We Were Here: A New Adult Romance Prequel to Geoducks Are for Lovers (Modern Love Stories Book 1) (21 page)

A slow, sweet smile spread across his face. “Sure. I understand.”

Maggie observed us with her head tilted slightly to the side. I’d never talked to her about Ben, but the way she nodded told me she knew something didn’t add up.

Having had enough, I made a run for it. “Gottagobye!” I mumbled over my shoulder as I jogged away.

Inside the library, I stuffed my hat into my bag and realized I’d lost a glove. Through the glass doors, I saw Ben bend over and pick up something pink from the concrete. When he turned his head toward the library, I ducked behind a pillar.

This Cinderella didn’t want to be found by Prince Slacker. No matter how charming he could be.

“Ben’s really funny. You didn’t tell me he was so funny. Or how cute. I was right about him being cute. And tall. I could tell from his voice.” Jenni babbled on and on about Ben while I tried to read the history of the Supreme Court for class. I should’ve stayed in the library.

“I didn’t tell you anything about him. That’s probably why I left out the funny part.”

She scowled at me. “Honestly, something is wrong with you if you don’t think he’s cute and funny.”

I rested my forehead on my book.

“If you aren’t remotely interested, then you won’t mind I asked him out for coffee. He’s going to stop by and pick me up in five minutes.”

A date explained the curling iron and the cloud of Jovan Musk perfume. She had enough Aqua Net in her hair to keep it up for a week.

“He’s what?” I lifted my head from the desk. No, Ben wasn’t coming to my room. I had to have heard her wrong.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Ooh, he’s early. That’s a good sign he likes me.” She bounced out of her chair and skipped over to the door.

“Come on in. I need to run to the little girls’ powder room. You can hang out with Jo until I get back.”

I was alone with Ben in my room.

Not the way I’d envisioned my evening going. I contemplated leaving again, but he blocked the one exit, unless I leapt out the window. I imagined landing on the shrubs below and decided against it.

“I have your glove.” He placed it on my desk beside my hand.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, and tossed it in the direction of my bag.

“Do you want to tell me why you are completely avoiding me this year?”

“Am I?” I wrapped a lock of hair around my index finger and gently pulled. “We don’t have any classes together or live in the same dorm.”

With his warm brown eyes, he stared at me, seeing through me.

At least it felt like he could look inside me from the intensity of his focus.

“Yes, but we share a social group and have the same friends, yet somehow are never in the same place at the same time. Don’t you find it odd?”

I frowned. “Not at all.”

“You don’t return my calls.”

“Jenni is really bad about giving me messages.”

“That’s not what she said.” Of course he’d quizzed her. “I left a note pinned to the board by the door.”

“Huh. Never saw it.” The role of ice queen served me well. I pointed at my textbook and pile of index cards. “You and Jenni have fun. If you don’t mind I have a test tomorrow . . .” I focused on the book, trying not to listen to him a few feet behind me. I could hear him sigh.

“Jo, I’m sorry.”

The door shut behind him.

An hour later, Jenni stomped back into the room.

“What a waste of hairspray.” She tossed her bag on her bed.

“Not as funny and cute as you thought?” I didn’t lift my attention from my notes, but was dying to know more.

“Oh, he’s both. Totally.”

“What happened?” I glanced at her without turning my head.

“All he could do was talk about you.”

I twisted in my chair and glared at her. “No, he didn’t.”

“He did. Of course, I did most of the talking, but he kept bringing the conversation back to you. If I asked him something, he’d make it about you.”

“Shut up.”

“I think he’s obsessed with you. I told him you weren’t interested. In fact, I repeated the whole line about putting his energy elsewhere.”

I gaped at her. “You didn’t.” I wouldn’t admit to myself why her telling him what I told her to tell him upset me. It didn’t even make sense to me.

“I did. You’re welcome.” She picked up the phone and dialed. “Chris? Hey, it’s Jenni. With an ‘i’. Want to hang out? Great. Be over in five.”

“That was fast.” She amazed me with her ability to bounce back.

“I told you. This hair is too good to waste.” She reapplied her bright pink lipstick. “Don’t wait up!”

Left alone, I had zero focus for recalling the names of justices from the sixties and seventies. Instead, I played Guns N’ Roses on my boombox. Loud.

As Axl wailed, I wove my hair into two French braids.

Turning the music up louder, I sang along to “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
and attempted to deafen my thoughts about Ben.

In spite of yelling at him, calling him a loser, and ignoring him, he still asked about me.

Asking about me was bad. Very bad.

Or really, really good.

No, it was bad.

