Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Whatever. Maybe my new roommate would be a good way of finding a new group of friends. That’d be nice.
And then I saw my new roommate.
And then I thought, Oh, hell fuck no.
“Jay.”
“Ryan?!”
The pizza fell.
Splat.
Fuuuuuck.
“Jay.”
“What the… Ryan? What are you doing in my dorm?”
He gave an innocent little smile and a shrug. “I thought you wanted to hang out some more after tonight.”
I blinked through my shock. This had to be some kind of hallucination. Or was it a prank? If it was, it was the least funny prank known to mankind. I wasn’t laughing. Not even a chuckle.
“My dorm flooded,” he explained, his smile fading. He got down on his knees and started to pick up the slices of pizza that had fallen out of the box. He got back up and handed it to me with an apologetic grin on his annoyingly smug face. Why was this guy always smiling? He was probably a stoner.
And why was that smile so damn… nice? I half expected him to grin and have his pearly white teeth covered in a slick layer of toxic oil and sludge. Just like the poor animals living in the habitats his family actively destroyed.
“Sorry about the pizza,” he said as I took the box back. “I’ll order us a new one.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I put the pizza down on the desk at the foot of my bed. “You can stay here. I’m going to see if I can get reassigned.”
His jaw dropped, confusion making his bushy dark brows inch together. “Reassigned… why?”
“Um, because I don’t want to be rooming with you? That’s why.”
“But—we just met, and I thought you were really cool.”
That pulled a scoff out of my chest. I started to pack up my book bag with the couple of textbooks I had out. Environmental Sciences. Statistics. Microbiology. All of them went into the bag. I started to throw in clothes from my drawers too.
“And I think you’re associated with a company that I’ve made it my life’s mission to fight against, sooooo.”
More confusion slashed across his face before he must have realized what I meant. “Wait, you’re talking about my dad’s company? But how did you know? I never even brought it up.”
“It’s not exactly a hard fact to find. I’m sure I could Google your name, and you’d show up on Wikipedia.”
Ryan cocked his head and smirked. “Not the only website I’d show up on,” he answered with a wink.
I rolled my eyes. “What’s the other one? Neopets?”
“Oh shiiit, you remember those? But no, I was more talking about Pornhub.” Ryan sat down on the bare blue mattress. The springs squealed under his weight. The guy was definitely big, in one of those ways that made me think how nice it’d be to have his thighs crush me to death. His snake tattoo was on full display, the black ink appearing to slither and twitch as if it were the real thing.
I tried to ignore how fucking hot it was. I couldn’t let my guard down. This guy was the enemy, and I had to make sure I was ready to fight, not to fuck.
No matter how badly I wanted to do the latter.
“Whatever… are you really on Pornhub?” I waved my hands in the air before he answered. “Nope, nope. Doesn’t fucking matter. I’m out.”
“Okay, okay, hold up.” Ryan got up from the bed, the wood frame creaking loudly, and stood in front of me. Damn, he was tall. And he smelled good. Rich. Like cologne that was way too expensive to ever be on one of my shelves. “Do you really hate my dad’s company that much?”
My jaw dropped as my head pushed forward. “You know what, don’t worry about it.”
It was no use wasting my breath.
Ryan shut his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. It was slightly crooked, but not in a way that ruined the symmetry of his face. Somehow, it seemed to enhance it.
Even a broken nose didn’t hold him back from being rich and beautiful. “Alright, fine, I get it, I’ll give you space.” He rubbed the back of his neck. The sleeve of his FU shirt fell back, a dark tuft of armpit hair sneaking out.
I tried reaaallllly hard not to imagine my face buried there.
I failed.
“So this isn’t some sick joke?”
He chuckled and went over to his suitcase. Of course, it was a Louis Vuitton. “Nope. It’s all real.”
I started to admit defeat. I wasn’t going to get a room transfer, not unless I had a stronger reason than my principles being challenged by this dumb jock’s presence in my space. I also didn’t want to rock the boat too much. Not after the shit I went through at my last school. The fewer reasons I gave the administration to look my way, the better. At least until I got around to organizing my next protest. That’s when I’d want all the eyes on me.