Co-Ed(5)

He wasn’t—

He wouldn’t, would he?

He ran one finger…

One. Finger.

…down my shoulder until it collided with my elbow. The air backed up in my lungs. Every muscle in my body tensed, and as that finger ran back up, I melted. My legs turned to jelly. How was that reaction even possible? I still felt his stupid finger’s presence as he licked his lips and whispered, “Nice meeting you, Shawn.”

Then he was gone.

Dumbfounded, I just shouted, “I didn’t tell you my name!”

“I know!” he called back with a chuckle, leaving my entire body on fire and my left eye twitching as I stared straight ahead at the blue tile. What the hell had just happened?

It must have been all over my face, because by the time I made it back into the room, Slater took one look at me and swore.

“What did I tell you?” He jerked me inside, slammed the door behind us, and braced his body against it like Pony Number One was going to come at it with a battering ram. “Don’t challenge them!”

“I was in a shower!” I poked him in the chest. “He, he, he—”

“Oh hell, you’re already stuttering, and he probably just said, ‘Hi.’ Am I right?”

Heat flooded my cheeks, and I didn’t blush often. Thanks to my father’s African American heritage, my skin was always a perfect olive tone, making it impossible to see a bright blush.

Until now.

Until the Ponies.

I cleared my throat. “I was naked, he poked his head in the shower, peeled back the curtain, gave me my freaking body wash, and then I didn’t know what to do.”

Slater’s lips twitched. “Um, how about you knee him in the balls and say, ‘Get the hell out, you asshole’?”

“Right.” I nodded. “I was about to, but I was embarrassed. You know, what if he was doing it for a… tip?” I gulped. The more I spoke the hotter my cheeks felt.

Slater’s eyes widened before he burst out laughing and wiped a tear from his eye. “Please tell me you offered to pay him. Please. It would make my entire year of suffering with toenail clippings worth it.”

“I just…” I glared, silently willing an asteroid to drop on his pretty face. “I told him I didn’t have cash.”

Slater braced his body against the door, shaking with laughter like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard in his entire life.

“It’s not that funny.” I quickly grabbed his stupid moisturizer from the counter, slathered it on, and pulled a hoodie over my head. “And I need to get to practice.”

He was still laughing when I jerked the door open and looked down. My mortification was complete. A twenty-dollar bill was on the floor, with a yellow sticky note message stuck to it.



I know my own worth. For next time.

Love, Leo.



Slater looked over my shoulder and snorted. “At least it was Leo. He’s more… house broke than the others. I don’t think the guy’s ever even been in a serious relationship, or would even know what it was if it was living with him.” He bent over and snatched up the twenty then handed it to me. “That’s at least three coffee runs, and all because he saw you naked. Sounds like a win to me.”

I tossed the money back at Slater and turned on my heel just in time to see Leo poke his head out of his room. “Was it good for you?”

I flipped him off and slammed the door behind me, ignoring the way my lungs grappled with air, and the way my entire body still buzzed with the way his one stupid finger had felt running down my arm.





Chapter Three


Shawn

I made it to the weight room just in time to see that I was about four minutes late. Coach Jackson didn’t even lift his head from the clipboard as he pointed at the wall.

With a grumble, I marched over to the wall, grabbed the twenty-five-pound weight, and slid down, adding the weight to my knees when I was at the perfect forty-five-degree angle.

Lucky for me, one of my teammates was another two minutes behind me. I looked closer; something about her appeared… off. She rubbed her runny nose against her team sweatshirt, grabbed a weight, and joined me.

“Everything okay?” I asked. My thighs burned so badly I wanted to scream. I was only forty-five seconds in; three minutes fifteen seconds to go!

“My boyfriend broke up with me,” Alexa muttered. “He said I wasn’t spending enough time with him. I wasn’t feeding his needs.”

“Feed this.” I flipped off the air.

She laughed and wiped at another tear as she sank down next to me. “He’s an ass. All men are asses. They should all burn!”

Coach Jackson eyed us and cleared his throat; he wanted us to know he was listening to our conversation.

I lowered my voice. “So…” Why was I still hung up on these guys? “…I know I just transferred, but I heard about these guys who—”

“No-o-o…” Alexa shook her head. “I couldn’t. Do you even know the reputation those guys have? Girls get so hung up on them it’s like an addiction. No joke. I know a girl who works an extra shift every week just so she gets one hour with the guys.”

I shrugged. “One extra shift? That’s not that bad.”