Scared of Beautiful (Scared #1)(13)
Maia stares at me intently before saying, “You know you don’t owe me an explanation for this morning.”
“Then why have you been avoiding me?” I counter.
“I’m not, I just happened to be in different places to you today,” she replies. “Look,” she says turning her body to face me. “You met me three days ago, so you don’t owe me anything. Last night was fun, but it is what it is. No explanation necessary.” She sounds like a f-ucking guy. Like she’s trying to play the game before she gets played.
“You don’t really think there’s something going on with me and Jade, do you?” I ask incredulously. I guess for Jade and I, the idea of us together is ridiculous, but to those who don’t know us, maybe it’s not so unlikely.
“Well, she didn’t come back to the dorm last night, and this morning I found her in your room. I don’t think I need a very high IQ to figure out what happened,” she deadpans. And there it is; I knew she was jealous. I saw it in her eyes this morning.
So I decide to take my chances and play the * friend card, since I can’t explain myself without telling Jade’s secrets. “Guess there’s no fooling you then,” I respond sarcastically, and begin to stand.
“What!” She practically catapults out of her seat. “You’re not even going to try to explain?” she asks incredulously.
“Nope,” I say standing and smoothing out my jeans. “You seem to have it all figured out. Tell you what, why don’t we just be friends then. Friends with benefits, if you’d prefer?” I wink at her, grin, and turn to exit the Bean, leaving a slack jawed Maia standing in my wake.
I walk casually out of the café, but as soon as I’m out of Maia’s line of sight, I bolt towards the Mustang; just in case I lose the nerve it took me to walk out, and march back in there and wrap my arms around her.
Now it’s time for Plan B. Maia would never believe me if I told her where Jade really was last night, since Jade has never told her the truth. So Jade is going to have to fess up. All I need to do is convince her that Maia is nothing like the *s at our high school. Which seems simple, except that Jade is the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met. Although, after today, one’s thing’s for f-ucking sure: she has some serious competition in Maia. I smile as I drive back to Brown. Maia is beautiful any day, but she’s a whole different kind of sexy when she’s mad. And when I eventually do get her into my bed, I hope she’s f-ucking angry.
Chapter 7
Maia
For the first time since coming to Brown, I have driven the BMW. I never had previously because it was my special way of delivering a silent, yet significant f-uck you to my father. He likes proving that he can buy anything and anyone. Just not me. But the more I walked everywhere and caught the bus, the more I realized that I was cutting off my nose to spite my face. What exactly was I proving in the end? I must say that the feeling of independence that driving gives me is one I’ve always loved. As I pull the car into a spot, I think back to Jackson and his behavior at the Bean. I cannot believe that the * had the balls to suggest that we be friends with benefits after I caught him in bed with my roommate. Well, maybe ‘in bed’ in the sordid sense is not exactly accurate. Still, they may as well have been ‘in bed together’. I wasn’t so much angry as I was jealous as hell. I wanted to be laying in Jackson’s bed, with my head on his pillow, inhaling the cologne that smells like an ocean breeze, Preferably with him lowering himself on top of me. Whoa girl! I will myself out of my fantasy before I totally lose it.
Jade looks startled as I walk into the dorm room. She’s on her cell, and whomever she’s talking to is clearly not telling her something that she wants to here. She whispers as I walk into the closet, and I catch fragments of her conversation. “Just because you think…no…I’m not doing it…don’t you dare remind me…don’t even f-ucking pull that card…fine!” I hear her phone snap shut. She staring at the door expectantly, waiting for me to walk out of the closet. “We need to talk,” she says ominously.
“Are you sure you want to talk?” I ask. I get the distinct impression that that’s the last thing she wants to do.
“Okay, talk then,” I say when she doesn’t answer, and sit cross-legged on my bed. I’m not mad at her about this morning, mainly because she had no idea what happened last night. Unless she did, in which case I’m furious. But for now, I decide to assume that she didn’t.
“So, Jackson tells me that you think that he and I f*cked each other last night, or this morning or whatever,” she lays it out there, just like that. Not sure why that surprises me. Jade is straight up like that. I avert my eyes, and suddenly feel like there’s nowhere to look, mainly because I really don’t want to get into this with the only friend I care to have on this campus, but also because I have really been trying since this morning to block the image from my mind.
“Jade, really, you don’t need to…” I start, but she cuts me off.
“I do. I didn’t sleep with Jackson. I have never slept with Jackson. We were friends because he dated my best friend in high school. But we, him and I, have always ever only been friends. He seems really into you. So for him, I’m going to tell you why you can believe him.”