I can’t stop the eyeroll at the cheesy pickup line that’s been quite typicalwhen guys learn my name. “Come on, fellas,” I pretend to huff. “I’m gonna get fired, and I kind of need my job.”
They laugh, but finally relent. They manage to refrain from flirting when I bring them their food and later their check. When I return with Ryder’s credit card, he and Maddox start again.
“What time do you get off?” Maddox starts the next round of shameless flirting. Dane and Jake roll their eyes with a laugh while Ryder looks at me like I’m dessert.
“Ten,” I answer quickly, “but before you suggest anything, my dorm’s curfew is also ten. I get a special pass long enough to get back from here.”
Ryder signs his credit card receipt then hands it back to me. I turn to walk away, but he stops me, grabbing mywrist. He hands me a napkin with something written on it. I look at the scrawl then back to him with a raised brow.
He shrugs as if it’s nothing. “Madsy’s number and mine. One of us will answer if you want to hang out sometime.”
“Are you always in the same place?” I ask jokingly. But my joke fades away when Dane and Jake answer yes at the same time. My eyebrows dip with confusion as I wonder if I’ve been misreading things. “Wait. Are you two together? Are you gay?”
“Are we together?” Maddox laughs. “Sometimes. Are we gay? No.”
“So, you’re bi?” I still don’t get it. They do seem close, but they have been flirting with me since they got here.
“Do you need a label?” Ryder tilts his head in question. “Would a label make you feel better?”
I look between the two of them. Ryder continues to stare at me, waiting for my answer. It’s a look of challenging curiosity. Maddox smirks. I can see in his eyes, he already knows my answer. He’s seen my attraction to the two of them, even if they make me nervous. He winks at me, his smirk growing fractionally. I turn my eyes to Dane and Jake, curious what their reaction to this might be. They are also waiting patiently for my answer. Though, there is a tightness around their eyes. Perhaps they’ve seen the negative side to this question. I’m sure the two men have hada tough time once or twice if they’ve always been this open about their relationship, whatever it may be.
“No,” I finally answer them. Jake and Dane both seem to relax, making me wonder what they would’ve done if my answer had been the opposite. “I don’t need a label. You like who you like.”
Ryder nods with a grin. “And we like you. If you decide you want to find out what that means, give us a call.”
I watch as they leave the diner and all my false bravado vanishes like the rain on hot asphalt. Then I realize what he said.Welike you. Not he or I but we. And for all the false confidence I just forced, I don’t know if I couldbe brave enough to take him up on his offer tofind out what that means.
I finally stumbleinto my dorm room half past ten. After eight hours in school, then another six working, I am exhausted. I don’t even bother with a shower. I just go straight to bed.
Of course, the second my head hits the pillow, my mind becomes a live wire. It picks the moment when I’m at my weakest to attack my head with questions. And at the forefront are the boys from tonight.
I toss and turn all night long, replaying the entire encounter, wondering if I imagined the whole thing. I do not lack self-confidence. I’ve had plenty of guys back home ask me out on more than one occasion. But these guys were different. Not just physically, though there is absolutely no denying no one in Craryville looks anything like them. They were cut from the mold of the gods.
Especially Ryder and Maddox.
But it was more than that. They all carried themselves with confidence. Maybe a hint of arrogance but not the kind that makes them douchebags. It was like they were completely sure of themselves and what they had to offer the world. They also had a bit of worldliness to them. Like maybe they’d experienced and seen things that not many their ages had. Only Jake seemed to hold a thread of naiveté, but even his eyes held more maturity than I’d seen in other guys his age – my age. None of them were that much older than me. Not at all.
I toss and turn most of the night in a fitful sleep, more than a little irritated and even more confused that these guys have infiltrated my mind with such force when no other ever had. Not all of them. Though Jake and Dane were every bit as attractive as Maddox and Ryder, their faces aren’t the ones that fill my dreams.
Those two boys got under my skin. Me. Heaven Sinclair. The girl that has turned down nearly every boy in Craryville at least once, and quite a few here at my new school since I arrived a couple of months ago because I didn’t have time for distraction, and because not a single guy gave me so much as a tingle, is obsessing over two boys that I spent ten minutes with while I was at work. Those two gave me more than a tingle. And if that isn’t confusing, I don’t know what is.
“Shut that thing off,” Heidi growls when my alarm begins screaming at seven.
“We have class,” I remind her with a groan.
“I didn’t sleep all night. I could hear your loud thinking in my sleep.” She sits up, her long black curls flyingaround her face. She wipes them away with a violent swipe, revealing her bloodshot, sapphire blue eyes.
Despite what she says, they’re not bloodshot because of me. It’s from her night out. She still hasn’t told me how she sneaks in and out every night. Not that it matters. I may have a slightly rebellious streak, but I won’t do anything to risk my spot here at this school. No one is worth getting kicked out. Not when I worked so hard to get accepted in the first place. Not to mention the time I spent talking my parents into letting me come.
“I keep telling you, you are not psychic, Heidi,” I tell her while tossing a pillow at her.
“So, want to tell me what had you all hot and bothered all night?” She’s teasing, but it doesn’t stop the stupid blush from rising to my cheeks. I want to hide under the bed the minute her eyes go wide when she realizes she’s not far off her mark. “Oh my God, you really were hot and bothered. Spill, girl. Tell me who’s got your panties melting.”
“No one,” I quickly deny.
“Oh no. Don’t youno oneme? You’ve been here for nearly four months, and you haven’t looked at a guy.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.” I roll my eyes. “I’ve looked at plenty of guys.”
