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I was going on a date with Sawyer, and that was that.
Declan didn’t talk to me for the rest of the night. In fact, he barely even looked at me. He purposefully did his best to avoid me in my entirety, his eyes downcast every time he went to the bathroom or into the small kitchenette area. When I had the TV on before bed, he didn’t pretend to watch the sitcom about the nerdy roommates with me; he just went to bed, burying himself in the mound of sheets.
I hated doing this to him. It made me feel horrible, like I was the worst person alive. A total lie, because there were a lot of worse people out there; I’d even met some of them, but those were memories I didn’t want to recall. I had to put my blinders on, so to speak, focus on Hillcrest, on getting my skateboard back.
As I lay in bed watching TV, I texted Kelsey about my date. I’d kept myself from telling her, mostly because I didn’t view it as a real date, but I needed someone to make me feel better about the whole situation. Declan was being a sourpuss, so I clearly couldn’t count on him.
Kelsey’s next text made me stifle a laugh. Wear nice panties. I was ready to respond with a firm but playful text that I wasn’t going to do anything with Sawyer—yuck—but she then sent me: or none at all with a winky face at the end.
Well, at least Kelsey had given up on asking me for pictures of my roommate. I’d described him to her, but no way in hell was I going to snap a picture of him and send it to her. Also no way in hell I’d get him to pose naked with a pillow covering his crotch like she asked me to. Kelsey had moved on to Sawyer and Travis, both of which I’d also described in painful detail. She wanted me to choose one to go after, and then if it failed or he wasn’t so good in the sack, I could drop him and move onto the next.
But…that was the thing. I wasn’t ready to sleep with any of them, mostly because I didn’t trust them. But beyond that? Beyond that I didn’t want to choose. My inner slut wanted them all. If I could just erase their feud and bring them all together…
A dream that would never happen. Each of these boys wanted to use me for their own benefit. I was not a willing player, a helpful pawn to be moved across the board whenever these guys wanted. Declan wanted me only because I reminded him of Sabrina. Sawyer wanted me to get back at Declan, and probably for payback for what I did at his party. Travis…I wasn’t sure what Travis wanted, which made me nervous. He was the one who sent the picture of Sawyer and me together, because he didn’t want me to fall for Sawyer’s shit.
What did Travis want, then? What was his game? The scary thing was I didn’t know, and I knew from past experience it was always the ones you weren’t sure about that broke you the most.
Chapter Nineteen – Ash
The closer the time got to five, the more anxious I felt. My last class let out at two, and I promptly returned to the dorm to shower and change—although now I wondered whether I should’ve kept the day’s dirt on me. Maybe the sweat and dirt from today would keep Sawyer from trying anything with me, but that was probably a useless hope.
Declan was nowhere in sight. This morning I’d told him that Sawyer was supposed to bring a list of where we’d be going, a schedule of sorts, and if I didn’t come home by midnight to…do something. Call the cops, call me, call someone. I didn’t think Sawyer would try to kidnap me or anything, but you never knew. These rich people thought they owned anything and everything, even other people.
Declan might be avoiding the room on purpose, I realized as the clock hit four in the afternoon. Sawyer was picking me up here, and since I hadn’t given the bastard my number, it wasn’t like he could pull up to the turnaround in front of the dorm building and call me. He’d have to come up here, with his damned schedule, but I wouldn’t let him in the room. I wasn’t that stupid.
Though of course I did consider my stupidity when I pulled out jean shorts and remembered what Kelsey had said about the panties.
Eventually I pulled out a notebook and started writing Declan a note. I figured I’d leave it on his desk, where he’d see it, and drop the schedule of the date right on top. You could never be too careful these days.
While I debated on wearing a beanie—because I highly doubted someone like Sawyer found a girl who wore beanies attractive—I heard a knock on the door. I dropped my favorite grey beanie and headed toward the door, opening it to see Sawyer’s half-smirking face.
Would it kill him to give a full, real smile for once?
Eh, considering this wasn’t a real date, I could handle the half smirk.
Sawyer’s wide frame wore a light coat, a dark shirt underneath it. His jeans were clean, a darker blue, complete with a belt. His blonde hair was styled to the side, with just the smallest amount of smooth hair putty. He looked good, of course, but he looked just like I imagined he would: a rich boy cleaned up.
I really had to stop calling him a boy. He wasn’t a boy. He was a man, and he was at least a year older than me.
I opened my mouth to ask him about the detailed date list, but he stopped me by reaching into his coat’s pocket and pulling out an envelope. He handed it to me, flashing his pearly whites as he said, “Your date schedule. I’d prefer it if you don’t look at it, but…” He watched me tear into it. I wasn’t going to give anything to Declan from Sawyer without looking at it first. “I figured you would.”
When I saw where he was taking me, I was taken aback. My eyes flicked upward, and I was about to ask him about it, but he silenced me by glancing at his wrist, where a shiny new watch sat. A watch that probably cost a semester's tuition.
“We should hurry. It is a bit of a drive from here,” he said.
“And my skateboard?” I asked.
For a moment, I was sure he was going to give me a real, full smile, but only one end of his mouth quirked upward. “After the date, Ash. After.” I resisted my urge to say anything else as I set the envelope on Declan’s desk. The door hung open, and Sawyer peered in, noticing Declan’s absence. “Not here, huh? Weird. I figured he’d need to see you off, try to intimidate me again, like he tried to at my party.”
With my phone in one pocket and my keys in the other, I shut the door behind me, jiggling the knob to make sure it was locked. It was. “I think Declan knows he can leave the intimidation to me,” I spoke, smiling up at Sawyer, giving him my best fuck you smile. I hoped he remembered the party as well as I did: me kneeing him in the groin. Yeah, not going to lie, that felt so good.
Sawyer let out a chuckle as we headed down the hallway to the elevators, but it sounded pretty fake. “Yes, you’re very spirited, aren’t you?” His green eyes flicked downward to me, looking more like cloudy jade than clear emerald.
“I’ve been known to have some bite with my bark.” We got on the elevator. Since it was just the two of us, I moved to the opposite side of the square space, leaning on the railing as I studied him.
Why did he have to be born so pretty? Things would be a lot less difficult if he was uglier, if he had a boil or two, a nose too big for his face or something. But that was the thing about Sawyer Salvatore—there was nothing off about him. Nothing I would change. He was preppy and rich, but he was attractive all the same, dashing in an undeniable way.
Sawyer had his car, a low-sitting, bright red sports car whose brand I couldn’t even pronounce, parked in the turnaround. I went for the passenger’s side, but he moved quicker than me, or maybe his legs were just that much longer than mine, darting around me to hold open the door, acting like some gentleman.
