by K. G. Reuss
I couldn’t stomach an hour and a half with him beside me, even if it meant leaving Ava behind. We both shared the same sentiments on Travis, although he didn’t harass her as much as he did me. I gathered my things to leave. Ava didn’t even bother looking up from where she’d buried her head in her arm.
“Come on,” Travis sighed. “Don’t move. I promise not to give you any shit.”
I looked out at the seats which were filling fast, then back at Ava who was blindly fumbling for her water bottle. If I moved, I’d end up stuck in the front. I hated the front.
Grumbling, I sat back in my seat, causing a grin to sweep over his handsome face. I took in his tight, gray shirt stretched over his muscles. God, why did he have to look so good but be such an ass? I grimaced at that thought. I hated admitting it, even to myself, that Travis had it going on.
“I bet you’re excited to hear what Professor Herring has for our secret assignment, huh?”
I glanced at him and shrugged. Professor Herring was known for her unique assignments. It was one reason I’d joined her sociology course. That and I needed a sociology course for graduation.
Travis rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Miss Smarty-Pants isn’t worried a bit. You’ll pass without a hitch.”
“You probably could pass easily if you didn’t spend every waking moment feeling up every sorority girl who looked at you sideways.”
He let out a loud laugh. Ava groaned again, causing a few people to look in our direction.
“Are you jealous, Lexicon?” His emerald-colored eyes sparkled as he stared me down.
“I’m jealous that you leave them alone after screwing them over. You’ve been screwing me over for years and yet you’re still here.”
He laughed again. “Oh, Lexicon, you want me to screw you and leave you like I do them?”
“The thought of you or any of your appendages near me makes me want to gag, Travis. Seriously. You’re a pig.”
“I know one appendage that would make you gag—”
“See this pencil? I will stake you with it if you don’t shut up.” I flashed my number two pencil at him, which only caused him to shake with laughter again.
“Hey, Travis.” A girl named Kelsey giggled as she stopped in front of us. His eyes roamed up her body before a grin spread onto his face. “I’m Kelsey, and I’m a huge fan.”
“I love meeting fans.” He grinned.
I rolled my eyes as he sat forward.
“I should’ve listened to you this morning and skipped,” I muttered to Ava who was looking between me and Travis. Her eyes rolled when she saw Kelsey.
“Shouldn’t you be sucking dick somewhere, Kelsey?” Ava asked.
“Ava,” I hissed. She was far too blunt for her own good.
Kelsey’s cheeks reddened before she opened and closed her mouth a few times.
“We were getting to that part, Ava,” Travis said, pulling out his phone. “What’s your number, doll?”
And just like that, he focused his attention on collecting more girls for his booty calls.
“I’m surprised he hasn’t knocked someone up yet,” Ava grumbled, digging into her bag for a candy bar.
“We aren’t supposed to eat in here—”
“Then I better eat fast.” She took a large bite and chewed quickly. “It’s the only thing that helps my hangovers.”
“Hair of the dog that bit you can also help,” Travis supplied. Kelsey had moved to her seat near the front of the class. “We can hit up Rocko’s after classes end today. I’ll buy.”
“You mean you didn’t schedule your daily cocksuck with one of your adoring fans?” Ava gave him a wide-eyed, innocent look that only made him smirk.
“Of course, I did, but it won’t last all day. What do you say? You guys in? I’ll call Alex and Mason too.”
“Mm, Mason is hot,” Ava stated around a mouthful of chocolate and caramel.
I nodded, agreeing with her. He really was. Alex and Travis had met him when we started college. In fact, they were all roommates before they’d all pledged their frat. I guessed they still were roommates. All three of them were on the football team.
Travis’s eyes met mine, and he scowled. I hadn’t seen anything except a grin on his face the last three years of college, but he was definitely scowling at me and Ava as Ava talked about how good Mason looked in his jeans.
“I can’t go—” I started.
