36

Kassie

Marked Goods

The bracelets? Rejected. The dress? Rejected. But I still needed something for the alumni night and Zariah was my saving grace. She shoved her key in the lock to our dorm and slammed it with her shoulder. The door crashed open.

"Oh—shit!" She grabbed at the handle. "I forgot Ryan fixed that."

I pulled open the door, inspecting the wall. "No damage done."

"Too bad for Ryan." Zariah burst into laughter and the two of us headed to our shared bedroom. "I've got twenty minutes, let's make the most of it."

"The twenty minutes is damn appreciated." I shrugged off my backpack and tossed it on my bed, laying down on my comforter. While Zariah rummaged through her closet, I took out my sketchbook and flipped through the pages.

A study of Ryan's eyebrows.

A study of Ryan's arms, when he flexed them for me at Gianna's to draw.

A page where I drew Adam and King in the style of Beavis and Butthead.

And…a study of shirtless Ryan at the gym.

"What do you need for an alumni night?" Zariah asked.

"Huh?" I hid my sketchbook a little better and flipped through the pages, looking for a blank one. "Uh…something real nice,"

"Kass…?"

"Yeah?"

"What is this? " Zariah abandoned her closet for the moment and zipped over to me, hovering close enough to catch a glimpse at my sketchbook.

I almost hid it, but what was the point? She'd already seen. The page was full of the dark honey eyes, narrowed in concentration, and a drawing of Ryan at the bottom, his jaw set. It was Ryan, Ryan, Ryan.

"Exactly what I thought…" Zariah teased.

No point in denying it.

"I want to fuck Ryan," I admitted.

She gaped at me. "Uh…okay. Wow. I was going to draw that out."

With a sigh, I leaned back on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. I could hear the front door open again, no doubt one of our other roommates or one of their boyfriends that slept on the couch.

"I want to suck the soul out of his dick," I continued, tossing my sketchbook away. "I want to sit on his face but I don't know how to do it."

"Do you need me to draw you a diagram?"

"No. I mean, I've never been in this position before! I've never wanted to sleep with someone but I can't!" I groaned. "I don't know!"

The door pushed open. "That's not going to happen, Kassie."

Loitering outside our bedroom door was none other than Elijah Contractor, Zariah's twin brother. Stocky as hell, with the same dense curls his sister had, Elijah could have been easily pinpointed as an athlete.

The bruises on the left side of his face and the scrapes on his arm? Hockey player for sure.

"Elijah," Zariah snapped. "It's girl talk."

"I need a first aid kit." He showed off his arm and the injuries he probably deserved. "If my coach sees I got into another fight, he's going to freak out. But they don't call me Ruthless for nothing."

I raised an eyebrow but Zariah answered my question before I could ask it. "It's his hockey nickname."

"They give you nicknames?" I snickered.

"Laugh all you want, at least I can get laid." Elijah leaned back against the door. "You on the other hand? Marked goods."

I frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't know?"

"Know what? "

"What's your body count for the semester?" Elijah smirked. "Let me guess. It's only been Ryan. If you're looking to break up with him, you'll have to be cool with your vibrator because no one's going to try it."

What the hell is he talking about?

"Don't be gross, Elijah. And Kass, don't encourage him." Zariah dug her first aid kit out of her nightstand and shoved it at Elijah, motioning him off the door again. "He's just being stupid and looking for attention."

"I know something you two don't," Elijah guffawed.

"Is it really Ruthless?" I asked, leaning up on my elbows. "After all the fights, shouldn't they call you Toothless?"

"Kassie, is it really Four-A-Cross?" he taunted. "What kind of lame shit is that?"

The smile disappeared off my face and I threw up my middle finger before Zariah slammed the door in his face, turning back to finish scouring in the closet. My roommate was incredibly protective over her brother but I couldn't deny it, it was nice to see her shutting the door on his bullshit.

"Okay, so, what's the problem?" Zariah pressed, once we heard the front door close again.

"The contract that specifically says I can't suck the soul out of his dick."

Humming under her breath, Zariah pulled out a few dresses and draped them over my bed. "I like him. When he comes over, he repairs things. Our fridge has a working ice dispenser again! If you fuck him, he might fix the elevator."

"Oh my god, Z. This isn't porn. I'm not paying him in blowjobs."

"But just think…a better elevator…"

I rubbed my temples. "Z, I'm worried this'll make things weird. What if he doesn't—I don't know—he's got a lot more to lose than I do. What if I make a pass at him and he doesn't feel the same? That'd ruin everything."

"Oh. Yeah, it would."

I turned to face her, exasperated, but Zariah kept taking things out of her closet, still talking.

"My hotel manager's thirty-eight, going through a divorce, and he texted me some stuff about how he wanted to service my room with a bunch of eggplant emojis." Zariah shuddered. "Now we have to do mediated sexual harassment training. It took my Thursday mornings away!"

"Z."

She glanced back. "Yeah?"

"So I'm the divorced thirty-eight year old with eggplant emojis?"

A laugh burst out of her and she offered an apologetic smile. "Sorry. First thing I thought of."

"You're a sophomore, why am I listening to you?" I muttered, squeezing my eyes shut. "This is crazy but yesterday, Ryan took this video for me. A campus squirrel got close to him and he started jogging after it to take a video. But he couldn't figure out how to flip the camera on his phone so—" I pulled up the video. "It's him sprinting after a squirrel, asking if I can use this for an art reference."

"Can you…use that as a reference?"

"No, it's completely unusable." I sighed, gazing at my phone. "It's so sweet, I want to suck his dick."

"Kass."

"Hm?"

"You've got plenty of dresses to pick from. One of them is bound to work." Zariah patted my leg with sympathy and pulled open the door. "Don't do anything stupid. Calm down the hormones. Test the waters a little before you throw yourself to the sharks."

"Don't just jump in?" I asked, watching the video of Ryan sprinting through the park for the third time.

" No ."

"So, I shouldn't send him a sexy nude right now?"

"No."

I sighed. "Not even a little bit of nipple action?"

"Be strong. Don't scare our repairman away," she warned me before closing the door.