On His Knees by Tabatha Kiss
Chapter 33
Jenna
September
“Worst. Friend. Ever.”
I place a hand on my chest, feigning offense. “Well, what did you expect, Heidi?” I ask. “Did you want me to lie to you?”
She pouts from across the table in a quiet corner of the campus library. “No,” she says with a glance at her phone. “But a little tact would be nice…”
I snort. “Tact. Schmact. If I were about to style my hair in a way that didn’t compliment the bone structure of my face, I’d want you to stop me, too. This…” I point at the phone in her hand, “is eighth grade all over again. Do you want to repeat eighth grade all over again?”
She simmers a moment. “No.”
“Then, don’t.”
“But—”
“No.”
“Or—”
“No.”
“Well—”
“No.”
Heidi sighs. “Maybe you’re right.” She pouts at the photo some more. “How do these French girls make it look so good?”
“French gonna French,” I say with a shrug.
“So not fair.”
I glance over her shoulder and spot Drew walking into the library behind her. He sees us sitting at the table and smirks, quickly shifting into a stealthy hop as he approaches. He notices me eying him and brings a finger to his lips, a subtle beg to keep it to myself. I stay cool, happy to encourage his playful side.
My chest lurches. He’s not alone.
Seth is with him. He maintains a slower stride behind Drew, allowing his friend to scare the crap out of his little sister. But that’s family.
We make eye contact for a second.
I look at Heidi instead.
“Well, I do want to cut my hair soon,” she muses. “Just have to figure out what I want to do with it…”
“I know exactly what you should do,” I say.
“What?”
Drew’s right behind her now.
“Scream.”
Heidi furrows her brow. “Huh?”
“Boo!”Drew says in her ear, giving her shoulders a little shake.
Predictably, she screams, drawing the attention of everyone around us. She spins in her chair and Drew slaps a hand to her mouth to smother her shriek as he hugs her and laughs.
“What are you doing?”she scolds him with a smile and a playful smack to the shoulder. “This is a library.”
“What are they going to do?” Drew teases. “Expel me?”
I give an apologetic glance to the annoyed people in the tables surrounding us. “So sorry,” I whisper. “She’s not well.”
Heidi ignores my quip. Or, more likely, doesn’t even notice as the love of her life slides into the empty chair beside her with warm, googly eyes meant just for her.
And then there’s Seth.
He marches toward the only other empty chair at the table; the one next to mine. He pulls it out, turns it around, and mounts it like a damn horse. One of the cool kids. Just like always.
Puke.
“What are you doing on campus?” Heidi asks, her voice at a more appropriate volume.
“Well...” Drew takes her hand, their fingers lightly entwining. “Nora had a doctor’s appointment, so she sent me home early.”
Heidi’s eyes grow wide. “Oh, she never does that.”
“Uh-huh.” Drew kisses her knuckles. “I thought I’d come steal you away for lunch.”
“Oh, how sweet.”
They kiss. Out of habit, I glance at Seth, always amused to see where he targets his attention whenever his best friend showers his sister with public affection.
He’s staring at me.
I flinch.
“But,” Heidi says, always cutting it short when big brother is near, “we’ve still got a good half hour left on our study timer.”
“That’s right,” I say firmly. “We agreed to stay here where the learning happens.”
“We totally haven’t spent the last twenty minutes chatting about haircuts.”
Drew narrows his eyes at me. “You talked her out of it, right?”
I nod. “Yes, I did.”
Heidi scoffs, but lets it go. She knows we’re right. “Anyway, we still have studying to do.”
Drew chuckles. “Well, maybe we can help you stay focused.” He gestures at our open textbooks. “What are we studying today?”
“European Art History,” Heidi answers.
“Nucleic acids,” I say.
He winces. “I’m afraid we are of no help with either of those.”
“That’s not true,” Seth says, his arms perched on the back of the chair. “Nuclear acids. That’s with the... mitochondria, or something? Yeah?”
“You mean the midichlorians?” Drew asks, far too confident.
“No, dummy. That’s Star Wars.”
“It is?”
“Yeah, dude. You’re so wrong.”
“You’re both wrong, actually,” I say as Heidi and I chuckle.
Drew shrugs. “Well, we tried.”
Seth raises a victorious fist. “Delta Xi.”
“Delta Xi.”
They fist bump across the table as Heidi and I roll our eyes at each other.
“You can get us some coffee, though,” I suggest as I slide my empty to-go cup in Drew’s direction. “That’ll help a lot.”
Drew grabs it. “I’d be happy to do that.”
“I’ll go with you,” Heidi says as she picks up her own empty cup. “I need to stretch my legs and it’s my turn to buy.”
