God! I want to hit something. Preferably her face. My blood is boiling. I pace Jase’s bedroom, too keyed up to sit down. Maybe all that caffeine was a bad idea. When I pass by his unmade bed, I can’t help but stop and stare at the little wicker trashcan sitting beside the bedside table. If they did have sex last night, that trashcan should contain a condom. I walk closer, my heart pounding and peer down into the wastebasket.
An empty water bottle, a wadded up a receipt from the gas station for a tank of gas and a toy whistle.
No condom wrapper.
A breath escapes my lungs in a whoosh of air, and I sink down onto his bed. It’s this moment I realize I like Jase way more than I have any right to. I’m in way over my head.
Chapter 13
Jase
When I return from the shower, Avery is curled up on my bed with my journal from our human sexuality class. What the…
“Avery?”
She sets the notebook down beside her. “I have soft skin? That’s it. That’s all you wrote?” She shakes her head in mock disgust, not at all self-conscious that I just busted her for snooping.
I cross the room and grab the journal. “Now you have to let me read yours.”
She smiles. “No way. Not when all you wrote was that cheesy line. You haven’t earned it.”
I sit down next to her. “Then let me earn it.”
She brings her palm to my cheek and meets my eyes. The banter between us dies away, and I’m left with a longing to my very core. Her eyes linger on my mouth. I’ve never wanted to kiss someone so bad in my entire life. My heart is pounding painfully in my chest while I wait to see what she’ll do next.
She reluctantly drops her hand and moves away from me on the bed. “Things went pretty well with Mitch last night.”
“Oh, right. Mitch.” That’s just f**king great. “My challenge was to talk to him. Not to go home with him.”
She swats my arm. “All we did was talk. He drove me home and was a perfect gentleman.”
“Good.” Thank f**king God. “Are you seeing him again?”
She lifts one shoulder. “Not sure. We’ll see if he calls.”
“He got the digits?”
She nods, smiling coyly.
Damn. That tiny, inconsequential fact shouldn’t make me want to punch something, but it does. I mean, Christ, she walked in to find Stacia in my bedroom this morning and she’s being so f**king cool about it. I need to pull it together.
Avery sits on my bed, still watching me, waiting for a reaction. I can’t be held responsible for my actions when her mouth is so lush and pink. It’s practically taunting me. I stand and place my hands on my hips, needing to infuse some humor into the situation. Otherwise, I’m going to kiss her again, and that clearly isn’t what she wants.
“Well, since it seems you’re really excelling at the challenges I’m dishing up, it looks like we’re ready for something more advanced.” I hope she can’t tell I’m literally making this up as I go.
A musical ringtone fills the silence and Avery lunges for her phone. “Oh, hang on one sec, it might be Mitch.”
Shit f**k.
* * *
I lie in bed, still wondering if I handled things right with Avery. I practically pushed her into Mitch’s arms last night. But of course that was after she told me she wasn’t ready for anything. What can he give her that I can’t?
Before I call her for our nightly chat, I dial my mom’s cell.
She answers on the first ring. “Jasey?”
I inwardly groan at the nickname. “Hey, Mom.”
“Hi honey. What’s up? Calling to check on me?”
I smile. No use beating around the bush with her. “I guess so, yeah. How are you?”
“I’m doing fine, Jase. Your dad’s going to China on business later this week. He’ll be gone for two weeks, so if you wanna come see me…”
We both know that it’s a bad idea for me and my dad to be in the same house together. “Yeah, I will.”
“Well, I really am doing good, honey. I joined a new book club at the library.”
“Good, Mom. I love you.”
“Love you more, Jasey.”
It’s a relief to hear her doing so well. I still beat myself up that I didn’t see the warning signs before. Not answering her phone and forgetting to call me back for weeks on end, the robotic tone in her voice when we did talk. I should have known something was off. Hell, my dad really should’ve known something wasn’t right. But he ignored her like usual, until he found her in a heap on the bathroom floor. I’d never heard his voice so panicked when he called to tell me she’d been taken by ambulance to the hospital.
“Okay, I’ll see you next weekend.”
“Bye honey.”
Looks like I’m going home again next weekend. I switch off the lamp and get comfortable under the sheets before calling Avery. Hearing her sleepy voice right before she falls asleep always makes me grin.
“Hi,” she whispers softly.
“Hi.” We’re both silent for a few seconds, but there’s nothing uncomfortable about it. “Did you have fun with Mitch?”
“Yeah. He took me out for hot chocolate and then we just walked around campus for a while.” I can hear the smile in her tone.
Douche. “Cool. That sounds nice.”
“Yeah, he’s a little quiet, so we didn’t have much to talk about, but I think it was a good assignment for me.”
“So you’re not seeing him again?” I cross my fingers. And my toes.
“I didn’t say that. He said something about going out next weekend, so we’ll see.”