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“Well, I wouldn’t do that.” He shook his head. “I can’t miss a class.”
“You could get sick or end up in a car accident or oversleep or—”
“Look, I get you’re a nerd and you want to hold these books tight and cuddle them or whatever the hell you do, but not everybody’s like that.” Adam snorted. “I focus better when I’m there, listening. I don’t do well with reading the text and going over the motions. I know myself. I’ll just wander off.”
I bit my lip, mind whirling. What would my parents say to one of their students?
I hummed under my breath. “What about listening to your books?”
“Here?”
“With your headphones.”
“My hearing’s too good.” He shrugged. “I can’t concentrate.”
All these excuses.
I drew in a deep breath. “Let me see your headphones.”
“My headphones?”
I didn’t repeat myself, I just held out my hand. Adam muttered under his breath for a moment but fished out a pair of wireless earbuds, stark white with a gold sliver down the side. I took a long look at them and could feel his eyes, watching me.
“Seven thousand dollar headphones.” Adam grinned. “There’s a real gold leaf in it.”
I connected them to my phone. Listening intently, I swiped through my audiobooks while Adam told me about how they had been a limited edition deal, and how exclusive they were, and seven grand isn’t bad to drop on something you’ll use for years before I slipped them out and tossed them to the table.
“These are garbage,” I said, fishing my pair from my backpack.
“What?” Adam laughed. “Ice princess, I spent a hell of a lot of money—”
“You wasted a lot of money. Yes. They aren’t noise-canceling. If I can hear you through my audiobook, something’s wrong. Try these.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I stood up and held the headphones over his head. His eyes flickered up to mine, and I slipped them over his ears, tired of the complaining. The headphones were huge on me but fine on him. I bought them refurbished from one of my dad’s research students. They were the best headphones I’d ever used, even with the nicks on the right side that had chipped away at the paint.
With a few clicks, I rerouted them to the tablet and opened one of his textbooks. The athletics department paid for all the upgrades. I waited while Adam was silent next to me.
Seconds counted down.
“You get ten bonus points if you write notes for the chapter,” I said, reading off the screen.
Adam didn’t move. He didn’t hear me.
I grinned and motioned in front of him until I realized exactly what he was staring at. I’d been so focused on getting Adam settled with his homework, I didn’t hear the familiar ping of my phone going off. Another text message.
To Be Blocked: miserable cunt
I yanked my phone away and tried to stuff it in my bag but Adam was quicker than me. My phone disappeared from my grasp. He held it just out of range and gazed at the text. His breathing slowed. He pulled down the headphones, still staring at the screen.
The blush burned hot. “Don’t worry about it.”
He finally stopped looking at my phone long enough to turn his focus on me. “Piper.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I repeated, embarrassed. “It’s nothing.”
"Who sent this?" he said, his tone so dark, the hairs on the back of my neck rose.
