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.