Chapter Seven
“We need to do something this weekend.” Severine said as she leaned her elbows against the step behind her.
“Whatcha have in mind, chickadee?” Lily moved toward Severine. This was one of the rare times Lily wasn’t with Ben. Over the course of the last few weeks, they’d been together constantly. Lily walked around with a perma-grin. Severine watched Ben with a stealth that would make any ninja jealous. The smile on Lily’s face needed to remain a fixture. Severine wanted to be sure that Ben wanted the same thing.
If only Severine could have the same solid grin on her face. She was tired of being moody and desperately needed to get away from her thoughts.
“I don’t know, a leisurely trip to Target? Road trip to Cali?”
“There's a new bar down by The Ville. Everyone’s going.”
It wasn’t exactly what Severine had in mind. She stared down at her shoes and tried to figure out why she felt so restless. She wanted to do something, but then she changed her mind seconds later. Nothing seemed good enough lately. That was what she deserved for talking to Macsen and Thayer. Severine sat up and dramatically sighed. “Why are we still outside?”
“I’m waiting for Ben to get here.”
“Okay.” Severine stood and brushed the dirt off her jeans. “No guy is worth me freezing my ass off.”
“Oh! There he is!” Lily jumped away from the concrete stairs and into Ben’s arms. Right on the sidewalk, she practically humped him. Behind the humping couple stood Thayer.
He was a nightmare that never seemed to go away. She couldn’t escape him. Over the last few weeks, she had seen him around campus. After their talk at the gym, they’d barely said two words to each other. A glance from him was enough. He expected answers from her, when she had no idea what the question was to begin with.
One thing would probably always stay the same: when he looked at her, he had the ability to demoralize her.
“Ben says there’s a frat party this weekend.” Lily walked back up the sidewalk with Ben by her side. “We should go.”
“No frat party. I went with you last time, and we both saw me the next morning. Lesson learned.”
“Uh. And going to The Ville will be different from a frat party, how?” Ben asked.
“Less beer pong. More dancing. I like parties, but they get old if it’s every weekend.”
The longer Thayer stayed silent behind Ben and Lily, the antsier Severine became. She was still waiting on him to chime in and say something sarcastic. Severine moved her head to the side and looked directly at him. “What about you? Are you going?”
Thayer walked forward and approached slowly. His hands were tucked into his gray Columbia, and his jeans fit his tall frame perfectly. “If I say yes, you won’t go. I say no, you will.”
Severine asked because she wanted him to go. Her mind was lured at the prospect of seeing him again at a party. Severine shrugged and pretended he didn’t affect her. “I didn’t say that.”
“You were thinking it.” He came closer, and Severine smiled. She liked that he drifted closer without even realizing it. When he saw her smile, he froze in place and narrowed his eyes.
“I wasn’t. Besides, I just told them I didn’t want to go.”
He leaned a hip against the chipped railing next to the sidewalk. “You haven’t been at the gym lately.”
“That’s because it was a one time thing. It’ll never happen again.”
“I was just under the impression you were trying to avoid me.”
Severine tsked lightly. “Wrong impression, Thayer. It’s a known fact that if given the choice of going to work out or eating a bowl of hair...well, I’d rather eat the hair.”
Lily pretended to dry heave in front her.
“God, Severine. Find a better example than that.”
“I don’t want to hear another one of her examples,” Ben said behind Lily.
“But everyone gets the picture—I don’t want to party this weekend.”
“You’re the one who wanted to get out and do something!” Lily pointed a finger in Severine’s direction and wiggled her eyebrows.
“Yeah, but I don’t want to lay in a pool of my own vomit.”
“You have a way with words, Blake.” Thayer’s voice was deadpan.
When Severine opened her mouth to say something snarky back, she finally noticed the smirk on his face...always another joke to him.