So maybe not feeling better, then. But at least she was asking me a question that had an easy answer.
“In a heartbeat.”
S O P H I A
I tried to slough off the unfortunate interaction with my brother and my nemesis, or at least look like I had, but I wasn’t completely successful. Which sucked since it was ruining my first real date with Drew.
I looked across the table at him, taking in his handsome face, the way his dark hair kept falling into his eyes since he hadn’t been able to get regular haircuts, the scruff that outlined his square jaw, his chocolate-colored eyes that were so kind and sincere.
He really was damn good-looking.
Too bad I couldn’t enjoy any of that because my brother was probably off somewhere at that exact moment fucking the Blair Witch.
“You want dessert?” Drew asked as he looked over the small menu Hannah had dropped off when she’d collected our dinner plates.
“Hmm, maybe. Anything look good?”
“All of it.”
“So we’re still looking at an abundance of options.”
Drew shot me a toothy grin. “Wanna share a gigantic warm cookie topped with ice cream?”
“What if I want it all for myself?”
Drew rolled his eyes before looking up at Hannah, who’d reappeared at our table. “We’ll share the cookie.”
“Good choice,” she said as she took the menu from Drew. “Coffee?”
“I’m good,” I said.
“Me too.”
Hannah gave us a rehearsed smile before leaving.
“I think she hates us,” I said.
Drew nodded. “Can’t really blame her. We’ve been extra bizarre tonight.”
“Really?” So much of my life had been stranger than hell for the past half year that this night had almost felt tame in comparison.
“Not weird for us but for normal people.” Drew reached over and grabbed my hand so he could pull it toward him and peck a kiss on my knuckles, maybe in an attempt to soften the blow of how fucked up we were.
“Hmm, that makes sense I guess.”
“Holy shit, it’s true.”
Drew and I both jerked at the loud voice coming from beside our table.
I swung my head toward the noise and saw a guy from Alpha Epsilon Mu. I didn’t remember his name but vaguely knew him from Greek events.
“Um, what?” I asked, eloquent as ever.
“I thought it was just a rumor, but it’s true. You’re totally fucking your brother.”
Hannah, the poor soul, chose that moment to appear with our dessert. “H-Here’s your…uh…your cookie.” She practically threw it at us before scurrying away.
“He’s not my brother,” I yelled after her but to no avail. She didn’t acknowledge my words in any way. But everyone else in the restaurant did as they turned to gawk at us. “I hope you enjoyed your meal,” I told Drew. “Because we can never come back.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if I didn’t enjoy my meal?” Drew reasoned. “Then I wouldn’t miss it.”
“I’m honestly not sure what I see in you.” I looked up at the interloper who was standing by our table talking into his phone, likely Snapchatting the entire ordeal. “He’s not my brother,” I repeated lamely.
“Yeah, sure,” the guy said dubiously, never taking attention away from his phone. “Can you guys even believe this?”
Fed up, I snatched the phone out of his hand.
“Hey!” he yelled.
I looked at the demonic device to see that he was in fact on Snapchat.
I began recording a Snap. “Hello to the probably six followers this guy has. Sophia Mason here with a special announcement. I am not now, nor have I ever, dated my brother, Brody. I have been dating a cute guy named Drew.” I turned the phone around to capture Drew in the frame. “Say hi, Drew.”
“Hi,” Drew said with a smile like he wasn’t currently stuck in the seventh circle of hell. Always such a good sport, my Drew.
“I get that you all thought he was Brody. But he’s not. So let’s all move on.”
There was obviously more to this story, and I was sure people would start wondering about all that had gone down last semester, but I had no interest in addressing any of that over some douchebag’s Snapchat. It wasn’t anyone’s business, not to mention that coming completely clean could have horrible repercussions if the school found out.
But I couldn’t say nothing at all, or Drew and I would be dealing with this nonsense every time we went anywhere. And I wasn’t going to hold back on my feelings for him in public, because I’d been there, done that, got the broken heart to prove it. Hiding what he was to me wasn’t something I was willing to do. So we’d have to navigate this balance of acknowledging the truth without completely exposing the lie.
I handed the guy his phone back and then opened my purse and withdrew a card.
“Sorry for ruining your moment. Here’s a coupon for Nite Bites. Tell your friends.” I then picked up my spoon and began eating the enormous cookie in front of me, effectively dismissing the annoying frat boy. He seemed to get the hint, because he left without a fuss.
“You’re kind of a badass,” Drew said when we were alone.
“Yeah? You into that sort of thing?” I teased. I felt…lighter. It was as if the lie from the fall had been weighing me down, and I hadn’t even realized it until it was gone.
“You have no idea.”
“Mmm, you should show me.”
Drew’s eyes widened a bit before he shot his hand up in the air. “Hannah!” he yelled across the restaurant.
I saw the poor girl’s shoulders droop like she couldn’t believe the lot she’d drawn in life.
“We need a box!” Drew called.
Hannah didn’t reply, and I was too busy laughing hysterically to see if she moved to do what he’d asked.
