Show Me (Extracurricular Activities #3) - Neve Wilder Page 0,2
and not a damn one of us could help who we were attracted to, but damn, I kept hearing Reid’s voice in my ear the week prior. Nothing else feels as good as you. Nothing.
Needing a distraction from their sympathetic stares, I tossed my backpack onto the floor by my desk and squatted, unzipping it and yanking out my books and laptop. The silence that descended was pregnant with the awkwardness of three people who didn’t know what to say—two of whom were probably desperately trying to figure out how to politely extricate themselves. Too bad. Usually I was accommodating like that. I picked up on that shit. I liked people to feel comfortable. Not today. They could figure it out for themselves.
I pulled out the giant rubber dildo from my bag and looked up when Blondie made a choked noise. He wasn’t smiling, thank fuck, or I might’ve heave beaned him with the thing, but his eyes were wide as saucers as I waved it around.
“Any takers? Clearly I won’t be needing it.” I’d intended to sound joking, but it came out forlorn.
Surprise, no takers. I winged it toward the wall next to my bed, where it smacked into the plaster with a satisfyingly heavy—but also depressing—thud.
“I have that one actually.”
“What? Really?” I swerved my head sharply toward Nate. He’d never struck me as anything but straight heterosexual vanilla, and he sucked as an impromptu grief counselor, but I latched onto the distraction for the lifesaver it was.
“Well, maybe not that exact one. But they look similar. In size, I mean. Big.” His expression turned sheepish. “I got it for a costume party and umm…” He gestured awkwardly. “That sounds dumb now.”
“Yeah, well, I’d hoped to actually use mine for its intended purpose.” I sighed at my glum tone. Perhaps I could also add in how quickly global warming was going to kill the human race.
“You still could, technically speaking.”
Nate and I both stared at Blondie for a beat; then Nate gave an aggrieved shake of his head.
“It’s tainted now, obviously,” I told him.
“Did you smack him in the side of the face with it?” Blondie added. “Also a good use of it.”
I sighed again. “I wish I’d thought of that.”
“It’s never too late.” The impassioned words came accompanied by such an emphatic sword fighting gesture that I cracked a tiny smile in spite of myself.
Through the haze of my humiliation and sadness, I could almost appreciate the sincerity I detected in the furrow of the guy’s brow. He was cute. The kind of cute I’d thought Reid was, too. The kind of cute that would disappoint you by cheating on you or being straight in the first place. God, I was truly spiraling now. “Thank you both for trying to make me feel better, but could you maybe just go?”
“You sure?”
I nodded, and apparently Nate read the deep plea in my eyes and took pity on me. “C’mon, bro,” he said to Blondie as he hitched his backpack on his shoulder.
“Side of the face,” Blondie reiterated with another gesture. “It’d leave a mark for sure.”
Nate groaned. “You’re making it worse.”
“I have that habit. Sorry your boyfriend is an idiot,” Blondie said to me, then fist-bumped Nate. “Catch you after Chem.” He bolted from the room like his ass was on fire. Who could blame him?
Nate lingered in the doorway. He was a great roommate, and considering some of the stories I’d heard from my other friends, I’d gotten lucky. He was considerate and easy to talk to and not judgy at all, especially for a preppy guy rushing one of the bigger frats on campus.
But I hated the pitying expression he’d aimed at me.
“Unless you’re about to offer to make out with me, please stop looking at me like that,” I joked half-heartedly.
“Shit. Sorry. I’m not always good at knowing what to say. That dude is an asshole for real, though. Fuck him.”
“I’ll be fine.” I nodded woodenly. “Who’s the blonde?”
“Sam. Pledge brother. He means well, he’s just a dope sometimes.”
Actually, I’d preferred his cluelessness to Nate’s pity. I forced a wan smile. “It’s cool.”
“A bunch of us are gonna go to this keg party at Kappa tonight. Why don’t you come?”
“Meh.” I wrinkled my nose. “Maybe.”
But I did.
I went and got absolutely blitzed at that party, made out with some rando whose name and face I never, in three years, ever recovered, aside