“Why not?” Travis demanded.
“Because I have to study.”
Before Travis could fire back a reply, Professor Herring entered the room and started her lecture.
She was fifteen minutes into her talk on the importance of communication in a marriage when my phone buzzed. I pulled it out and looked at the screen.
Travis: You need to come out tonight.
I glanced at him and shook my head. He started typing on his phone again. A moment later, my phone vibrated.
Travis: You’re a lame-ass, Lexicon. You should come. You’re missing out on all the fun. That’s what college is supposed to be. You’re ruining the experience. You’ll regret it someday.
I stared down at my phone. Ava was always telling me I was missing out on the whole college experience by holing up in my room with my nose stuck in a book.
The more important question was why he cared if I went. He always made me feel angry and out of place.
I shook my head and mouthed no at him. He let out a loud sigh, typing once more.
Travis: Challenge.
I shot him an irritated look before snapping back a reply.
Lexy: Accepted.
Travis: Come out tonight.
Seemed easy enough compared to other challenges. I ground my teeth. I could go out for an hour then return home. Plus, Alex would be there. Alex made Travis easier to be around.
Lexy: Fine. Jerk.
Travis looked at the message and smirked before darkening his screen.
“Doesn’t that sound like loads of fun?” Professor Herring finished, grinning out at the sea of students.
I frowned. I’d been too busy with Travis’s texts to know what was going on.
“What’s happening?” I hissed at Ava, who looked like she was going to be sick.
“Herring’s project is either a fake marriage or raising a baby. It depends on what she pulls out of her bag of tricks. Some people will be randomly paired up to be fake married for the semester. Students not partnered up and some of the married couples will be given one of those squawking ass baby dolls over there, and they have to raise it. Instead of a final, we submit our report and make a five-minute presentation for the class to watch detailing our experience.”
“What? That’s ridiculous! She can’t be serious—”
“When I call your name, please stand up so your partner knows who you are. If you’re a single or a couple raising one of our bundles of joy, come to the front and pick out your baby.”
Professor Herring dug into one of three baskets on her desk and pulled out the first slip of paper.
“This is for the fake marriage project.” Professor Herring looked out at us, a teasing grin on her face. Everyone sat forward, probably wondering who would get stuck with a fake spouse.
“Ava Harris and Collin Reynolds. Congratulations on your new marriage!” she proclaimed loudly.
“Fuck my life,” Ava moaned, climbing to her feet.
I gave her hand a squeeze as Collin, a guy who worked on the student paper, stood up and gave her a shaky smile.
Professor Herring continued assigning students various partners or made them single parents. I glanced around the room. There weren’t many of us left.
“This is another marriage project. Alexis Hale and...” She dug into another basket of names and pulled a slip of paper out while I silently prayed for someone I could at least get along with for the semester.
“Travis Owens.”
I froze in my seat.
No. No. No!
“Congratulations! I
now pronounce you husband and wife.” Professor Herring chuckled as she moved on to the next name.
“Should we consummate it?” Travis asked, giving me an innocent look.
I flipped him off, cursing this class and all that was Travis.
“I want a divorce.”
Four
Travis
Lexy wouldn’t even talk to me. After Professor Herring detailed what she expected of us on our assignment—open relationship or monogamy, communication, discussing children, finances, putting together a portfolio of how we would pay bills, where we would live, how we would spend our time together—Lexy shot out of her seat, her long, red hair whipping behind her, and left, not even bothering to wait for Ava.
“Good luck. You’ll need it.” Ava laughed softly.
I shook my head as I stared after Lexy. I hadn’t expected her to run away. Hell, half the girls in the class had cast eager glances at me, probably hoping to land me as their “husband” for the project. But Lexy? Nope. She gave me the finger and fled.
“Can you make sure she comes tonight?” I asked, turning to Ava.
She shrugged. “I’ll try. You know Lex, though.”
