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“I’m sorry,” I said again, about as surprised at myself as she looked. “No lie, I was acting like a huge fuckhead yesterday, and I’ve never—” I stopped myself, running my hand through my hair. “I’ve never gone that far before. I’m sorry.”
Slowly, she tried to match me. “I’m sorry too.”
“Nothing for you to apologize for.”
“But—”
“I was the asshole,” I said, my voice firm. “I’m sorry.”
She shrugged, a hint of a grin on her lips. “It was fun locking you out.”
Sneakers squeaked against the tile and Zariah tossed her tray of food down next to me, her curls pulled back tight on her head. “Are we good?” she demanded, tossing her orange at me. “Did you apologize? We’re not throwing each other in pools anymore!”
I started peeling the orange. “We’re good.”
“We made up,” Piper murmured, toasting her coffee to me.
“Thank god,” June groaned, taking the seat next to her. “I had an emergency meeting about you two. Seriously, don’t say shit for the rest of the day. Nothing! If there’s anything Cleo’s taught me, it’s if you just shut up, no one cares. And guess what? No security cameras out on the patio.” She gave me a long look. “I wonder who could’ve pulled the fire alarm…”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “But their ass belongs in prison.”
Piper snickered and had to stop her coffee from spilling on the table.
She laughed at one of my jokes.
My resident assistant did her damn hardest to never laugh at anything I said. I turned to her with a grin, but Piper was busy cleaning the coffee off the table.
“That’s something Elijah should learn,” Zariah muttered darkly and brought out her phone. “Did you know he started another fight at Gianna’s? My parents made me swear I’d look after him and some days…it feels like I’m trying to house train a monkey.”
I frowned. “I thought he was banned from Gianna’s?”
“So did I!”
“Speaking of hockey players…” June said like an announcement and gave all of us a sheepish look. “Xavier is out of commission for the night. They’re doing a big meeting for his group. But his stepbrother’s back in town…and there is a party tonight…”
Piper smiled hopefully. “Like another formal?”
I knew exactly what my ice princess was thinking. She was hoping for a redo at last night’s disaster, something to clean up the Marrs image to all the nerds around us. But I also recognized the short look between June and Zariah, all eyebrows raised and smirks between them. This wasn’t an RA formal. I doubted anybody else in the dining hall knew about it.
“Let’s just say it’s not on campus.” June grinned.
“Not on campus?” Piper blinked. “But…we can’t leave campus.”
June raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“It’s against the rules,” Piper replied, confused. “We’re not supposed to leave campus. All the organizers told us, you told us.”
“Oh, I just said that for everybody else. As long as nobody sees us, we can sneak out after nine.”
Piper gaped at June, at the idea that anyone would dare to sneak out after hours. That her boss’s boss’s boss was suggesting that they go out and party.
The hockey party could be out of the question. Win-win situation. But as much as it set my teeth on edge for any of these girls to go to a hockey party…this was exactly the kind of experience Piper needed to have.
“Off-campus?” Piper drew in a breath. “But—but we have the crackers and cheese night tonight—”
June grimaced. “I’m proud of this conference. But they can’t throw a good party.”
“On a scale of one to ten, how proud of this conference do we have to be?” Zariah trudged her spoon around a bowl of lumpy oatmeal. “Can we be honest? Girl. I want to be honest, but I don’t want to hurt feelings.”
