Billy bounded down the hall, and Jack checked his phone.
Ed: If you bring dinner, then how ’bout I get a movie and organize dessert?
He hoped organize dessert meant buying supplies for a long night. He shook off the horndog thought and replied with a smiley face.
Harper strolled down the hall in jeans and pressed T-shirt, fiddling with his watch. He looked up, lip curling at one side. “Two weeks left, Murphy boy. What’s it going to be: Staying here for your dad or leaving for the sake of your friends?”
God, Jack wanted to smash Harper’s grin permanently to his face. “Fuck you.”
“In your dreams, Murphy boy.”
Harper disappeared around the corner, and Jack flicked a bird to the empty space. Shit. What would he choose?
Chapter Sixteen
Sunday evening, Jack got back to campus in one helluva good mood. He pushed open the door to his room to find Marcus sprawled over Jack’s bed, chin resting on his hands.
Jack dropped his bag at the foot of the bed and nudged his brother’s foot. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I did what you said,” Marcus drawled. “I was nice to her.”
It took a moment for Jack’s mind to play catch-up. “Oh,” he said, perching on the end of the bed. “Nessa.”
“Yeah. Fuck. It’s totally screwed up.”
“Screwed up?”
“I don’t know how, but I asked her if she wanted to study with me. She said yes.”
“So, what’s wrong?”
“We were arguing about a point on Hobbes’s theories on the state of nature, and then, fuck—I just leaned into her and stopped her with a kiss.” Marcus closed his eyes and thunked his head into the pillow, groaning.
“Un-huh.” Jack couldn’t stop smiling. First him, now his brother. Best. Weekend. Ever.
“It gets worse,” Marcus said.
“You liked it?”
“Shit.” Marcus spoke into Jack’s pillow. “I actually, really did. What’s wrong with me? Have I gone completely insane?” He twisted onto his back and crossed his arms, glaring up at the ceiling. “Worst thing is she probably thought it was a joke. Just a way to shut her up or something.”
“Dude, chill. She likes you back.”
Marcus looked at Jack. “How do you know that?”
“I’ve been watching.” Marcus’s expression told Jack he needed to hear the truth. “And I talked to her.”
Marcus sprung up into a sitting position. “You talked to her? When?”
“She was at your lacrosse game.”
“She… she was?”
“Yeah, man.”
“But that doesn’t mean anything.”
“She came to see you play.”
A small smile twitched Marcus’s lips before he schooled his expression and raised a quizzical brow.
Jack rested a firm hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “She didn’t say it, but she did. You trusted me about the being nice thing and liked it. Trust me about this: ask her to the formal.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know.” A moment of silence stretched the two feet between them, and then nervously, “What if she says no?”
He bumped Marcus’s shoulder and smirked. “Trust me, she won’t.”
“But…. What?”
“In situations like this, do like you always tell me. Go on offense.”
Jack’s gaze fell on his gym bag with his overnight bag pooled on the floor, and he jumped up from the bed and patted his jeans. Phone, check. Keys, check. He charged for the door. “I gotta go.”
“What are you doing?”
“Offense.”
“What?” Marcus yelled after him.
Jack didn’t stop or even look back. He couldn’t or he’d lose his damn nerve.
Bounding down the stairs, he jumped into his Jeep and rode the excitement mixed with apprehension all the way to Ed’s house. Parked behind Ed’s truck, Jack gripped the steering wheel and stared at the lone set of windows with the lights on—Ed’s room. Hopefully it meant he was still alone.
He hauled in a steadying breath and spoke the words. “Ed, I want you to be my date for the Pi Kappa Phi formal….” That sounded too stiff. Relax. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying again. It didn’t sound any better. Oh, fuck it. He was only going to freak out if he waited out here any longer.
Jack wiped his clammy hands over his thighs and hopped out of the car. He gripped his keys so hard they left marks in his palms. The jog up the path seemed much longer than he remembered. He shrugged his shoulders at the porch to loosen up.
The doorbell felt cool to the touch as its buzz solidified him to the spot. He was going to do it. He heard Ed thumping down the stairs, and then air dragged over him as the door swung open—
Ed startled. “Jack?”
“Um, yeah.”
“What are you…? I mean… come in.” Ed frowned and smiled at the same time. Clearly confused. “I thought you were the folks.” He laughed, and Jack stepped right into that laugh, gripped Ed like he hadn’t seen him in a week, and kissed him hard and deep. Ed sucked in a breath and pulled back just enough to look at Jack before melting into another kiss. Jack backed him into a wall, pressing their bodies tight together.
“I like you. So damn much,” he murmured into another kiss.
Ed laughed. “Came back to tell me that, did you?”
Keeping their bodies pinned, Jack drew his head back and looked Ed in the eye. “No, I came back to ask if you’d dance with me.”
“Is that what we’re calling it now?”
Jack grinned for a moment, took a deep breath, and tried again. “Here’s the thing, my fraternity has a formal coming up. You know, tuxes, finger food, slow music….”
Ed stiffened, and the mood shifted.
“I thought, if we were careful, if there’s isn’t anyone on the attendance list you know from work…. Maybe you’d go with me?”
Ed’s smile faded and he blinked hard. Jack clumsily moved back a foot, almost tripping. “It’s not that I don’t want to dance with you,” Ed said tightly and edged to the staircase. He sat on the bottom stair and rubbed his thighs. Then he looked up.
Jack cursed himself for being this stupid. Of course this was going to be his reaction. Here he was, just another guy trying to push him to come out before he was ready. Jack wasn’t the risk worth taking. “You told your parents about Becky. You came to Marcus’s game. I thought…. You know what? Just forget it.” He touched his ring through his T-shirt and swallowed. “Your folks are probably coming home any second. I should leave.” He stepped back toward the door with a stupid little wave. “See you next week?”
Ed shifted on the step to make room. “Sit for a sec?”
After a moment of doubt, Jack folded himself next to Ed, their shoulders lightly touching.
“It’s not that I don’t want to go with you.”
Jack stared toward the front door, throat tight. “I get it, I do. It’s not like I really wanted to go in the first place. But I made this bet with this guy, and, well….”