around to make sure no one is listening to us. The quad on campus is almost empty so I don’t know what she’s worried about. She jerks her head back to me and says just above a whisper. “Penis.”

I crack up all over again.

“What are you laughing at?”

I wipe the tears from my eyes. “You. Why does that word make you blush?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s a weird word.”

“You’re weird.”

Jaylinn shrugs again, accepting that she is. Going back to my homework we sit and work for a while.

She tosses her book on the table and sighs loudly. Looking up I see her staring off into space. “I miss him.”

“Call him.”

Turning to look at me she shakes her head. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

She slumps down in her chair. “Because some stuff happened back at BU that can’t be undone and it ruined us.”

I put my book down on the table. “I’m sure it didn’t. He doesn’t look much happier than you do.”

“It ruined us, trust me. We were at a party, some fucked up shit happened, he can’t get past it and I have.” She scrubs her face with her hands. “I’m over it and I need to move on.”

Watching her for a moment I know she’s full of shit. She’s so far from over and she’s not ready to move on but clearly whatever happened back then, Cooper can’t get over, so she doesn’t have a choice but to put this behind her.

“So, care to explain what’s going on with you and Eli?” Jaylinn asks pulling her sunglasses from her bag.

“What do you mean?”

She smirks. “You know what