When I’d calmed down enough to speak, I said, “I think we need to commemorate this evening.” I pulled my phone from my purse. “Publicly,” I added.
I didn’t want some dudebro’s Snap to be what defined our relationship. I wanted to own it.
The intent way Drew held my gaze showed me he understood what I was implying. “Sounds good to me.”
I smiled at him and then turned to watch Hannah approach us cautiously with a box and our check in hand.
“Would you take a picture of us?” I asked her.
She hesitated for a second, probably contemplating how the simple gesture of taking our picture could backfire on her. But she reached out and took my phone.
“Sure.”
“Thanks,” I said.
Drew and I both leaned over the table until our heads were side by side. I hoped the position didn’t put a strain on Drew’s leg, but a quick glance in his direction showed a wide smile. Quickly, I faced Hannah so she could take the picture.
“Okay, I took a few,” she told us, handing the phone back to me. “You guys are a really cute couple,” she added before walking away.
“Thanks, Hannah,” I called. “We need to leave her a good tip.”
“Absolutely.” Drew reached into his pocket to withdraw his wallet as I looked through the pictures and chose the best one.
Uploading it to Instagram, I typed out a caption. Dinner with Drew (who is NOT my brother). Always an adventure <3
I showed it to Drew, who nodded. “Looks good to me.”
Gazing back at the photo again, seeing how happy we were together, I couldn’t help but agree.
“Yup. Looks good to me too.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
D R E W
“So business is good?” Carter asked me as he lounged on the other end of the couch from me, sipping a beer he’d snagged from the fridge when he’d first come in.
“Yeah. Really good.” I shot him a grin. “You looking for a job?”
He laughed. “No way, man. Between football and school, I’m maxed out.”
“There’s no football in the spring,”
I argued.
“There’s always football,” he replied. “Well, until there’s not. But I’ll worry about that when the time comes.” His face grew a little sad, and I felt for the guy.
I didn’t think Carter had any plans for the future that didn’t involve football. Luckily for him, since he’d redshirted his freshman year, he still had a full year of eligibility left. But I imagined he still felt like time was ticking down on him.
“I saw you and Sophia made it Instagram official,” he said, giving me a teasing smirk.
That made me laugh. “Yeah, I guess we did. She wanted people to stop thinking she was dating her brother.”
“They still think that. But now they also think you have multiple personality disorder.”
“Maybe Brody and I should take a picture together. Really blow their minds.”
“Bro, that needs to happen.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Carter opened his mouth to reply, but his words were cut off by Sophia storming into the apartment.
We both whipped our heads around to stare at her, and I furrowed my brow in confusion.
She was struggling to get through the door, the strap of her bag catching on the doorknob, but her arms were laden down with books, so she was having trouble detangling it.
“You know what?” she said irritably. “Just stay there.”
She let the bag slip off her arm, the weight of it jerking hard on the knob before the bag crashed to the floor. She didn’t move to pick it up but instead soldiered through the door and dropped her books on the kitchen table. Once her arms were empty, she stood up straight and took a few deep breaths.
“Uh, you want me to get the door, princess?” Carter asked, motioning toward the still-wide-open door.
Her head turned slowly, and she shot him a dark look.
Carter held his hands out in front of him. “Guess not. It’s cool. I’m all for an open-door policy.”
When she went back to breathing instead of answering, I decided to venture a question.
“Bad day?”
“A bad day that’s threatening to turn into a bad semester,” she replied, her voice low and deceptively serene as she continued her yogi impression.
“What happened?”
“Dr. Gilmer. That’s what happened.”
“The Gil-meister?” Carter asked, his voice fond. “What’s he up to?”
Sophia glared at him again. “He’s up to failing me, that’s what! Stupid fucking sociology class with its stupid hundred pages of reading a week. What’s up with him? Hasn’t he heard his class is supposed to be an easy A?”
“I’m confused,” I said. “Weren’t you really good at psychology?”
“Dude, they’re totally different sciences,” Carter said, sounding affronted.
“Really?”
Carter nodded like he couldn’t believe how stupid I was.
Sophia sank down into one of the chairs and put her head on the table. At least I thought she did. I couldn’t see her over the low wall that separated the kitchen from the living room with her head down like that. She could’ve fallen on the floor for all I knew.
“So I’m guessing the class isn’t going to be an easy A?” I asked.
“Nope. Not for me at least,” she said, her voice sounding muffled. I assumed it was because her face was buried in her arms. “He returned a paper to us today. I got a D on it. A D!”
It wouldn’t have surprised me to learn that Sophia had never earned anything lower than a B throughout her entire time in college. High school, even. There was no doubt the girl was a hard worker who took pride in her grades. Earning a D on a paper and being in danger of failing the class had to be a hard blow for her.
“I hate that man,” she added irately.
“I can’t believe you don’t like the Gilmer-ator,” Carter said. “He’s one of the best teachers I’ve ever had.”
