Tutoring the Player (Campus Wallflowers #1)(76)

“Now what?” Liam asks.

“I don’t know. I guess I figure out how to get her back.”

“Don’t ask me,” Liam says. “I’m old hat. She barely looked at me.”

Cole bites back a laugh. “It’s okay, babe. I still want to look at you.”

Liam grumbles under his breath, but he smiles ever so slightly as Cole squeezes the back of his neck.

I spend the next hour brainstorming and bouncing ideas off Liam and Cole.

Knowing that she still likes me is awesome, but I don’t know how I’m going to make up for lying and breaking her heart.





Later that afternoon, I’m sitting in front of my laptop with a blank sheet of copy paper in front of me, following some YouTube guy who boasted he could teach anyone to draw. Anyone but me, apparently.

Liam is playing video games on the couch next to me. He glances over and narrows his gaze. “What is that thing sticking out on the side of your leg?”

Yes, I’ve attempted to draw myself.

“It’s a daisy.”

“Why do you have a daisy sticking out of your thigh?”

“I’m holding it in my hand. See?” I put the pencil on the spot. “It’s like I’m offering her the daisy.”

“Yyyyeah. I think real daisies might get that across clearer.”

“I want to give her this with the daisies. Drawing is something that’s important to her.”

“Maybe not when it’s done like that.” He cracks a grin. “It’s sweet.”

I sit back and look at it with fresh eyes. Yeah, it’s terrible. I scribble along the top, I miss you. P.S. Maybe you could tutor me in drawing? x, Jordan “Are you going to take it by her house?”

“No, I thought I’d have the florist drop it with the flowers. She’ll probably be happier if it comes from someone else.”

“Sounds promising.”

I ignore him. “Besides, this is just the first of many gifts. I need to show her I was paying attention. That it wasn’t all a lie.”

Liam chuckles. “Oh, this is going to be fun. What do you have planned next?”





The next night I recruit Gavin’s help.

“Hey.” He opens the front door and eyes the boxes of lights in my hands. “You were serious? I thought when you asked me to help you with a lighting project, you meant get high and stare up at the stars.”

I breeze past him to the kitchen, where I set the lights down on the island. “They’re for Daisy.”

Gavin pulls two beers from the fridge and offers me one. “I take it she still isn’t talking to you then?”

“I ran into her at University Hall yesterday. She said hello, but no. Nothing after I sent the flowers.”

He scans the boxes of twinkling lights in front of him and picks up one. “Okay then, what are we doing with these?”

Out in the back yard, we stare over the fence to Daisy’s house, looking for movement inside. The lights are on, but we haven’t seen anyone in the five minutes we’ve been watching.

“Give me a boost over,” I say.

He links his hands together and holds them out for me to step on. Then he helps me over. I land on the other side with a thud. I hunch down by the tree house to make sure no one heard me, then Gavin hands over the lights.

“Oh shit. How are you going to get over?” I ask.

He grins. “Stand back.”

He walks backward and then gets a running start before placing his hands on the top of the fence and leaping over it.

“Nice hops.”

We hurry up into the tree house. My heart is racing being back here. Gavin hunches over in the small space. He hands me lights, and I hang them along the ceiling.

“You really like this chick, huh?” Gavin drops to a sitting position as I wrap the lights down the ladder.

“What gave me away?”

He laughs. “This is cool. I’d forgive you.”

I glance up to find him staring at the house. I look over my shoulder and through the kitchen window. The top of Violet’s head is visible in the living room.

“Do you ever think about doing something big to apologize to Violet?”

“I don’t think there are enough lights in the world for that.”

“I’m serious. What the hell really happened with you two?”

“Eh.” He lifts the hat on his head and runs his hand through his black hair. “I fucked up. We had this really amazing night together. Ya know, those nights where you feel like the world has stopped, and it’s just the two of you?”

He’s staring at her and not me, but it doesn’t matter. My thoughts are on Daisy anyway. “Yeah.”

I swallow down a lump in my throat. Every day was like that up here in this tree house with Daisy.

“Anyway.” He drops his gaze to the wood floor. “A few days later I got roped into this date auction thing with her roommate.”

“And Violet assumed you were blowing her off for her roommate?”

He rubs his jaw. “Little worse than that.”

“You slept with her roommate?”

The pained expression on his face tells me more than he does. “I was so drunk. I don’t even remember it, but I woke up naked with her roommate, so yeah, I guess I did.”