Mad Boys (Blue Ivy Prep, #2)(32)

“Listen,” I told her, pitching my voice low. “Do you really want to start a ‘she said, she said’ war with her? Right now, you don’t have a lot of allies. Let this go.”

Shock and outrage chased themselves across her expression before she flounced away and disappeared into her bedroom, slamming the door to mark her exit.

Thank fuck. I didn’t want to deal with her. KC and Aubrey passed with bags of clothes and one suitcase.

I picked up a box and carried it over, stepping aside as they exited and headed back to the other room.

Jonas stood in the middle of the sitting room area, arms folded, while Dix set up the coffee maker. The girls came back a couple of times, then another pair of movers showed up carrying a bed that they directed in here.

When Dix finally left, giving me a few moments with Jonas, I turned to him.

“Don’t,” he said, folding his arms. “I don’t care what you have to say, and I sure as shit am not talking to you still.”

Rubbing my chin, I shook my head. “Yeah, this isn’t an option, J. You need to tell me you can handle her living in this suite. This isn’t like being stuck with her in your classes. This is day in and day out. Granted, we might be able to find something else sooner rather than later, but…”

“If I couldn’t handle it, I wouldn’t have invited her.”

Except, he had a huge crush on her and a bad temper where she was involved. It didn’t help that all of last year seemed to see him bounce from one unstable emotional island to another. I didn’t want him hurting anyone, but especially not himself.

“There’s thinking you can and then there’s actually having to handle it. You won’t have any privacy.”

“I have a door.” He nodded to his room. “So does she.”

I sighed. “Can you please not be argumentative to just be argumentative? I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t bother, I can take care of myself.” Belligerence pumped up every word. “While you’re at it, why don’t you go get fucked and take Lachlan with you?”

That headache stabbing behind my eye seemed to balloon. “Jonas, I’m still the RA for this building and as such, I’m still responsible for you…”

“And about two hundred plus other students. Maybe more, since they are getting crammed three and four to a room. Go hover over them. I’m not interested in you or anything you have to say.”

When the Dix fellow returned, he had a table, followed by another sofa…Jonas had a couple of chairs, but they were for video games. The movers returned with another bed. They didn’t have to haul out an old mattress from the second room, because Jonas had never let them move it back in.

Soon as they dropped off another set of boxes, they vanished out the door and down the stairs.

Jonas glanced back at me. “Are you done?”

“No, I’m worried about you. Your temper. Your depression…she’s not been great for you.” A lot of these problems had started when KC arrived at the school. Intellectually, I got it that Jonas’ behavior was not her responsibility, but it didn’t change the fact that she affected him.

She affected Lachlan, too. One of us needed to keep our damn head.

“Tell you what, I’m gonna be great. You have nothing to worry about. She might be a bitch, and she might be the worst, but she’s way better than you and Lachlan. I’ll take a bald-faced bitch over a back-stabbing brother any day.”

I winced at the word choice as KC returned. Jonas scowled, then lifted his chin as if determined to own his statement.

She eyed me, then focused on Jonas. “We have a television and so do you—do you have a preference over which one to use?”

“This one is bigger,” Dix said as he came in. “He can always take that smaller one to his room.”

“Sure,” Jonas said.

Raising her hands, KC backed away, then headed to her room. Aubrey followed behind her and then the door closed them in, leaving us with Dix.

I had questions for him, but Jonas cut me off with a look. “Pretty sure you have other people to check on,” he told me. “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”

“Goddammit, Jonas,” I swore and he shrugged. “We’re not done with this conversation." I paused at Dix. “You have an hour left on campus, be sure to check out with me when you leave.”

“Aye aye, Captain Douchebag.”

The name gave me pause, and I pivoted to find him working on switching out the televisions and ignoring me. Not Jonas though, his lips twitched.

Captain Douchebag wasn’t going anywhere.

Fine, he’d have to talk to me to call me names.

“One hour,” I said, then stalked out without slamming any doors. No matter how frustrated I was, I had to demonstrate acceptable behavior and the Blue Ivy Way.

Kicking down her door and checking on her personally didn’t qualify for that. Neither did dragging her down to my suite while tossing Lachlan up here or out.

Fuck, this was insane.





Fourteen





KC


After all the chaos, Dix made sure I had everything I needed. He also arranged for a new television to be delivered for Aubrey. When he offered another coffee maker, she turned it down and said she’d hit me up for espresso, ‘cause fuck Payton.