Page 76 of Bump and Run
He is?
“When did she send that?” I ask him.
He shrugs. “Ten minutes ago.”
Well, shit.
I reach for my phone. Eliza knew I was here when she asked how the studying was going, meaning that my passive, simple, no-details-required reply wasn’t as innocent as I thought. I lied to her and she caught me in it.
“Bye, Grant.”
He waves me away and I push through the crowd of drunken football players and their adoring fans, dodging a few handsy ones of my very own as I go.
I call Eliza as soon as I step outside. After five or six rings, I heave a sigh. “Pick up, Ellie…”
The phone vibrates with a new text message from her.
I guess that incentive was too easy after all.
I call her again but she doesn’t answer.
“Dammit…”
She thinks she’s not a priority to me but that’s not the case at all. I send a reply.
Meet me at the library.
The last thing I want is for Eliza to think I lied to her. Which, I did, yes, admittedly, but it’s far from what she must be thinking right now. For all she knows, I knew about the party earlier today and just didn’t bother to tell her about it. She thinks I went to it and blew off studying because being the star quarterback is more important to me than acing a math test but it’s not. It’s—
Holy shit.
Who am I?
Maybe John is right. I am pussy-whipped.
Getting an A on this test doesn’t just mean I’m one step closer to ravaging Eliza’s body in new, fun ways. While that excites me to no end, the real reason why I want to do well is because it would make her happy. She works so hard at making sure I stay off academic probation. I don’t want to let her down.
I sit down at the table in our study room and pull out my geometry book. She never replied to my message. She probably won’t show up tonight and I don’t really blame her at all.
I grab my pencil and I get to work.