“I do,” I grumbled back. Not even a tank would get her out of the house if she was pissed, challenge or not. I wasn’t exactly sure what Ava did to get her to go to parties, but whatever magic she weaved, she needed to do it again.
“It’s too bad we didn’t get paired together,” Kelsey said with a pout, stopping next to me.
I caught Ava rolling her eyes before she walked away, not bothering to bid me farewell.
Pushing Lexy’s issues out of my head, I gave Kelsey my best smile. “Oh, baby, don’t you worry. This marriage doesn’t change a thing.”
“Good,” she breathed out, fluttering her lashes at me as she rested her hand on my chest. “Want to take an early lunch?”
“It’s ten in the morning.”
“That’s not what I want you to be eating,” she said with a coy smile.
I let out a laugh at her innuendo. “Lead the way.”
I wiped at my mouth, still tasting Kelsey on my lips. I had every intention of screwing her brains out, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Lexy. I ended up rushing off to class with a lame explanation of not wanting to be late.
“Damnit,” I hissed, rubbing my eyes as I struggled to make it through my trig class. Why couldn’t I get her out of my head? Blue eyes. Hair the color of lava. A scowl embedded on her face.
What the hell is wrong with me?
I shook my head, hoping to clear her image from my mind. Out of all the girls on campus, she was the one who didn’t want me back and made sure I knew it. I could probably ask Alex what her deal was, but then he’d hound me with twenty questions I wouldn’t know how to answer.
Lexy and Alex were so different, most people would never know they were twins. Where Lexy was all small, red hair, and intelligence, Alex was built like me and blond.
When class ended, I shot a text off to Lexy. Alex and Mason were already in. Ava said she was going. I just needed to make sure Lexy was still coming. I liked our banter. I wasn’t sure what that said about me. I didn’t want to dwell on it, though.
Travis: You still coming tonight?
Lexy: No.
Shit. I wanted her to come out. I needed to entice her.
Travis: Don’t do me like that, baby. We just got married!
Lexy: The hell we did.
I snickered at her response before texting back.
Travis: You need to come out. You accepted the challenge. I want to talk to you about our report. I’m being serious. Besides, failure to follow through on a challenge puts you in streaking danger. You know the rules.
Her answer wasn’t as fast as her previous ones. I waited a minute, wondering what she would say. I was pulling out the big guns. One time we’d agreed that if either of us backed down after accepting a challenge, public humiliation would be the punishment.
Lexy: Fine. What time?
I grinned as I stared down at her message.
Travis: Everyone is meeting at seven. That cool with you?
Lexy: Whatever.
Travis: I’ll see you soon. Wife.
Her response was to send me a middle finger emoji. I let out a bark of laughter as I darkened the screen on my phone.
Five
Lexy
“Why are you so mad?” Ava bit into her cookie and raised an eyebrow at me.
“Because it’s stupid. A fake marriage? For an entire semester with Travis? He’s a complete asshat. For another, I don’t think he’s even faithful to himself.” I sank down onto a chair at the kitchen table.
“Honey, you’re missing the point. It’s a fake marriage. Not a real one. So what if Travis wants to go rock some chick’s socks? Just write in your report that you guys tried the monogamy thing for the semester, and he cheated. It’s not like it would be out in left field. He has a reputation for screwing anything with a set of tits and a heartbeat. Herring is giving bonus points for the effort of monogamy. Collin and I decided to hang out sometimes. You and Travis do that anyway, no matter how unwilling you typically are.”
“Travis isn’t Collin. Collin pulls his weight. He was in my civics class. He’ll do his part and do it well. Travis will only drag my GPA down. I need to get into med school, Ava. I can’t get less than an A. They only take the best. I’m not the best if I’m holding a C average!”
“Girl, breathe.” Ava reached across our small kitchen table and gave my hand a squeeze. “Tell Travis you’re worried about your grades. You already have a 4.0—”
“Right now I do! But with Travis as a partner, it’ll drop dramatically. Remember tenth grade psych class when he paired up with Jessica Andrews? She had a 4.0 too until he ruined it.”
