Game (Gentry Boys, #3)(24)
I checked the time again. Stephanie rarely missed a class so I figured I’d get the chance to ask her straight out in just a little while. I pocketed my phone and shouldered my backpack. As I headed out into the ever-present brilliant Arizona sunlight I was starting to regret not biting the bullet and calling her at least once over the last few days.
The prior class hadn’t wrapped up yet so I sat on a bench in the hall and waited. Stephanie usually rolled into the room less than a minute before class began so I wasn’t worried about running into her quite yet.
Sometimes I grew bored in the psychology lectures and I would examine the people around me. I always sat in the center of the last row to get as much of a panoramic view as possible. We were more than halfway through the semester. On any given Wednesday or Friday afternoon between a hundred sixty and two hundred eleven people showed up to squirm through an hour and fifteen minutes of Pavlov’s dogs or the Oedipus complex. For the most part people dicked with their phones, window shopped for future sex partners or stared slack-jawed at the ceiling beams as Professor de Range went through the well-paid motions of imparting knowledge.
Stephanie didn’t follow custom; she never slept on her desk or showed even a fleeting interest in the people around her, some of whom were guys who were looking for any signal whatsoever that she’d noticed them. Steph always appeared to be paying careful attention to the lecture. Only a close observer would notice that her eyes seldom focused on the professor. She would look past him out the window or at a bare spot on the wall as she restlessly moved a ballpoint pen between her fingers. She was tense, always, like there was a hell of a lot of noise in her head and none of it had to do with the particulars of Freud’s psychoanalysis. Our eyes had locked a few times before we met and I could tell even then she was trying to convince herself that I was nothing special. Then when I found out she was Truly’s roommate I figured that was the best opening I could ask for.
Of course Stephanie turned me down when I asked her out but it wasn’t a serious question anyway. I expected her to say no. Since the first time I’d spoken to her, when I told her to put on a dress and come out with me to eat a basket of fried chicken at Cluck This, I’d learned how much it turned me on to piss her off. Christ, to hear some of that heavy profanity pouring out of her sweet face in a thick east coast accent was as arousing as a set of lips around my dick. By the time we hit Vegas I was at a boiling point, especially because I’d been going without since I got off the pills. I’d never wanted anything so bad as to have Stephanie Bransky naked and open.
“Hey Chase,” said a chirpy voice and I looked up. Her name was Robin and she was on the cheerleading squad so I saw her around a lot when I worked security for the football games. She was blandly pretty and when the season began back in August I’d gotten a hand job out of her. Now I really wished I hadn’t had those ten minutes of fun two months ago because she was obviously still thinking about it.
“Hi Robin.” I smiled because I didn’t want to be an *.
She looked around. “What are you doing?” She asked me that every time we spoke. Every single goddamn time.
“Just waiting for my class to start.”
“Oh,” she nodded. She also said “Oh” a lot. Then she reached into her pocket and took out a gold necklace. Robin smiled sweetly. “Would you mind helping me put this on? The clasp is a little tough.”
I suppressed the urge to sigh. It was bullshit. She didn’t need help with her necklace. She just wanted to get me to touch her. Again I silently cursed my lack of discretion. I didn’t need a clingy type holding onto my arm while I was trying to get somewhere with Stephanie. But I couldn’t bring myself to be a dick to Robin just for liking me so I helped her with her necklace as the other class ended and began pouring through the doors.
“There,” I mumbled, fastening the clasp quickly around her neck as she held her hair out of the way and tried to brush her ass against my crotch.
Robin turned around and smiled up at me. “Thanks.” She stood a lot closer than she needed to and slipped her arms around my waist even though I wasn’t doing a goddamn thing to encourage her.
It was bad timing. Stephanie had arrived and was standing not four feet away. She stared at me, her face expressionless. Then she shook her head and roughly pushed past my shoulder as she walked huffily into the lecture hall.
“Shit,” I swore and forgot about Robin.
Stephanie always sat on the left end. I followed her closely and sat down next to her. She pretended not to notice. I sighed. Robin or no Robin, what the hell did I think was going to happen when I saw Stephanie again? She wasn’t like other girls. She wasn’t going to fall all over me and eagerly smile just because I was speaking to her directly.
Damn, I wanted to talk to her. I wanted her to at least look at me.
The room buzzed as it filled up quickly. Everyone quieted when Professor de Range stalked into the room and launched immediately into a long, dull address on states of consciousness. I studied Stephanie’s profile. Something was a little different about her. The shirt she wore wasn’t the usual shapeless garment she tended to drape over herself to hide her sweet figure. It was a tasteful, but more form-fitting, navy blue v-neck. Her face was naturally lovely with no need of cosmetic enhancement but she appeared to be wearing a little bit of lipstick. She was driving me crazy. There was no way I could sit here and stare at her silently for the next hour without losing my mind.