I grin as they stand. “Thank you.”
“We’ll be right back.”
They couple up, walking together hand-in-hand through the stacks toward the lobby where the coffee cart lives. Usually, this errand would take a grand total of three minutes, but I expect at least ten as Heidi’s sure to get lost in his eyes for a while.
I glance at Seth beside me, more than a little surprised that he didn’t leap at the chance to go with them. He lingers instead, but any second now I expect him to do that thing he does now whenever we find ourselves within twenty feet of each other.
He’ll look away.
He’ll clear his throat.
He’ll mutter some excuse to leave and bolt out of sight before I can even blink.
“Hi,” he says to me.
I gasp. “Holy shit. You really can talk to me.”
Seth smiles. “Now, Jenna...”
“I assumed our communication options were now limited to awkward glances and unanswered text messages.”
His eyes grow heavier with shame. “Okay...”
“Oh! And celebratory handshakes.” I glare. “Can’t forget about those.”
“Yeah. I deserve it. Keep ‘em coming.”
“And here I thought you’d come down with some rare, acute form of mutism that only affects assholes who disappear before a girl can even waddle to the toilet.”
“Let me explain.”
“I had to hire a carpenter to patch up the Seth-shaped hole you left in our door as you fled the premises.”
“You have a lot of zingers prepared for this conversation, don’t you?”
“Twenty days of radio silence gives a girl time to think.”
“I didn’t flee.” He cringes slightly. “I waited until you were in the bathroom and then I quietly snuck out.”
I raise a brow.
“Okay, look.” He scootches his chair a little closer to mine. “There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this.”
“Do tell,” I say, leaning forward until we’re within an inch of each other.
He presses his lips together, stalling. “I panicked.”
“You don’t say?”
“Because I liked it.”
“Man enjoys sex. What a shock.”
“I messed up,”he says as I lean back. “I was going through some stuff, as you know, and we did something I never thought...” He pauses, out of words. “I shouldn’t have bolted on you like that.”
“No, you shouldn’t have.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I had to sleep in my truck that night.”
“A little. But you left me on read and that I cannot forgive.”
“I’m really sorry.” He bats his golden eyes. “I want to make it up to you.”
I shy away as blood invades my cheeks. “I don’t need you to make it up to me, Seth.”
“Well, I want to do something.”
“You don’t have to. I’m good. In fact, I’m totally over it.”
“Yeah, you sure seem over it,” he quips.
“I am.” I look at him, refusing to blink. “One little quickie isn’t enough to knock me off course.”
Seth glances across the library, but Drew and Heidi are nowhere to be seen just yet. “So...” his throat clears, “since you brought it up and all...”
I notice his sudden tonal change. “What?”
“We… you know. We did it.”
“Yeah,” I say. “We did it.”
“And it all happened... very quickly.” He flinches. “But not too quickly. I mean, there was definitely enough time for you to... well, you know...”
I frown. “Yeah...”
“And I did, too. Obviously. You were there. You saw it.”
“What’s your point, Seth?”
Again, he hesitates. “We didn’t exactly take the time to...”
He makes a few very strange gestures with his hands, but it’s enough for me to piece it all together.
I groan. “I’m not pregnant, you moron.”
He perks up. “No?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
“Prettysure, but not sure sure?”
“Is that why you’re talking to me again all of a sudden?” I ask. “To make sure I don’t lock down twenty-five percent of your income for the next eighteen years?”
“Is that a no?”
I sigh, annoyed. “My lab ran long last week, and I bled through my favorite pair of undies, so yes, I’m sure sure.”
He leans back. “Well, you didn’t have to get all graphic with it.”
“Next time, just trust me. Okay?”
“Next time?” he asks.
“It was a figure of speech.”
His lips curl. “Next time.”
“Stop,” I say as I spot Heidi and Drew rounding the corner in our direction.
Seth shifts his chair a few inches back and drops his smirk, masterfully exchanging it with a friendly smile instead.
“And we’re back,” Heidi says as she sets down a cardboard drink carrier with four coffees stuffed inside. “What’d we miss?” she asks us, curious.
“Nothing,” Seth says. “We were just talking about the Delta Xi thing tonight.”
Heidi releases a quiet squeal as she sits down. “Oh, I can’t wait! It’s slumber party themed. PJs and pillow forts.”
“What?”Seth frowns. “I thought they retired that theme.”
“They did,” Drew says. “Now that the problem residents have graduated and moved out, they circulated a petition and convinced the Dean to let them bring it back.”
Seth’s jaw drops. “You jump off the roof one time and suddenly you’re a problem.”