Sophia lifted her head and looked over at us. “I only took the class because I needed to satisfy my stupid liberal arts credit, and one of my sisters said sociology was the way to go. She said her professor only covered like six chapters the entire semester. But it seems I got the one guy in that department who takes his job seriously. Not only do we have readings out of the textbook every week, but the guy had the university press bind him another book of articles we also have to read. The thing is another two hundred and fifty pages. And he also sends us stuff to read online. And assigns papers. And projects. And requires us to attend events around campus. I mean, who the hell does this guy think he is, the Gandhi of Lazarus University? Fuck.”
“The readings are pretty interesting, though,” Carter replied. “And the stuff he wants you to go to is usually pretty fun.”
Sophia looked at Carter like he’d just ripped off his own head and asked her to wear it as a hat.
“Let me get this straight. You, the guy I had to read almost every chapter of his psychology textbook to, thought Gilmer’s articles were interesting?”
“Well…yeah.”
“What dimension have I crawled into?”
“What? Sociology is all about people, and I’m a people person.”
“Psychology is also about people.”
“No, it isn’t. It’s about brains and feelings and other dumb stuff.”
Sophia gave him a wry look. “Freud would be thrilled by your succinct definition of his vocation.”
“Freud was a perv.”
Sophia closed her eyes tightly, and I wondered if she was trying to wish him away. When she finally reopened them, she asked, “What grade did you get in his class?”
Carter’s smile turned megawatt. “A-plus, baby. Best grade I’ve gotten in college so far.”
I cast a meaningful look over at Sophia.
She didn’t face me, but she must’ve seen me in her periphery. “Don’t say it.”
“I think—”
“Don’t. Say it.”
Carter looked confused. “Is this some kind of weird couple-speak thing?”
“No,” Sophia gritted out.
“Then what were you going to say?” he asked me.
Sophia’s shoulders drooped in resignation as I smiled at Carter. “Do you have any interest in being a tutor?”
Carter’s wide eyes and bright smile were all the answer I needed.
S O P H I A
“Okay, so explain the conflict theory to me,” Carter said.
I sighed. We’d been at this for over an hour, and while I had to admit Carter was actually a damn good tutor, I was tired of reviewing this stuff. “It’s Marx’s theory that society is in a constant state of conflict because they have to fight over limited resources.”
“Perfect. And how is order maintained?”
“Those who have the resources have the power, and they use that power to dominate the lower classes.”
“Good. Now, what’s the—”
“Please.” I held out a hand as I let my head fall onto the table. “Have mercy.”
“God, you’re so dramatic. Fine, I gotta meet Toby for dinner anyway.”
That brought my head up. “Toby? You guys are still hanging out?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t we be?”
I shrugged. “No reason.”
“You have to have a reason or else you wouldn’t have asked it like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I was intentionally trying to contract syphilis.”
My face scrunched up. “Gross.” When he didn’t move to say any more, I sighed. “Fine. I’m just surprised, I guess. I wouldn’t think the two of you would have much in common.”
“Because you and I are twins?” he said sarcastically.
“We have a very similar social circle,” I replied, perhaps a tad bit snappily, but he deserved it for being obtuse on purpose.
“He’s cool. And I’m into a lot of things, so it’s not hard to find things to talk about. Besides, he’s way into sports, so we always have that.”
“
Okay, I can see that. Maybe it’s because you look like such opposites. Like David and Goliath.”
Carter made an unhappy face. “They were enemies. We’re more like the guys from that book. What was it?” He snapped his fingers. “Of Mice and Men. George and Lenny!”
It was my turn to give him a doubtful look. “Didn’t George shoot Lenny in the head?”
He thought for a second before saying, “Yeah, I think so. Toby’s anti-gun, though, so we shouldn’t have that problem.”
I appraised Carter for a second. “What’s it like to live in your brain?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Yeah, that’s why I’m asking.”
Carter ignored my inquiry as he went over to the couch to do some kind of complicated bro handshake with Drew.
“I’ll talk to ya later,” Carter said.
“Sounds good,” Drew answered.
Carter turned back to me as he put on his coat. “When do you want to study next?”
“Do I gotta?” I whined.
“Not if you don’t mind failing sociology.”
I harrumphed. “How about Thursday at four?”
“Sounds like a plan.” He gave us both a wave before pulling open the front door.
“Carter?” I yelled after him, causing him to abruptly stop and look back at me. “Thank you. You’re a really good tutor.”
He flashed me a smile. “I learned from the best.”
And with that, he was gone, slamming the door behind him.
“You have more homework to do?” Drew asked.
“A little, but I’m not in the mood to do it right now.”
“What are you in the mood for?”
I gave him a sly look. “Wanna fool around?”
A slow smile spread across his face. “Like I’d ever say no to that question. Any idea what time your brother’s coming back?”
“I’ll text him,” I said, grabbing my phone and firing off a quick message.
The reply came almost instantly, and it made me groan.
“He wants to know why I want to know. Why is he always such a pain in the ass?” My fingers flew over the keyboard as I asked him that very question.
Truth or Dare You (The Love Game Book 2) Page 17