“Jess?” she shouted into our space.
“In my room,” I shouted back.
Rachel’s curvy frame appeared in my doorway before she hopped onto my bed, making my laptop bounce up and down on my legs. “What’s up?”
“Just working on this assignment for Psych.”
“Ugh, core curriculars suck,” she said, referring to the classes I had to take to fulfill my general-education credits. She pushed back off from my bed and walked out of my room without warning. “I need a drink. And I’m starving. Come out here with me and I’ll make you food.”
I couldn’t resist her offer, so I bookmarked the site, closed my laptop, and grabbed my soda before heading toward the other room. “The class is actually really interesting, but it’s also really hard.”
“That’s why I took Sociology instead of Psych.”
“Well, maybe if you’d taken Psych, you could analyze the day I had today,” I said with a slight huff.
“Why? What happened? Are you okay?” Her eyebrows drew together with concern, which surprised me. I hadn’t expected my comment to worry her.
“It’s nothing bad. Sorry. I just spent the entire break between my classes with Nick today,” I said in a rush. I popped open the can, taking a sip to silence my babbling.
Rachel choked on her words. “You what?”
I grinned, my smile feeling like it took up my entire face. “You heard me.”
She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward our couch in the living room. Forcing me to sit down next to her, she released my hand before angling her body toward mine. “Tell me everything immediately. And don’t leave anything out.”
“He wanted to hang out with me after class, so I told him I had ninety minutes.”
“Wait.” She held up her hand. “What about your fake boyfriend?”
“I told him we broke up,” I said with a laugh, and she laughed with me.
“Okay, go on.”
“He bought me lunch, and then we went to the football stadium and talked.”
“Talked?” She cocked an eyebrow as if she didn’t believe me.
“Yeah. Talked. He’s . . .” I paused, searching for the right word, and Rachel jumped in.
“He’s what, hot? Horny? Great in bed? He’s what, Jess?”
Shrugging, I said, “He’s really cool.”
Really cool? That’s the word I use to describe him? #Fail, Jess.
“Cool?” Her lips curled up with distaste.
“I don’t know. He was nice. Super nice. And normal. I don’t know what I thought he’d be like, but this wasn’t it.”
“What did you guys talk about?”
I didn’t want to tell Rachel about Nick’s family life or his dad’s business, so I decided to keep those things to myself. Even though I didn’t know him all that well, some things shouldn’t be shared without permission.
“I don’t know, everything. We talked about where we grew up, our families, our majors, what we want to be when we’re real grownups.”
Rachel swept her dark wavy hair off her shoulder with a flick of her wrist before leaning back against the cushions. “Did he ask you out?”
I sucked in a quick breath as I remembered. “He invited us to a party tomorrow. Both of us. He said it was small, and he specifically mentioned you and said that Trevor misses you.”
“He what?” she shouted as she leaned in close. “How would he even know that?”
“They’re fraternity brothers. I’m sure they talk. Although I have no idea how he knew you were my roommate.”
“I guess.” She tapped her bottom lip with her finger. “This is all very interesting.”
“Why’d you guys break up, anyway? You never did give me a straight answer about it.”
I thought back to last year when Rachel and Trevor had dated. I liked Trevor the few times I’d met and hung out with him. Rachel and I had both lived in the same dorm building as freshmen, but we weren’t suitemates, so I didn’t get to see her every day until we moved in together this year.
Trevor had always seemed like he was really into Rachel whenever I saw them together, and when they stopped dating, I never knew why. That was the thing about Rachel, she tended to keep certain details about her life private. When she wanted to share, she shared—overshared really—but when she didn’t want to, no amount of prying could get the information out of her.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, looking past me and out the sliding glass doors.
“Will you come to the party, though?” If she said no, I wouldn’t go either. There was no way in hell I’d go to a frat party alone.
Her gaze darted back to mine. “Are you kidding? And miss the chance to watch Nick Fisher flirt shamelessly with my roommate? Of course I’ll go.” She stuck her tongue out before pushing off the couch. “It’s going to be epic.”
I blew out an exaggerated breath. “We’ll see.”
“I hope your fake boyfriend doesn’t show. I heard he’s the jealous type.”
“Shut up,” I said, swatting her shoulder. “But you’re right. He’s super possessive. That’s why I had to end things.”
Since Nick hadn’t asked me for my phone number, that meant I didn’t have his either. It also meant I had no way of texting him to ask what time the party started, or tell him we were on our way over, which we were. I prayed that arriving close to eleven would be a safe enough bet, and that the gathering would be in full swing by then. It was a little late, but I had to focus on some homework first.