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"I got a seat for you." Adam patted the place next to him. "You know what’s funny? If we just would’ve taken my car—"
"That wasn’t my idea," I muttered and stepped into the van.
I’d been wrong before. There wasn’t a seat next to Adam. There was a three-inch line of space that wouldn’t accommodate something bigger than a rolled-up newspaper. And now I was trying to use that space to sit next to a literal Division I college football player, who had to hunch down to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling of the van.
It wasn’t just height. Adam had muscle. Adam had muscle on his muscle and it seemed everywhere I put my hand was another part of him - hard and taut. Each touch sent electricity through my fingertips, and it only made me more irritated. He was doing it on purpose. If he’d only move.
Adam chuckled. "Damn, Piper. If you wanted to sit on my lap so badly, you could’ve asked."
"Shut it," I said. And because it felt good, I said it again. "Shut it."
"Wait, he’s not in the van?" Adam demanded, looking out the window at Xavier, peeling off in his nice car. "He can drive himself? Why does he get special treatment?"
"It’s not special treatment. It just means he hasn’t done anything to get his car impounded," I pointed out.
Adam gave me a hard look, a great start to the trip.
15
Piper
Check Your Attitude
Whatever. Adam could be mad for the drive. Good for him. While he did that, I wanted to get a head start on my presentation. The more I practiced it, the better it would be. My stage fright would never permanently leave me, but if I could get all my motions down, it wouldn’t matter if I was scared of the stage. My presentation would be top-notch regardless. Untwisting the cord of my headphones, I mouthed the lines under my breath.
"You like that dipshit?" Adam muttered, barely audible with everyone else’s conversations.
What is his problem with Xavier?
"Well, he’s a mechanical engineering major," I said, slipping the end of the cord through a loop. "He’s super nice, he gets great grades, he knows what he wants, and he wants June. And their whole…" I matched his voice too, careful to keep it quiet, even when the van driver cranked up the music. "He’s waiting for June on the sidelines. It’s sweet. What’s not to like?"
Adam didn’t move from his place. He just gazed at me with those intense eyes of his. "Piper, you don’t know anything."
I wasn’t sure why that made my pulse skip so much. Maybe it was the casual way he said it, like he was stating a fact, not an opinion. Maybe it was the condescending words. The idea that—oh—the Marrs Manwhore was so worldly, he’d been around the block, he knew better than little Piper Fontaine.
Either way, it brought my heart to my throat, and it was hard to look away from him to focus on my headphones. I slipped my headphones over my head, resting them on my neck. "You’re just jealous."
"Of Xavier?" Adam raised his eyebrows. "Why would I be jealous of him?"
That was a good question. For a moment I frowned, studying Adam. There was a little crease in the lines around his eyes. If I didn’t know any better…
"You are jealous," I realized. "What? Is it the car?"
"Like I’d be jealous of him." Adam shook his head, irritated. "You don’t know what you’re talking about, Piper. He had a calculator app on his phone."
"Doesn’t everybody have that?"
"Not the regular one." Adam rubbed the bridge of his nose. "The other one. He was showing his favorite places to hit and where he’s keeping his car in Oklahoma and I saw it. It’s one of those shadow apps. When you party as much as I do, you see it all the time. You need a passcode to unlock it, but it almost looks like a regular calculator, so no one suspects anything." He drew in a breath, half a laugh, half a hard sound at the back of his throat. "I’ve gotten great at detecting shit like that. He’s hiding something."
Out of everything I heard out of Adam’s mouth, that was one of the most ridiculous things. It didn’t hit first or second place but it was still far up there. Adam took one look at Xavier's phone and figured…what? There was some deep, dark secret? The judgment he passed on someone he didn’t even know astounded me.
A smile crossed my face. It wasn’t funny, but it was a little funny. I tried to hide the smile and wasn’t successful.
"I’m serious," Adam said, his voice flat.
"Sure." I shrugged, trying not to smile again. "Okay, let’s say you stay on your side of the van. I’ll stick to mine. How’s that?" I held up my piece of paper. "I’m practicing for my workshop but if you want to make some more conspiracy theories, I’m sure there are other people in the van who’d love to join you."
"Good luck with the class," he taunted. "Hope that stutter works out."
