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The moment our eyes met, a big smile broke out across his tan face, exposing a row of ultra white teeth. “Hey! I’ve seen you before.”
My gaze flicked behind him. He’d left the door wide open. “Hey, you are… tortoise guy.”
Confusion flickered across his face as his sandals smacked off the cement. “Tortoise guy? Oh, yeah.” He laughed, the skin crinkling around his brown eyes. “You saw me with Raphael, right?”
I nodded. “And I think you called yourself Señor Fucktard.”
Letting out another loud laugh, he joined me on the stairs. “That’s my drinking name. Most days people know me as Ollie.”
“That sounds much better than Señor Fucktard.” I smiled as we rounded the fourth floor landing. “I’m—”
“Avery?” When my eyes widened, he gave a toothy grin. “Cam told me your name.”
“Oh. So… um, you’re heading to—”
“Yo douchebag, you left the door open!” Cam’s voice boomed down the stairwell and a second later, he appeared at the top of the stairs, the black baseball cap on. A lopsided grin appeared as he spotted us and bounded down the steps. “Hey, what are you doing with my girl?”
My girl? What? I almost tripped over my feet.
“I was explaining to her how I go by two names.”
“Oh yeah?” Cam dropped an arm over my shoulders, and my flip flop snagged in the back of my other one. His arm tightened, pulling me to his side. “Whoa, sweetheart, almost lost you there.”
“Look at you.” Ollie hopped down the steps. “Got the girl tripping all over her feet.”
Cam chuckled as he reached up with his free hand and slid the cap around backward. “I can’t help it. It’s my magnetic charm.”
“Or it could be your smell,” Ollie retorted. “I’m not sure I heard a shower this morning.”
He gasped in mocked outrage. “Do I smell bad, Avery?”
“You smell great,” I murmured, feeling my face heat. It was the truth, though. He smelled wonderful—a mixture of fresh linen, faint cologne, and something else that was probably all him. “I mean, you don’t smell bad.”
Cam watched me for almost a moment too long. “Heading to class?”
We were walking down the steps, but his arm was still around my shoulders and the entire side of my body seemed to tingle like it had fallen asleep. He was so… casual about it. Like it was nothing to him and it probably wasn’t. I remembered how he and the girl had hugged last night, but to me, it was….
There were no words.
“Avery?” Cam’s voice lowered.
I wiggled free, and saw the way Ollie’s grin spread. I headed down the stairs, needing distance. “Yeah, I’m heading to art. What about you guys?”
Cam easily caught up with me on the third floor. “We’re going out to breakfast. You should skip and join us.”
“I think I’ve done enough skipping this week.”
“I’m skipping,” Ollie announced, “but Cam doesn’t have a class until this afternoon, so he’s a good boy.”
“And you’re a bad boy?” I asked.
Ollie’s grin was contagious. “Oh, I’m a bad, bad boy.”
Cam shot his friend a look. “Yeah, as in bad at spelling, math, english, cleaning up after yourself, talking to people, and I could go on.”
“But I’m good at the things that count.”
“And what are those things?” Cam asked as we exited the building. Outside the air carried the faint scent of dampness and the clouds looked plump with water.