I chuckle, having heard this story from my sisters of the Beta Kappa house.
Heidi, however, has not.
“You jumped off the roof of Delta Xi?” she asks, just barely keeping her voice low.
Seth sits back, realizing his mistake. “No,” he lies. “Maybe.” His eyes shift around the table. “We merely… built an elaborate slide out of sheets and blankets that was meant to direct the slider into a pool filled with pillows on the street... but I might have missed the mark by a little bit.”
She snaps her head toward Drew.
Drew hesitates, torn between siding with her or defending Seth. “It was perfectly safe,” he says. “In theory.”
“It was very safe!” Seth says. “You know why? Because that was the semester we took Physics.”
“Didn’t you break your wrist?” I ask.
“That was the semester we flunked out of Physics,” he corrects, holding in his laugh.
Heidi gasps in horror. “You guys flunked a class?”
I wave a hand. “Heidi Newbury and her adorable priorities, ladies and gents.”
“It was the wind resistance!” Drew pounds the table with a closed fist. “We miscalculated the wind resistance!”
Seth reaches across the table and takes Drew’s hand. “I know, brother,” he says, solemn. “Let it go.”
“But—”
“Shh. Shh. Shh...”
Drew bows his head. A man full of regret.
I screw up my nose at Heidi, her expression mirroring mine.
Boys.
Seth sits back and taps the table. “Well, I’ll definitely be there tonight. Someone has to make sure these new pledges are living up to our standards. You in?” he asks Drew.
“Oh, I’m in,” Drew says.
I snort. “You know it’s gross to go to frat parties after you’ve graduated, right?”
“Oh, please,” Seth says. “I’m still a student here, so I’ll do what I want. Besides, Delta Xi alumni are gods on Greek Row. Everyone knows they get first dibs on all the fresh—”
He stops as the ladies of the table recoil and Drew makes a quick cutting motion across his throat.
“Promising young women,” he says instead.
I bristle with disgust.
He sneers at me. “Oh, don’t you pretend like you weren’t one of them.”
Heidi and Drew chuckle across the table.
“I’m not pretending anything,” I say. “I just find it hard to believe that any fresh, promising young woman would consider you a god.” I use air quotes. “Drew, maybe. But you? Nah.”
“What’s Drew have that I don’t?”
“A clean, fresh scent?” I quip.
Drew grins. “Thank you for noticing,” he says.
“Yeah. It’s very nice today, actually. What is that?”
“Baby powder body wash.”
“Really?”
He nods, winking proudly.
“Hm,” I hum with approval.
Seth scoffs. “Oh, that’s bullshit. I don’t need baby powder to pick up a girl in the Delta Xi house.” He flexes his bicep. “I just need this.”
“Yeah, okay,” I say with a roll of the eyes.
“What, you wanna bet?”
Heidi tenses up. “Guys...”
“Bet what?” I ask.
“A hundred bucks,” he says. “I take home a girl from the party tonight, I win. If I don’t, you win.”
“I’m not taking that bet.”
“Why not? I dare you.”
The table goes quiet.
I arch a brow, instantly shook by the word... and his audacity to use it.
Dare.
Seth smirks.
Don’t.
Don’t engage.
Ignore it.
Just say no.
His golden eyes shine even brighter as more seconds pass.
He’s baiting you again.
Girl, say no.
“Okay, fine,” I say. “You’re on. You and your tighty-whities are going home alone tonight.”
Seth extends his hand to shake on it.
I hesitate. I haven’t touched him since we… well…
Touched.
Just shake his hand.
If I get too weird about it, Heidi might suspect something is wrong. For all she knows, Seth and I are getting along just fine. Still not besties, but we can manage friendly interaction without exploding on each other. At least, that’s what we sold her while she was in Europe, after all.
Better act like it.
I shake Seth’s hand, sealing our wager.
Seth nods before rising out of his chair. “Well,” he says, sliding a coffee out of the carrier. “I have to get to class, so I’ll see you kids tonight at the party.”
Drew raises his fist. “Delta Xi!”
Someone nearby lets out a loud shush, and he recoils as he remembers we’re in a library.
“Delta Xi,”he whispers, correcting his volume.
“Delta Xi,”Seth whispers. “Bye, guys.”
“Bye, big brother,” Heidi says.
“Bye, little sister.”
I smile pointedly. “Be seeing you.”
Seth pauses behind Heidi, purposefully turning back to give me some sinister shade while the others aren’t watching.
That’s right.
You deserved that one, you fucker.
He walks away, quickly disappearing around the corner.
Yeah, you better run.
“Yup,” Drew jokes, amused. “This will totally end well.”
Heidi cringes.