Shameless King

by Maya Hughes

  The desk-chair combo scraped across the floor as Declan dragged it away, trying to get a few millimeters farther away from my seat. Good luck with that. The desks barely fit as it was.

  “This semester because the administration has decided to yet again saddle me with this class, I’m changing things up.” Professor Alcott looked every bit the part of a disaffected academic. He wore a tweed blazer even though it was at least eighty degrees in the pressure cooker of a room. The jacket was frayed and thinning in some parts.

  “Since I don’t want to read all your papers, I’m pairing you up. You will have a partner for the duration of the class. All your assignments will be completed together.”

  A creeping sense of dread settled over me. Please not him. Please not him. The professor called out the names of different students in the class, walking around the room and giving everyone a sheet of paper with their partner’s contact information on it.

  “Makenna Halstead.” I raised my hand. “And you must be Declan McAvoy.” He slid the pieces of paper onto our desks at the same time, and my stomach dropped. “Since you two are seniors and have somehow made it this far without passing this class, I wouldn’t want to subject you to anyone else. Meet your new partners.”

  His dig for thinking I had actually failed a class didn’t even land because whooshing blood pounding in my ears drowned out everything else except the words new partners.

  “This is permanent. I don’t want to hear any whining about wanting to switch or wanting to be with your BFF or bestie or whatever the hell you call friends nowadays. These are your partners. Don’t come complaining to me about anything, unless they are actively trying to murder you. Past attempts don’t count. Get the work done. That’s the most important thing. In life, you don’t get to do a lot of shit you want to do, but you have to make it work.”

  My hands tightened around the paper he’d sat in front of me. The gentle crunching as I crumpled the edges was the only sound other than the frightened breaths of everyone around me. I refused to look at Declan and kept my eyes on the professor trying to figure out what fresh hell he was ready to unleash on the class. This wasn’t going to work. I could not be partners with Declan.

  Glancing down at the wrinkled paper on my desk, I smoothed out the edges.

  “What’s the matter, Books? Afraid my irresponsibility will rub off on you? Look at you, already creasing your papers. Next you’ll be coloring outside the lines and maybe even leaving the house without an emergency supply kit for a small village.” He glanced down at my bag and backpack combo, and I reflexively followed his gaze.

  The pen sticking out of his mouth clicked on his teeth, and my gaze narrowed, zeroing in on him, his mouth, and his disgusting habit. Yes, I carried around a lot of stuff, but it was the first day. Preparation was key.

  Gritting my teeth, I sat up straight and waited for the professor to finish his droning speech. He handed out the thick packets sitting on his desk, and the mood in the room edged further into resignation that this level of suckage would only grow throughout the semester.

  I could handle the workload. I could handle a hard-ass professor. I could not handle putting my GPA in the hands of someone like Declan. My future. I’d go to office hours the first chance I got.

  “That’s all. I’ll see you next week after you’ve turned in your first assignment.”

  No one moved until the professor closed his bag and strode out of the door, the happiest he’d been since he walked in.

  A hot and heavy presence pressed in close beside me as Declan rested his arms on the edge of my desk.

  “When do you want to meet, Books?” he said around the chewed-on pen tucked in the side of his mouth. I took a few calming breaths and packed up my stuff.

  “Let’s try to do this through e-mail and a shared doc online. Maybe that’s the best way to handle this.” I put on a smile so weak a stiff breeze would have blown it away.

  Declan made a tsking sound that fanned the embers of the annoyance that had been building since he stepped foot in the classroom.

  “Check out the first line of the assignment.” He slid it across my desk, and I glanced over at it. In big bold letters it read: YOU MUST MEET IN PERSON. THE WORLD IS MADE UP OF PEOPLE MEETING FACE-TO-FACE. DEAL WITH IT.

  Thanks, Professor.

  7

  Declan

  Sophomore Seminar was bad enough but ending up partnered with Makenna was a cosmic kick in the balls with everything else going on. But it was almost worth it to be Mak’s partner for the look of annoyance on her face. She didn’t want to be paired up with me any more than I wanted to be paired up with her, but I’d take pleasure in her irritation.

  I held back my laugh as she crumpled her paper and tried to smooth it out. She was so tightly wound it would be a miracle if she didn’t have a heart attack by the time she was thirty. Pointing out that we had to meet in person gave me some sick satisfaction that at least this class would be entertaining, if nothing else.

  She packed up her giant bags like she was a Sherpa setting out to conquer the treachery of Mount Everest, and I was tempted to help her with them but I figured I might pull back a nub. Walking behind her as we left class, I followed as she rushed out of the building.

  People walking by high-fived me or waved, and I waved back but didn’t stop because I didn’t want to lose Mak, who was walking like someone had started a brushfire behind her.

  I don’t even know if she was leading us somewhere in particular or storming off, driven by her blinding rage. She might not even have known I was still there from the deep thought grooves creased in her forehead.

  “Are we going somewhere in particular? Or were you trying to walk me somewhere private to murder me and secure yourself a new partner.”

