And I did my best not to feel the sensation of his teeth still in my flesh.
Chapter Six
LJ
Term passed quickly for the most part over the next two months, the days starting to warm up and the snow completely melted despite it being mid-March. Before I knew it, midterm grades were rolling in, and for the most part, nothing was a surprise. I kept up on my shit. Took school seriously but then my gaze scanned my computer down to my film 110 class.
I don’t fucking believe it.
A sixty-eight percent average stared back at me. Roughly a D when I’d gotten nothing short of A minus average my entire academic career. Grade school included. I’d put priority on grades. Something I could control despite my parents failed relationship and a dad who walked out on his entire family. It was something I could hold tight onto when my friends cruised around in their fancy rides and invited me out to stuff when I barely had two nickels to rub together in my pocket. School had never come easy to me despite what I led my friends to believe when coming up, but what did was work ethic and grit. That I could control, and the thing that ultimately gave me the edge over many of my affluent friends. It also got me a full ride to one of the best schools in the country, so this grade I was staring at right now? Complete bullshit.
Seems the beauty queen came out to play.
She obviously was still a bit sore about what happened between her mom and me at the beginning of term, and shit, had it been a delight to see her that weekend. It’d come as a huge surprise to me, of course. I didn’t particularly go looking for people’s moms to screw, but it’d been a bonus finding out Gen was hers. Billie’s mom had been nice, and though I hadn’t seen her since, a good time. I thought the feeling was mutual that day.
My teeth gnashed at my current situation, all this grade business was Billie’s doing. I hadn’t really spoken to her since that weekend, easily blending into a sizable class, and in recitation, I didn’t care much to participate—when I showed. I had other more important classes and activities I actually cared about, but apparently that meant something to her. True, I knew participation and attendance came into affect with my film grade. I had read the syllabus after all, but I figured I could make all that shit up when midterm exams happened.
A big and obnoxious C stared at me in that department, hence my D average. Billie had marked me an F in regards to participation, and yeah, I could go to class a bit more, but that C definitely hadn’t been warranted. I hadn’t given a shit about film class all term, but I had done better than that. I showed up to every lecture outside of recitation, watched the films and absorbed what I could. I didn’t necessarily “get” all of it, but I absorbed it. I fluffed my essays up a bit, something I was good at, but obviously not good enough for Professor Douglas’s TA. This C on my written midterm examination had her name all over it, despite the fact we took the exam in lecture. The TAs were known for doing the grading.
Niko whistled over my shoulder, coming into the living room in a pair of sweats that sat at his hips and cut across his calves in a way I knew they were mine. I may have been taller, but if this dude didn’t stop stretching the shit out of my clothes, I would very well kill him.
Seeing my eyes on my clothes he wore, Niko chuckled before guzzling his bottle of water. He’d obviously just got done working out in our basement gym. He recapped his water. “D average? Shit, bro. You lose your IQ or something?” He whistled again. “That definitely ain’t you.”
And not my fault. Billie Coventry definitely had it out for me, my shrug subtle before I picked up a pillow and lodged it at him from the couch. He side-swiped it, but I hit him with my second round of launches. I’d played every sport imaginable under the sun when I’d gone to high school, my aim pretty damn good. I growled. “I told you not to fucking wear my clothes.”
This dude was bougie as fuck, had a closet full of his own expensive threads, but still had the nerve to work his way into my walk-in. Clothes were just the guy’s thing, I guess, and I’d even dated girls with less interest.
Tossing his big body on the couch, our sectional beneath him labored at the seams. Bottle of water pinched to the side of his teeth, Niko grabbed one of the Xbox controllers on the ottoman. He let the bottle fall to cradle in his arm. “I like your stuff. Gives me more options.”
“You mean other than the five T-shirts you have for every one of mine.” I snorted, then shot a finger. “Keep your ass literally out of my stuff.”
“Okay, okay.” His big shoulders bumping in laughter, Niko pulled up some basketball video game. From what I understood, he’d played that at high school. He angled his head of sweaty hair back. “What’s seriously going on with that grade, though? Thought you took shit seriously.”
“I fucking do,” I growled. “It’s the beauty queen. She has it out for me.”
“Yeah?” More chuckles, his tongue sticking out. He shook his head. “Poor Queen B.”
Poor indeed, as I clicked to my college email for a quick draft. After plugging Professor Douglas’s name and the subject line in, I got right to work. I typed a while before Niko angled his gaze over to me again.
“You emailing your professor?” he asked me.
“Yep.” My grin was strong, thinking it was funny she thought she could fuck me over. Professor Douglas got weed… amongst other things from people who worked for and paid me. The whole thing was laughable really. I had him and several other educators and professionals literally by their junk. A few of the deans of Woodcreek University included. I was the first they came to for “entertainment” for their parties.
I’d even been invited to brunch at more than one of their houses.
Saying I held an iron fist on this campus was an understatement, and the people I didn’t have influence over were smart enough to stay the hell away. Apparently, not the beauty queen and her lip, and after hitting send, I relaxed back. I took the other game controller, playing with Niko one on one. After a few moments of me kicking his ass, he made up some sorry excuse about needing sustenance. I joined him in the kitchen for some Doritos and pizza bagels, lounging a hip against the kitchen island as I dumped the chips out into a bowl.
“Really funny about the beauty queen, though,” he said, sliding the pizza bagels into the oven.
I growled again. “Yeah, she thinks she’s fucking God’s gift. Little miss perfect.”
I saw how she carried herself around in lecture and recitation when I actually went. She had an air of uppityness I’d seen more than once before in my life, and it never ceased to grate me. She definitely thought herself better, but we all had skeletons. We all had demons, and maybe it was time to look into hers a little bit more. She’d already made the mistake of giving me a little something when she most certainly kissed me back that night at the house. I had the beauty queen quivering under my mouth that night, and she’d done that despite having a boyfriend. She couldn’t get enough of me that night, and when I mentioned that, Niko chuckled by the oven.
“Did I mention I saw Mr. Sinclair Huntington the third at the strip club the other night?” he asked, and I popped up.
“Hell no. Really?”