The Guy on the Right (The Underdogs 1)

“Just an inside joke between me, and…me.” I’m walking ridiculously fast while he’s breathing easy, his long legs keeping up with me in perfect time.

“You’re bruising me here, beautiful. Did that nope, mean I’m not your type?”

“Exactly.”

“Ouch.”

“I’m sure a…ego of your size can handle it.”

“I’m not so sure, it’s leading me in the direction away from class.”

“Better switch lanes then, don’t want to be late.”

“What if you’re wrong?”

“What if I’m right?”

Flustered, I bring my eyes to his. And have a Pretty Woman ‘Big mistake, huge’, moment. Thinking fast, I pause as if I feel a vibration, pull my phone from my bag, and fake take a call.

“Sorry, I gotta take this,” I look to see he’s not buying it, at all, but he stops his chase stuffing his hands into his jeans. His eyes roam over me, leaving me a hot mess on the sidewalk. “Shame,” he says through disgustingly perfect lips before he gives me a curt nod and changes direction.

I speak to Gina on my fake call. “This round goes to me, bitch.”

Safely inside my truck, I shoot off a text to Theo to see what he’s up to. He’s had practice or some obligation or another every day, and I haven’t been able to catch him since we met up on Monday. If my intuition serves me correctly, I suspect he’s hiding from our project, and if that’s the case, I’m screwed.

Laney: We have seven hundred followers.

Theo: You. You have seven hundred followers.

Laney: Fine. I have them. What are you doing?

Theo: Working on something.

Laney: Vague much?

Theo: Hard to explain.

Laney: Then show me.

Theo: Sometime, maybe.

Laney: I have to earn this privilege?

Theo: Yes.

Laney: Fine. Pencil me in tomorrow night.

Theo: For?

Laney: Something.

Theo: ^^ I see what you did there.

Laney: Annoying, isn’t it?

Theo

The bonfire. I should have known. Dread courses through me as Laney circles the rows of cars looking for a spot to park her death trap. I swear the thing has a smoker’s rattle. We manage to find a space a football field away from the party. Once parked, she turns on the cabin light and produces a flask from her purse.