  She jumped at the sound of my voice, so maybe she hadn’t remembered I was there. Blow to the ego.

  “I reserved a room in the library for after class. I need to be there before five minutes after six or they will give it away.”

  “Which library?”

  “Samuelson.”

  “Why the hell did you book a library clear across campus when Harbin Library is right there?”

  She made an exasperated sound. “Because I didn’t know!” She threw her hands up. “I didn’t realize the buildings were so far apart when I planned my schedule out for the day, and by the time I realized it, all the rooms in Harbin were booked.”

  I checked the time, and we had about two minutes to get there. Not really knowing what the big deal was, I didn’t want to start things off on an even worse foot with her. Lumbering under the collective weight of a small mining town, she wasn’t going to make it there.

  “Here, let me help.” I grabbed one of the bags off her shoulder without asking. She grabbed for the strap, but it slipped through her fingers. I slung her bag of bricks onto my back.

  “Let’s go, Books. We’ve got two minutes.” I picked up the pace, and she scrambled behind me to keep up as we wove through the early evening dinner crowd crossing campus. The shining lights of the library up ahead meant the sweat trickling down my back was worth it. I swear she was training for some kind of Iron Man race with this bag.

  We both dropped our bags onto the library floor at exactly six minutes after. I went in search of some water. Maybe I should have Mak weight train me. When I came back, the perky, curly-haired student worker behind the desk shook her head as Mak slid her ID card across the counter.

  “I came all the way across campus. I need this study room.” She held out her ID card to the person on the other side of the counter like she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

  “The policy is five minutes.”

  I stepped up beside Mak, and the girl’s eyes got wide. I glanced down at her name tag. Amanda.

  “But what’s a little rule bending between friends, Amanda. It’s actually my fault. I was talking to a few people about the upcoming season, and Mak was waiting for me. I held her up, and that’s why we were la
te.” I threw on the smile that got me out of all kinds of shit, and she made that telltale giggle-snort thing that let me know I had her.

  “What do you say you bend the rules a little and let her have the room?”

  The girl glanced between the two of us and sighed.

  “Okay, yeah, it’s fine.” She peeked up at me as she typed away on the computer and took Mak’s ID card again. Mak grabbed her bags off the floor and trudged to the elevators after getting her room assignment.

  Jabbing the button for the third floor like it had killed her dog, she stood in front of the doors waiting for it to arrive. She crossed her arms over her chest, her shoulders looking like they were going to buckle under the weight of the bags.

  “Do I get a thank you?”

  “Thank you,” she bit out.

  “Don’t sound so happy about it.” I leaned against the wall beside the slowest elevators known to man. “So, what’s the big deal about this study room? Why the rush?”

  “It’s a room reservation for the entire semester, and this is the closest library to my apartment. While my roommates seem fine now, I wanted a place I could go to study if they were too loud. And usually the graduate students snag these rooms early, so I needed to get one right away.”

  “Gotcha. You really cover all your bases, huh?”

  I meant it as a genuine compliment, but she didn’t seem to take it that way, glaring at me as the elevator arrived and the doors opened. I stepped in behind her, and she moved to the far side of the elevator like she’d climbed on board with a leper.

  The elevator shook and groaned as it climbed to the third floor. The musty-paper smell was even stronger up here. Half the lights didn’t turn on as we passed by. It was almost completely deserted, but the rooms lining the outside of the floor were already filled with stacks of books, personal items, and everything else a person who lived at the library would need.

  Mak stopped in front of a room and used her ID card to open the door and stepped inside. The door beside hers swung open, and a blonde popped her head out. Her eyes got big when she spotted me, and her cheeks turned beet red.

  “Hi, I’m Angel. It looks like we’re neighbors.” She stuck her hand out. I hesitated and extended my arm. The stars were already in Angel’s eyes, and I wasn’t interested, not even a little bit. Our introductions were interrupted when Mak came back to the door.

  “He’s not your new neighbor. He’s popping in for a quick visit.” She glared at me and motioned with her head for me to go inside, spinning around and intercepting poor Angel’s hand.

  “Oh, right. Nice to meet you.” She leaned in past Mak and waved to me. “And you too.”

  Mak closed the door and leaned against it with her arms crossed over her chest. When she leaned back like that, it had the unfortunate—well, not for me—consequence of pushing her tits up even higher. I found my gaze drifting down to them while trying to avoid the face-melting glare in her eyes.

  Pushing off the door, she started digging through her Sherpa bags, unloading more books than one of the shelves in this library. I couldn’t help but glance at her legs as she bent over to take things out. Nice legs, better than nice, even. Pretty spectacular. Too bad they were attached to someone so full of herself I was surprised she could barely see out her eyeballs.

  I stared up at the ceiling because the thoughts I was having were not the thoughts you had about a woman who was probably going to do everything in her power to screw me over that semester, and not in a good way. The one time she’d been cool was one time I tried to forget. It was a mirage.

  Maybe if she laid off the homicidal-thought daggers for a bit, we could make this arrangement more fun for the both of us, but I had no doubt in my mind that she would remove my balls with an ice cream scoop if I so much as hinted that I might be interested in anything more than the work.