The next song came on, its beat fast and crazy. I danced around, trying to exorcise the unwanted feelings from my body.

Benton Grant was bad news.

I needed to stay away.

The song finished and I fell face first on my bed. Pulse racing and chest heaving with my breath, I admitted defeat.

He’d apologized.

Those two words could change everything.

“What Have You Done for Me Lately?” Janet Jackson

“WE ALL WALKED
down to Geoduck Beach and got stoned the other night.” Maggie sprawled on her bed, her feet in the air as she pretended to read some depressing, existential French book. We’d been studying together all evening.

“Even Ben?” His name slipped out. My avoidance skills had improved and our paths hadn’t crossed in over a week, but he still occupied a big part of my thoughts.

“It was weird. Gil offered him some and he turned him down. Even though Gil has his old pipe.”

I sat up straighter. “That’s odd. Was he sick?”

“No. He drank a couple of beers. Said he wanted a clear head this quarter.”

“Very strange.”

“Have you ever known him to turn down getting stoned before?”

“Why do you ask me?” My voice remained flat and nonchalant although my pulse quickened.

“You two used to hang out all the time last fall. Or so it seemed.” I could see her hook dangling in the water. She was fishing and not being subtle about it.

Okay, I’d bite. “Not really. I tutored him in a study group. Then the few times we all hung out.”

“Really? I thought you two dated. Or, you know,
hung out
.” The real meaning behind her words sat down in the room like an elephant on a little stool.

“Hmm.” I played with the ends of my braid. “Not really.”

“Not really or not at all?”

“We’ve never gone on a date, or kissed.” The words flew out of my mouth like a flock of tiny birds.

“Never? Selah swore you had. She said Ben always stared at you.”

That was news to me. “Never.”

“But he talked about you all the time.”

“Did? Like in past tense?”

She tapped her feet together as she pondered her answer. “Now that you mention it, he doesn’t really bring you up these days. Last fall everything was all Jo did this and Jo said that. I guess that’s why I figured you two dated or had a thing, but you broke up with him.”

“There was nothing to break up. Trust me.”

“I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but he’s been pretty sullen lately. Quinn called him a sour bastard the other day.”

I didn’t know what to do with the new information. Or anything she’d said about Ben.

“Why didn’t you go out with him?” She kept up her casual interrogation.

Truthfully, it felt good to unload it. I explained about how we’d met, the drugs and the cocky attitude. I left out the part about him getting written up, but included the fight and the mean words we’d said to each other. His uncaring, cold dismissal still stung.

“And that’s it?” She closed her book

“No.” I paused, debating whether to share all of it. “He reached out at the start of the quarter.”

“What did he say?” She rolled over and sat up on her knees.

“I don’t know.” I slowly unraveled a thread from the seam of my T-shirt.

“You lost me.”

I told her about the note I threw out and the unheard messages. How Jenni went out with him for coffee. I spilled every pitiful detail.

She listened, nodding and frowning where appropriate.

“This explains the fight on Halloween.”

My cheeks heated. “Oh, God. I can’t believe that happened. I’ve apologized to Quinn a dozen times for the fight ending his party. I still feel terrible.”

“Quinn’s fine about it. He was thrilled a real old fashioned brawl with strapping guys broke out at one of his parties. Don’t you remember he kept shouting for a video camera?”

I chuckled at the memory. “It wasn’t a brawl. Ben got in one punch and then fell over when Trey clocked him.”

“If you weren’t seeing Ben, is Trey your boyfriend?”

Giggling, I shook my head. “No! I’d brought him to introduce him to Quinn. He didn’t say he was gay, but my gaydar and his Whitney Houston poster told me he might be.”

“He had a hell of a right hook.”

“He got bullied in school a lot until his dad took him for boxing lessons.”

“You should still set him up with Quinn.”

“Not happening. Turned out my gaydar and the poster belong to his roommate, Kyle. Unlike Ben, Trey actually made a move on me after the party. I had stupid white and red clown makeup all over my face.”

“You made out with a clown?” Her laughter turned into a cackle.

“He made out with my face before I realized what was happening. It was completely unexpected and awful. Then Ben started screaming my name outside the dorm, ruining the moment. Thankfully.”

Maggie nodded. “Bad kissers are the worst. It’s like being licked by a dog.”

“Or pecked by a tiny bird. Or sniffed.”

“Sniffed?” Giggles overtook her until she wheezed. “You mean snorted? Like a pig?”

I couldn’t breathe. “Exactly.”

“I’ve never been sniffed. So many guys don’t know what to do with their tongue. They’re all in or nothing.”