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“No,” I jumped in. “Deanna wasn’t in there all that long. Ten minutes, tops.”

Claudia’s smirk grew even more diabolical. “They make pills to fix that, you know.”

“Fuck off,” I laughed. “You know what I mean. She came over, got mad, and left.”

“What was she so mad at?”

My expression must’ve betrayed a lot more than I wanted it to. Claudia balked at my hesitation. She stopped leaning against the wall just long enough to put her hands on her shapely hips.

“I’ve seen in there before, you know,” she said smartly, nodding toward my door. “You uh… kinda left the door open the other night.”

I froze instantly. Suddenly I was very uncomfortable.

“When?”

She’d seen my reaction. Right now she looked unsure if she wanted to go on.

“Go on,” I said. “It’s okay. You can tell me.”

“Alright,” she sighed. “My first night here, you had a girl over. I heard you two… well…” her eyes dropped. “You know.”

“Deanna?”

“No. Some blonde girl.”

I declined to mention a name. Could’ve been Lynne. Could’ve been Alexa. Could’ve been—

“Long hair. Heart-shaped ass.”

“Dana.”

“Sure,” she rolled her eyes. “Dana.”

Something in her expression darkened. Was it jealousy? Or was she just poking fun at me having more than one friend-with-benefits?

And how the hell did she know Dana had a heart-shaped ass?

“Anyway,” Claudia went on, “it was dark and moonless. And raining too, so I really couldn’t see anything. Not that I was looking,” she added hastily. “That time, I really did have to go the bathroom and just happened upon—”

“It’s fine,” I said, somewhat relieved. “Not a big deal.”

The strange silence descended again, and this time our eyes locked. Time stopped for a moment, or at least slowed down.

You really, really want her.

Our eyes bored into each other, brown on green. I could feel my heart racing, my cheeks flushing red. It was absolutely crazy to me. No one had ever really affected me like this. Not even the girls I was into, but they were few and far between.

“So where exactly do you get all these girls,” she joked. “Do you stand on the roof and cast a net? Maybe put up a little fence to herd them in on a Friday night, or—”

“I’ve been at this school for three years,” I shrugged. “I know a lot of people. I have a lot of friends.”

“Uh huh.”

&

nbsp; “Besides, we were a popular fraternity.”

“And you were the President.”