I can practically see his ego inflating right in front of me. He wedges an arm behind his head, eyes dragging down my open shirt. “Told you so.”
“So, things with you and Bass are working out?”
I glance at Georgia as we walk from our third period class. She’d been asleep when I got home the night before, and I left early to go check on the kittens and give them a little food before class started. It’s the first time we’ve seen one another since Sebastian finger-blasted me at the lake.
“Um, sort of.” By ‘sort of’ I mean ‘yes’. Like ‘shout it from the top of the mountain’ yes. What transpired between the two of us in the backseat of his car was nothing short of a miracle, but Georgia’s question does make me wonder… “Why? Did he say something?”
Do I look different? Can she tell? What made her ask?
“Well, when I dropped you off at the garage yesterday, I didn’t expect you to come home right away, but I didn’t realize you’d be gone that long.” She gives me a coy smile. “People can do a lot of things with that much time.”
“We just hung out,” I say, fully aware that my cheeks are blistering. “And you know, got to know one another better.”
“Mmmhmm,” she says, pulling open the front door of the building. “That’s definitely my favorite part of getting with a guy. The ‘getting to know one another’ phase can be very sexy.”
Georgia has no idea that sex wasn’t even the biggest part of what happened between me and Sebastian. The simple fact he and I had been able to work through my fears and aversions was bigger than she could possibly grasp. Sure, he fingerbanged me within an inch of my life, and the resulting orgasm was a thing of poetry, but that was just the cherry on top. A delicious, sweet, knee-quaking cherry.
I wonder, “Do you ever get past the 'getting to know one another’ phase? I ask that out of curiosity, no judgment intended.”
“Honestly, not if I can help it.” She grins. “Like I said, it’s the best part. Why would I want to mess that up by getting into all the icky stuff?”
She splits off toward her locker, adding that she’ll see me in the dining hall. I approach my locker on the opposite side of the hall, unlocking it and opening the door. I do a double take when I see the contents, thinking I’ve opened the wrong locker. I close and re-check the number, but this is definitely my locker. Someone must have put their shit inside by mistake, because on top of my math book is a shiny, brand-spanking-new laptop. It’s rose gold-colored with the charging cable tucked carefully next to it. I look around to see if anyone is watching, but they aren’t. I open the laptop, just hoping to find out who it belongs to, and it springs to life, an image appearing on the screen. It’s a photo of a kitten. Abbadon, to be exact. It’s my photo.
No fucking way.
I grab the laptop, shove my science book inside, then slam the door. I head straight out of the building and across the campus to the dining hall. The table where I normally sit is half full, Reyn and Vandy already there, along with Caroline and Ben. I march up.
“Has anyone seen Sebastian?” I ask.
“I saw him and Dean Dewey walking down the hall before second period,” Caroline says, looking up from her study guide. “Something about him lurking around the lockers on the junior hall between classes.”
“Motherfucker,” I mutter. “Well if you see him—”
“Hey, you got my gift,” he cuts in, reaching out to gently slide his hand down my arm, just like he had yesterday when we parted. I guess he’d been serious about getting me used to his touches in small, measured doses. This one doesn’t make me want to hurl, but I still flinch. He uses my distraction to swipe the laptop from beneath my arm. He holds it up, face lit up with a beaming grin. “I thought about going for black, because you know, you really work that whole edge-lady vibe, but rose gold is just so much shinier.” He looks around the table, seeking approval. “Right? Don’t you think?”
Reyn’s eyes dart between me and Sebastian, an amused grin twisting at his lips. Vandy kind of looks like a deer in headlights. Meanwhile, I’m about two seconds from completely losing my shit. I swallow back the rage.
“Can I talk to you for a minute,” I ask in a calm, collected tone. “Alone?”
He tilts his head, delayed awareness spreading across his face. “Now?”
“Yes, now.”
I spin on my heel, hightailing it through the students that are still coming in the door, not waiting for him to catch up. It doesn’t take him long though, and I hear several people telling him to watch out and to slow down as he chases after me. Once I’m in the hallway, I stop and hold out the laptop.
“I can’t take this.”
“What? Why not?” A deep line creases his forehead. “I mean, no offense, but your laptop is a piece of junk—you were saying last night that it can’t handle all the photos you need to store on it and that the battery dies in like twenty minutes flat. This one won’t have those issues.”
My whole body clenches up in frustration, remembering our discussion in the Preston parking lot. I’d just had a fucking epic orgasm ten minutes prior, which apparently turns me into a pile of goo, and there’d been a moment there where I’m pretty sure neither of us wanted the night to end. But mostly, I didn’t know what to do, how to act, or what to say.
Hence, some truly stupid word vomit about how I needed to write up an essay on my dinosaur of a laptop.
“It’s like a two-thousand-dollar laptop, Bass. That’s ridiculous.”
“What’s the big deal? I have the money to spare, and I want you to have it.” He watches me thoughtfully before adding, “I didn’t buy it with betting money or anything. Swear.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “That’s not the point. It’s too much, and you and I… I mean, come on. We hardly know one another.”
His expression turns incredulous. “Hardly know one another? How can you even say that after what we did yesterday?”
“Shhh!” His voice is loud, boisterous—too casual about it all. I hiss, “Don’t just go shouting about that in the fucking hallway!”
He looks around, eyebrow rising at the complete lack of students milling around. “You think any of these people don’t think we’re already boning? Because trust me, that ship sailed the first time people saw us talking in the hallway. Or is this about yesterday? Are you having regrets or something? Because last night was fucking aces, and I know you know it.”
My face already feels like the surface of the sun, and I don’t care that there are only two people in the hallway, far out of earshot. I still lean in close to say, “This isn’t about that. I told you not to give me money or gifts!”
“That was before.” He points it out like this has all been some huge misunderstanding. Like, obviously when you fingerbang the hell out of a girl, you’re suddenly allowed to start buying her expensive consumer electronics. “I wasn’t your friend then.”
“You’re not my friend now.”
He gives me one of those slow, smarmy smiles. “Nah, I guess I’m not. But I’m definitely something, and it’s a little friends-adjacent, don’t you think?” He reaches out to tug at my dog tags. “Why are you freaking out?”