Mad Boys (Blue Ivy Prep, #2)(38)

We were babying my throat. Though what did not running do for my throat, I had no idea. I was restless as fuck and I’d taken to walking, even in the middle of the night, usually up and down the stairs, avoiding Ramsey’s floor cause I didn’t want to run into him either.

The fact he was the TA in two of my classes was bad enough. At least he hadn’t twisted my arm into more tutoring.

So far.

But that didn’t leave me with a lot of options on discovering why Lachlan was here. Though I might have taken a small amount of pleasure in the idea that he was waiting for me to come running, and I wasn’t.

The twins came through for me on that, though. Olivia said he was working with the lacrosse team and had apparently enrolled in all basic college classes. Apparently, the original plan for him had been Stanford. So why was he here?

“Maybe he didn’t make the cut at Stanford,” Olivia said with a shrug. “No one knows. Just that, according to some of his former teammates, he wasn’t planning to come back to Blue Ivy at all.”

“He’s not stupid,” Sydney said, swirling a carrot stick into the ranch dressing. “Not—intellectually, anyway. He’s a guy, so that definitely makes him kind of stupid.”

Soren and Finley both paused to look at us, but Soren only shrugged. “Definitely a kind of stupid.”

Finley snickered, and I had to smother my own smile. “Thanks, guys.”

“Look, just avoid the lacrosse field,” Olivia said. “We don’t have classes with the college, anyway. Even college-level courses are taught in the high school halls. So you can easily avoid him there.”

That was nice.

“But he’s living with the RA of our building,” Soren volunteered. “So maybe avoid that floor, too.”

Ugh. I made a face.

Sydney laughed. “Just find some other guy and kiss him in front of him. That usually makes the irritating ones go away.”

“Yeah,” I said slowly, trying not to think about how my lips were tingling in memory of the kiss he’d planted on me while I’d been listening to the final cuts of the Bound Hearts album.

Their debut was going to absolutely fucking kill. I needed our social media team to do something with it in support. Just hadn’t figured out what.

Maybe I’d do some TikTok’s lip-syncing to their songs…

Teddy would kill me, but it’d be totally worth it.

My phone buzzed, the alarm reminding me I needed to call Jackie before classes. “I gotta run.” I was rising and stacking my stuff together.

“I’ll get it,” Soren offered.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t forget,” Sydney said. “Party this weekend.”

“Can’t wait!”

Totally planned to forget. Loved the girls. I even liked Soren and Finley. They had a good group. But parties meant Payton would probably be there and I’d sooner pierce my tongue.

“See you guys later!”

Aubrey and Forrest were coming in as I was heading out. She was flushed and her lipstick was definitely gone. I grinned at them and then patted Forrest’s chest. “That color looks way better on her.”

He grinned and Aubrey rolled her eyes as she gave me a playful shove. “Shut up.” Then she sobered. “Everything all right?” Her gaze dipped to the phone in my hand.

“Totally fine, just checking in before classes. Connecting has been kind of hard.”

Especially with Jackie’s schedule and Pen’s course of treatments. I worried about all of them, but Jackie would only let me do so much. I’d actually talked to Davina and she’d agreed to help out with Pen a couple of times a week.

Jackie scolded me, but there had been real relief in her voice, and in Bronson’s, when Davina got involved. She was the absolute best, too. Pen would be so spoiled, and I was glad for it.

“Let me know?” Aubrey asked, and I nodded. We were both circumspect about discussing any of this where anyone could hear us. I liked Forrest. Aubrey really liked him. But this was still a need to know, and no one needed to know about my baby sister.

She was too little and too sick to be dealing with press stupidity. I was out the door and had the phone to my ear before I’d gone three steps.

Jackie answered on the first ring. “You have a sixth sense for when my coffee is ready.”

I laughed. “If you mean survival skills, then I agree.” I spent the next fifteen minutes getting an update. Not that much had changed in the last week. I talked to Bronson nightly via texts.

“You sound much better,” Jackie said. It seemed almost surreal that the fire had been nearly three weeks earlier. It seemed like a lifetime and just the day before. “Are you taking it easy? Doing what the doctors say?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I promised. “I have another checkup next week. The coughing has gotten much better, and I’m still not singing…” Even if that was killing me. “Cause he wanted me to give my vocal cords a solid rest.”

“I know it’s hard honey, but it’s for the best…”

She wasn’t wrong. As much as I wanted to stay on the phone, I had to get to class. The next two weeks followed a similar pattern. Jonas and I developed something of a rhythm. As roommates went, he was pretty quiet.

While we shared a lot of classes, we didn’t share the same schedule. He disappeared on weekends. More of my favorites showed up in the fridge and the cupboards. I also found out that he preferred oat milk, so I made his coffee with that.