“To be fair, I think Jess had a hand in that. Didn’t they date for two months or something after?”
“Whatever,” I grumbled.
“Relax, hon. I know Travis can be a jerk but talk to him. Like really talk. Not that arguing stuff you guys do when you’re together. He needs to pass the class too.”
I let out a sigh and folded my arms over my chest.
“Besides, I don’t think he’s as dumb as we think he is. I caught a glimpse of his folder. Loads of red A’s in there.” She paused for a moment.
I rolled my eyes. Wonder how he got those. The Travis I knew never studied a day in his party-loving life.
“You should come out with us tonight. Alex texted and said he’s going.” Ava’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
“Alex is texting you? When did that develop?”
Ava’s cheeks heated, and she shook her head. “I don’t know. Now and then he messages and asks how you’re doing when they’re at away games and stuff.”
“Why doesn’t he just message me and ask?”
“Because you’ll get mad at him about being overprotective with you.” She shrugged her shoulders like I should already know that.
Truth was, I knew that. Alex had always been overprotective of me. He sort of had to be. I garnered a lot of attention growing up, not all of it positive. I was always a bit of a dork, since I focused on my grades and studying. People thought I was weird because of it. If I hadn’t had Ava at my side, I’d probably have been lonely growing up, or seriously damaged because Travis would’ve been the only person I interacted with.
As an adult, I wanted some space. But I was sure Alex still thought of me as his kid sister who needed protecting.
“I’m going to take a nap,” I said, getting to my feet. “I need one after the day I’ve had.”
“Me too, girl.” Ava was on her feet, following me down the hall to our rooms. “I’m going out with the guys tonight. You should come too. I hate when it’s just a sausage fest.”
“I will.”
“You better.” She wagged her finger at me as she turned in the doorway of her bedroom. “Don’t make me force you, Alexis Sophia Hale.”
“Don�
��t you full name me.” I laughed, going into my room.
“Don’t make me,” she retorted with a chuckle.
I shook my head and stretched across my bed. Ava and I had gotten our own apartment this fall. Dorm life was a bit too rowdy for me, and Ava didn’t want to keep sneaking her boyfriends through our female only dorm. Getting our own place seemed like the logical thing to do. Luckily, her Uncle Marty owned the complex and only charged us a meager sum each month.
My thoughts traveled to my fake marriage to Travis. Of all the assignments I’d done over the years, this had to be the worst. With anyone else it may have been fun, but with Travis?
Ugh. He would ruin my idea of marriage. I wanted the kind of relationship my parents had. They’d been in love since college. My dad bought my mom flowers just because he felt like it. He made her laugh with his goofy jokes. And they still looked at one another like they’d just fallen in love.
I wanted someone to look at me like I was the love of his life. Love, sex, all of it was something precious. I wanted to save all of it for someone special, which explained why I’d never gone farther than second base with anyone. Garrett, the guy I’d dated in high school, was short-lived because Alex came home early from football practice and caught us making out. After Alex practically threw him out of the house, Garrett stopped calling.
My phone buzzing pulled me out of my thoughts.
“Ugh, go away, Travis,” I muttered when I saw his name pop up on the screen with a text message. Sighing, I opened his message.
Travis: You wearing something sexy tonight?
I promptly replied with another middle finger emoji. It was becoming a fast favorite.
Travis: Don’t do me like that, baby. We just got married!
I let out a growl of frustration and shot back a text.
Lexy: Like hell we did. Stop saying that.
Travis: You know we can use these texts for our report, right? So be sweet, my dear wife.
I bit my bottom lip. I hated he was right. Ava said I needed to talk to him about my concerns. I wasn’t so sure doing it while he was drinking was the best way but knowing how busy he was with his revolving door service with the women on campus, it was probably the only time I’d get to do it.