“Where’s your friend?” I ask.
“I called Tank to come and walk her home,” Zeke volunteers from the kitchen. He walks out with a mug in his hand, which he hands to Livvie.
I arch an eyebrow. “Tank is who you’ve picked out?” Tank is a boxer who wouldn’t know how to smile if someone cut the Joker slashes into his mouth. Plus, he’s twice the size of Livvie’s roommate.
“They seem like a good fit.”
“Who is this Tank?” Livvie asks with narrowed eyes. From the look on her face, it appears she’s adopted the roommate.
“He’s a good guy,” Zeke assures her. “Drink the tea. She has an upset stomach from eating too much cheese pizza,” he explains to me.
“Ordered double cheese, did you?” I shake my head fondly.
Livvie scrunches up her nose. “Tiple. The ad said it was the best pizza on campus so I ordered a cheese pizza and then they asked me to repeat myself. I guess they thought I wanted more cheese.”
“She has a point,” Zeke agrees. Of course, Livvie could say that we should start eating our classmates and Zeke would fire up the barbecue. That said, I’d be dragging the bodies up to our condo, so I’m not anyone to talk.
“You want some vanilla ice cream?” I suggest. Livvie enjoys a small bowl when she has an upset stomach. Something about the cold and cream is good for her tummy.
“Are you trying to get me fat?”
“Only if you want to be. Doesn’t make any difference.” I’d take Livvie whatever size or shape she wanted to be. She’d be sexy no matter what. Like right now, she’s decked out in those tight exercise pants and a big T-shirt and all I can think about is how I want to lick her from head to toe. I surreptitiously check the clock. There’s only four more hours until midnight. I guess it’s time we cleared some shit up. “You want to tell us about the list?”
“What list?” she asks all innocent.
“That’s what we want to know,” Zeke says, settling into the chair opposite of Livvie. I brace my arm against the back. “What list?”
“Is Hope really dropping out?” Livvie asks over the rim of her cup.
Zeke and I nod.
“I bet the list only has Mr. Martin on it,” Zeke says.
Livvie’s mouth drops open. “You guys know about Mr. Martin? We hadn’t even met when I put Mr. Martin on my list.”
Zeke gives her a pitying look. “You think there’s anything in your life we don’t know about? We know about him and the girl that stole your science project.”
“Oh my God. What did you do to them?”
“Didn’t have to do a thing.”
“Mr. Martin left town a few weeks after you guys moved in, and now that I think about it, Julie Cranston also went to live with her grandma that year. What gives?”
“Baby girl, when you said we belonged to you, that meant you gave us the right to protect you. We’re not ever going to let anyone be around you who’s going to bring you down,” Zeke explains.
Our girl sighs and sets her cup down. “You guys aren’t going to get in trouble, are you? I’d like our first time to be here in the condo and not in the county jail whenever they allow us to have conjugal rights.” She taps a cute finger against the side of her mouth as worry creases her perfect forehead. “Oh no. Can we even have conjugal rights if we aren’t married?” She jumps to her feet. “We need to go to the courthouse right now.”
“It’s eight p.m.,” I tell her.
“Then let’s go to Vegas!”
I admire her problem-solving skills but step across the room to push her back into her chair. “No one is getting into trouble. Like every bully ever, Hope is all talk and no action. We showed her a couple of pictures of Frat Boy and she packed up immediately.” I don’t mention the cursing and shoe throwing because I don’t want Livvie to get upset. Hope’s temper tantrum didn’t last long because Zeke had compiled a bunch of video evidence of Hope putting other girls in danger out of spite, including some of her sorority sisters. Once she saw that shit, she had no problem leaving school.
Getting everyone to drop out of school if they’re going to bad-mouth Livvie isn’t an ideal situation and it doesn’t protect her once we leave here, but it works, for now.
Livvie sits down with a thud, another dark look creasing her forehead. My hackles immediately rise. I straighten up and demand, “Who do I have to kill now?” I’m not even kidding. I hate seeing dark clouds cover her face.
“I just had an awful thought.” She covers her face with both hands as her stricken gaze ping pongs between Zeke and me. “I can only marry one of you, so if you both go to prison, there can be conjugal rights for only one! This is terrible!”