Jock Royal (Jock Hard 4)

Who does that anymore?

“It’s settled then.” Ash nods. “Come over around six?”

The professor ends her lecture and the lights come on, everyone standing to leave, including Ashley and my groupmates.

“I didn’t agree to come over!” I say to his back, Priya and Nalla coming round to stare at me, wide-eyed.

“What are you doing? Be quiet!”

“What? I don’t want to go over to his—”

Nalla rolls her eyes. “Stop it, you do too—you just don’t want to admit it.” She grabs me by the arm and leads me down the aisle from her row in front of me. “Do us all a favor and take the dumb tour. We’re living vicariously through you now.”

I lower my voice. “I am not dating Ashley Dryden-Jones, and I certainly wouldn’t be dating him if I was living with him. You’re both crazy.”

“If you do not go to his house tonight, you are dead to us.” Priya’s nose turns up. “He was googling for you—what guy does that?”

We’re exiting the lecture hall, no Brian, Jamal, or Ashley in sight.

“Who does that? Meddling helicopter friends, that’s who.”

“Oh, so you’re friends now?”

“Can you invite him to the next slumber party?” Nalla laughs. “Better yet, you can invite us to the next slumber party when you have it at his house when you move in.”

“Ugh—he’s not even near enough to campus. I’ll be stuck walking everywhere,” I protest, trying to pull a protein bar out of my backpack.

“Walk? Who’s walking? You can run. Aren’t you on the track team for a reason?”

“Being on the track team does not make me okay with hoofing it to campus from off-campus housing.”

“Um—from your swank off-campus housing, hello!” Nalla laughs again. “Didn’t you just get done telling us how gorgeous it was, and now he’s asking you to move in with him so he’s not lonely?”

“He never said he was lonely.” I feel the need to correct her, though in all honesty, I do believe one of the reasons Ashley asked me to move in is indeed because he’s lonely.

Probably bored.

“Please, we all know he’s bored. Probably anal retentive too if he’d rather live with a girl than one of those buffoons he hangs out with on the rugby team.”

Priya flips her black, glossy hair. “That just means he’s smart.”

“That boy is so cocky he knows you’re going to show up at six even though you said you’re not going.”

“We all know she’s going to show up at six.” Priya smirks. “Georgia isn’t fooling anybody.”

Nalla gasps. “Hey—maybe we should come with you.”

“No! You are not coming with me.”

Nalla snickers. “So what you’re saying is, you’re going to his house later.”

I see what she did there.

“We can say we need to work on the class project,” Priya adds her own horrible suggestion.

I shake my head vehemently. “First y’all want a slumber party, now you want to come do the class project at his house? Y’all are out of your dang minds.”

“Oh my god, I love it when you talk all Southern.”

I roll my eyes and wave when we hit the split in the sidewalk, the two of them going one direction, myself going the other.

My phone pings as I take the first step into the dorms, the place I’ll be calling home for the next several months, and I hesitate, pulling it out of my pocket.

Groan.

Ashley: So, 6?

Me: You’re so annoying. Has anyone ever told you that?

Ashley: No

Me: I find that hard to believe.

Ashley: Is annoying another word for tenacious?

Me: Only you would use a word like that.

Ashley: Only you would be offended by the use of a big word.

Me: I’m NOT OFFENDED.

There’s a long pause between messages, a full seven minutes before he replies again.

Ashley: See you at six.

Rolling my eyes, I scan my keycard and pull open the entry door. I have no mail, but I do need to clean, so I check out the vacuum cleaner at the front desk and haul it up the stairs to the third floor.

Thank goodness I’m in shape.

Ping!

Another message.

Ashley: Do you want to eat when you’re here? I can order something.

Wait.

He’s willing to order me food?

Okay, maybe I could drop by for a bit—it wouldn’t kill me to look around and get a free meal in the process.

A girl’s gotta eat.

I toss my keys on my miniscule desk when I get inside my room, bag drops to the ground, arm coming up so I can check the watch on my wrist.

A few hours until dinner and a tour, perfect time to take a nap. Cleaning will just have to wait.

My shoes get kicked off and I slide onto the bed.

Close my eyes.

They pop open again a few minutes later only to stare at the springs of the bed above me—Ashley wasn’t wrong about the bunk beds.

I sleep on the bottom one, using the top as storage for some of my shit, dumping things there that don’t have a home or take up too much valuable real estate in this tiny room.