“The virgin thing was a misunderstanding—” I start to say, but then Nita’s eyes flash over my head, and I pause mid-sentence.
“Anthony!” Nita’s smile widens and she pats the seat beside her. “Come join us. We’re just discussing Cass’s love life having her in a tizzy.”
“Is that so?” he asks, eyes boring into me as he accepts the chair beside Nita.
My face was already hot; now it burns so bright I’m surprised the fire alarm doesn’t start going off. “It does not,” I mumble.
“Right, you’re just distracted by all this biology homework.” Nita nudges Anthony, grinning sideways at him, expecting him to share in the joke.
Something unpleasant curls in my stomach. But that’s not fair. She doesn’t know Anthony is one of the guys—or even that there are two guys I’m seeing at once. And I have no one to blame for that but myself.
Anthony smiles at Nita, polite, restrained, but she leaves her elbow nudged against his and carries on, joking about my distracted state, my inability to concentrate.
I can’t reply. My throat is too tight at the sight of her and Anthony touching. I push back my chair suddenly and surge to my feet. “Sorry. I need… bathroom,” I stammer, before bolting out of the library.
I should’ve known that move wouldn’t work. Before I even make it to the hallway, Nita is on me, tugging my arm to her side. “What’s wrong?” she asks, her eyes wide and sincere as she trails me into the bathroom.
“Nothing is wrong!” I snap so loud that Nita blinks in shock.
“Cass.” She’s smart, my best friend. Her eyes dart from me to the library and back again. “Oh, crap. Wait. Is Anthony… Was he one of the guys?” Nita lowers her voice to a whisper and I grimace. Nita scowls then. “Did he stop liking you when he found out you’re a virgin? Because I’ll go punch him right now—”
“No, that was a misunderstanding. He only wanted… He wanted my first time to be special, so he didn’t want to just hook up.”
Her eyes widen. “Did you guys already hook up?”
I can’t lie well enough to dodge this one. I stare at the floor, embarrassed as hell.
But Nita, for her part, is whooping and jumping, clapping my shoulder. “Finally! And damn, nice catch, he’s hot as hell too.” She nudges my elbow and winks.
I groan again. “It’s not that big a deal—”
“I’m just happy for you, Cass.” She wraps her arm around my shoulders and squeezes me in a hug. “No wonder you’re distracted, huh? Hooking up with the hottest guy in school and your roomie. It all makes sense now.” Her smirk widens. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hit on your man. But he totally wasn’t into it anyway.”
I snort. “It’s fine. Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“All good. I’ll just take your guys’ other roomie—he’s pretty hot too, in his own way,” she adds, already turning away from me toward the mirror, flipping her hair over one shoulder.
My emotions are already too all over the place. Plastered across my face. I can’t stop the fire that erupts at the thought of Nita turning her attention on Vin next. “No fucking way,” I snap before I can think better of it.
Nita’s eyes widen again in shock. “Cass?”
I can’t do this. I can’t deal with her finding out, not yet. Not when I still don’t even know what’s going on. I storm out of the bathroom, speeding up when tears start to sting my eyes. I walk blind, stumbling through the library, the halls, not stopping until I’m outside in fresh air, and even then, the campus feels too big. Brightly lit and full of curious bystanders casting sideways glances at me, wondering why I’m tearing up in the middle of the quad.
I storm behind the nearest building and press my back to the stone. Take deep, slow breaths until my breathing steadies. Sink slowly down, sitting against the stone, letting my head drop to my lap.
I don’t know how long I sit like that before I feel a warm hand gently touch my shoulder. I glance up to find Anthony sitting beside me, and Vin on his other side. Both are watching me carefully like they’re afraid I’ll break.
“Are you okay?” Vin asks softly, and the way he says it makes my whole body flare with heat. He doesn’t just want me, he cares about me. They both do—it’s written all over their faces now.
When it’s just us, just Vin and Anthony and me, alone in our room, this thing between us feels so right. But how could anyone else understand? How could I admit these feelings in public if I can’t even handle explaining the situation to my best friend in the world?
“Not really,” I murmur in response. Anthony tightens his grip on my shoulder, and Vin slides around to my other side so I’m caught between their warm bodies, their arms holding me upright. I lean back and sink into their familiar embrace, letting myself forget for a moment everything else I’m worried about. Vin rests his forehead against mine, and Anthony tilts his head to rest on my shoulder.
“You can talk to us, you know,” Anthony says softly.
“I know.” I close my eyes. Swallow thickly. “It’s just… What are we doing? What is this between us? Will anyone else…”
“Who cares what anyone else thinks?” Vin interrupts, with such fire in his voice that I turn to look at him. His dark eyes sear into mine before he dips his head and presses a gentle kiss to my lips. “All that matters is how we feel.”
“How do we feel?” I ask, my voice soft. Weak.
“Speaking for myself?” Anthony cups my chin gently in his fingers. Tilts my face to his and brushes his lips against mine, a feather-light kiss. “I want to be with you.”
“But…”
Vin interrupts, running his fingers through my hair. “And so do I. This isn’t just sex, Cassidy. Not for us.”
“It isn’t for me, either,” I admit, biting my lip as I look back and forth between the guys. “But it’s… I’ve never felt like this for anyone, and now…”
“Does it matter that there’s two of us?” Anthony asks, lifting an eyebrow. “If we both love you?”
My breath catches in my throat. I can’t have heard that right.
But Vin is smiling now, twining his fingers through mine as Anthony takes my other hand. “We love you, Cassidy,” Vin says, and my heart feels like it could burst in my chest, this feels so right. So perfect.
“Cass?”
Shit.
All three of us freeze in place. I lift my head to find Nita striding around the corner of the building. Her mouth actually falls open as she takes us in, all three of us sitting against the building, the guys pressed against either side of me, our hands entangled.
And here it is. The moment I dreaded. The real world finding us out. Stopping us. I steel myself for the anger, the accusations, the freaking out at how strange this situation is.
Instead, I feel my own mouth dropping open as my best friend starts to laugh.
“Nita?” I ask, but she’s shaking her head, beaming at me, and I’m so confused.
“Cass.” She heaves a huge sigh and sinks to a crouch in front of us. “I get it now. Why didn’t you tell me sooner you liked both guys?”
Anthony and Vin tighten their grips on my hands, and when I glance between them, they’re both smirking now, relieved that we don’t have to hide anymore.
Nita tilts her head, a spark in her eyes. “If you explained the whole situation sooner, I could’ve given better advice, you know.”
Vin nudges me with an elbow. “We did try to convince her to tell you.”
“But you know what she’s like,” Anthony adds.
Nita laughs again and rolls her eyes. “Stubborn as ever. That’s what we all love about her though, right?”
“Definitely.” Vin stands beside me, pulls me to my feet, and Anthony stands beside us.
“Now,” Nita says, one hand on her hip as she surveys us. “Can we please get back to quizzing our girl here, before she flunks out of bio?”
I laugh, relieved and still blown away by the guys’ revelations, my heart pounding triple
-time in my chest as the three of us follow Nita around the building, into the middle of the quad, our hands still clasped. Vin is right. Who cares what anyone else thinks? As long as we’re happy.
“Okay,” I agree. “I’m ready to actually focus again.”