  “Our first assignment is due in a week. Why don’t you tell me which parts of this you think you can handle, and I’ll do the rest?” She slid the paper across the desk, and I slid it right back to her, my anger shooting up.

  “You really think I’m a moron, huh?”

  “Listen, we need to get through this. You’re the one who’s a senior in Sophomore Seminar. What am I supposed to think?”

  “You’re right there beside me in class, aren’t you?”

  “As a transfer. If I didn’t have to take this bullshit class, I’d be able to graduate before the summer, so I’m not any happier than you are about this. We have to discuss the five strategies and approaches adopted to promote development and reduce poverty over four decades in the country of our choice, and the impact of those strategies.”

  “Fine. You take two, I’ll take three.”

  “I’ll take four, and you take one.”

  I clenched my fists against my thighs.

  “So, you can complain to Alcott that I’m not pulling my weight?” My voice rose as she kept looking at me like I couldn’t be trusted not to walk headfirst into a wall without enough warning. She squeezed the bridge of her nose.

  “I’m trying to make this easy for you, Declan. Just like everything else in your life. You should be thanking me. I’m not going to rat you out to Alcott. I’m trying to get through this year and graduate as quickly as I can.”

  “And you see me as a barrier to that. Sorry we can’t all be as perfect as you.”

  She glanced up at me, and something flashed in her eyes. I didn’t know what it was, but it was still boiling from her endless digs. Her shoulders sagged, and she sat in the other chair in the room.

  “I don’t have anything against you personally.”

  I scoffed, and she peered up at me.

  “Fine. I do. You don’t know what it’s like for someone like me to have my grades in the hands of someone like you.”

  My hackles rose as she pushed all my buttons.

  “Someone like me? And how do you think I feel having my grades and future as a hockey player at this school in the hands of a perfectionist who would sooner watch someone drown than have it mess up their set schedule for life?”

  She jerked back like I’d slapped her.

  “It seems like we’re both relying on someone we don’t trust, so we might as well make the best of it and get this shit done so we can see each other for the least amount of time possible.” I peered over at the assignment on the desk.

  “I’ll take two. You take two, and we’ll finish the fifth one together. Maybe once you see that I’m not a walking, talking brain donor, you’ll loosen the hell up, and we can have an enjoyable rest of the semester.”

  “Fine.” The word barely made it past her clenched teeth.

  We grabbed our computers and worked out which country we wanted to highlight and which issues to write about in our paper. With a basic outline for all the items, she seemed satisfied that I wasn’t a babbling moron.

  “We can meet to go over this stuff on Saturday and get it ready to submit on Tuesday, the day before class.” She put her laptop back in the bag that was no longer bursting at the seams since she’d unloaded most of the stuff onto the small shelf above the desk in the study room.

  “What time on Saturday?” I slid my arms into the straps of my backpack.

  “Three?” She put her bags on her arms and no longer looked like she was going to keel over.

  “Three works.”

  She opened her mouth and snapped it shut before turning to the door. I followed behind her and almost ran her over when she stopped short and whipped around with her mouth opening and closing again before she stared up at me.

  “Spit it out, Books.”

  She shot me a quick glare, and the corners of her mouth turned down.

  “I’m sorry if I made you think I thought you were stupid. I don’t. I… This class is really important to me, and I need to do well.”

  I stared at her.

  “I need to do well too. It’s the only way I get to play with my team. I’m not going to screw this up.”

&nbs
p; “Then I think things will go well this semester.” She held out her hand, which was probably the only time since that one night she’d ever willingly touched me. I slid my hand into her soft, warm one with her delicate fingers wrapping around mine.

  The charged air between us shifted as we both let our guards down a little. The blue in her eyes behind those glasses seemed even brighter under the fluorescent library lights, and the pink of her lips was still shiny from when she’d been nibbling on them while we worked through our research.

  “I think so too.” We stood there, shaking our hands until one of the doors on the floor slammed shut. She jumped like she’d come out of a trance and whipped around, rushing from the room, and I once again had to chase after her. I didn’t know how long we shook hands, but it was long enough that even as we left the library and parted ways, I could still feel her gentle touch wrapped around my hand.

  I squeezed the back of my neck and shook my head as I caught a shuttle back across campus. If there was one person not to get any illusions about being anything more than study partners with, it was Makenna. The Ice Queen would eviscerate anyone who tried to get close.

  8

  Makenna

  Standing outside the professor’s office, I shifted from foot to foot. It had taken me two days to build up the courage to even come near his office. I couldn’t get the study session with Declan out of my head, and that was not a good thing.

  When we’d shaken on it at the end and his hand enveloped mine. The calluses from his fingers had scraped against my skin and sent a shiver through me.

  I’d noticed his freckles before, but up close the smattering of light brown flecks looked like they had been strategically placed for maximum impact. Like the cosmos created just the right combo to make unsuspecting women get lost staring at the pattern. The way they streaked across his skin reminded me of a lake on a warm summer’s day.