The Game Series (24 page)

“You do realize your mom will ask her one hundred questions about you, right?” I glance up at Braden from my stretched out position on his floor.

“No shit,” he mutters. “That’s why you need to tell her what to say.”

I pause my aimless flicking through my magazine. “Let’s think about that for a second.”

“Meggy.”

“No.”

He shuts his closet door and drops to the floor in front of me. His dirty blonde hair flops into his eyes and he levels them on me, pleading with me silently. I shake my head.

“Braden Carter, you chose to take Maddie home for the weekend. You have to deal with – and field – your mom’s endless questions.”

“Meg,” he draws my name out, sounding like a petulant toddler begging for candy.

“It would happen sooner or later.” I shrug and sit up, tucking my legs under me. “You might as well get it over with now. Besides,” I grin, “I’m sure she’ll give the questions a break by telling her childhood stories.

“Fucking hell,” Braden grumbles and sighs. “At least I have comfort in the fact you were with me for most of my stupid moments. Hell, you probably caused most of them.”

“I so did not!” I pause, and he raises his eyebrows at me.
Actually,
there was that time I ran off with the ladder and left Braden stuck up a tree. We only had the ladder because we had to go to some work thing with our parents, and they didn’t want us to be covered in scrapes and grazes. Braden got cocky and thought he could jump – and he could, but not without breaking his arm. We never did get to the work thing … “Okay. At least a third were caused by me. Don’t go twisting it, because I will correct her when you come back.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say.” He stands and grins. A knock sounds at his door seconds before it’s pushed open.

Aston walks in shirtless, his jeans hanging low on his hips. Every inch of his body is exposed, from the curve of his biceps to the dip of his v muscle beneath his pants. My gaze flits over him, taking in his wet hair sticking up, and the small towel slung around his shoulders is almost an afterthought. His gray eyes interrupt my perusal of his body, and he smirks when he realizes.

“I’m starting to wonder if I’ll see you anywhere other than a guy’s bedroom,” he drawls.

“Just because you haven’t seen me in yours,” I reply, leaning back on my hands. “And I’d imagine that’s something you’re not used to.”

Braden looks to the ceiling and shakes his head, rubbing his hand over his face as if he’d rather be anywhere other than here.

“I don’t think you’d fit in in mine.” Aston leans against the doorframe. “It’s not up to the standards a pretty little rich girl is used to.”

“I can’t say fitting in with your bedroom is on my to-do list.” Even if the person is … “And pretty little rich girl I may be, but I’m not a snob.”

Aston snorts. “So if a guy from, say, a shit-riddled and utterly fucked up background chatted you up, you wouldn’t run ten miles in the other direction?”

I stand, staring at him. “Just because someone’s past and upbringing is fucked up doesn’t mean the person is, Aston. The way someone was brought up doesn’t define them as a person. Whatever perception you have of me, however stuck up you think I am – my
upbringing doesn’t define the person I am now. I’m not as shallow as you’d like to think I am.”

He tilts his head to the side for a moment before his lips twitch up at one side. It’s a cocky, smug grin that tells me I walked right into his trap.

“Oh, it’s easy,” he says through his smile. “So, so easy. You’re a little ticking time bomb aren’t you, Megan?”

“Any reason you’re here?” Braden interjects before I can respond.

“Yeah. I need that English book.” Aston looks around.

“Which one? I’ve got more fucking English books than I have classes.”

“Shit, man, I dunno.” Aston shrugs. “The one from last class.”

I roll my eyes and perch on the edge of Braden’s bed. “The Shakespeare one.”

Both of them look at me blankly, Braden more so. Aston at least looks like he knows who Shakespeare is.

“You know, Bray. The guy who lived ‘years ago and can’t fuckin’ talk properly’.” I give Braden a pointed look, and his face breaks into a big grin.

“Oh, that guy. Yeah. I pretty much reworded Maddie’s work.” Braden turns to his desk and grabs the textbook. He shoves it in Aston’s direction.

“Cheers, dude.” Aston looks at me and winks, and I try not to roll my eyes again.

He’s so damn infuriating. He really does wind me up just 'cause he knows it’s easy, and he’s starting to learn that referring to me as “a little rich girl” is the easiest way to rile me. It’s not my fault I was born into an upper middle class family – Braden was too, and he doesn’t get the rich boy treatment.

Oh, that’s right. He doesn’t get it because eighty percent of the guys in this house are from the same background.

I reach down, grab my magazine from the floor and roll it up. I swing it in Braden’s direction, smacking his back with it.

“Ouch! What the fuck was that for?” He frowns at me.

“Thanks for backing me up, dickhead.”

“Hey – I shut him up.”

I scoff. “Only because you were getting annoyed that I and his bedroom were put in the same sentence.”

“At least I shut him up. Now you can tell Maddie what to say to my mom.”

Oh, I’ll tell her what to say alright.

I sigh, looking into his wide, pleading eyes, and shrug. “Fine, I’ll tell her what to say.”

~

“I think you were playing your own game all along.” Lila twirls a bit of hair around her finger.

My lips quirk behind the safety of my book, and I glance at her over the top of it. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Megs. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“If I knew I wouldn’t have asked.”

She reaches over and tugs my book down, catching my smile before I can hide it again.

“See!” she exclaims. “You do know.”

“Okay, okay. So what if I was? It all worked out in the end, didn’t it?”

“But it nearly didn’t. Maddie ran back to Brooklyn, or did you forget that?”

“No,” I reply slowly. “I didn’t forget that. She came back and they kicked each other’s asses.”

She purses her lips. “You weren’t worried at all were you?”

I shake my head. “Not really. I know that makes me sound horrible, like I don’t care, but I knew they’d sort it out. You can’t tell me you believed her when she said she wasn’t in love with him?”

“Well no …”

“Precisely. She fell for him as hard as he fell for her, Lila.”

“Then why Brooklyn? I just don’t get it. We all know they were doing the same thing.”

“You weren’t here when Braden found out.” I chew on my bottom lip. That was the worst moment – none of us ever thought he’d turn up at her dorm room, least of all me. It was a bad call on my part, and despite my best efforts to get rid of the poster there was no way to do it quietly. “He was mad. So, so damn mad. I sat there and watched his heart break, Li, and I felt so shit. Hell, I watched both their hearts break. What did it for Maddie was Braden went crazy over what she was doing, then she found out he was doing the exact same thing. She was embarrassed over the whole thing and angry over how he’d acted. But most of all she was heartbroken over it – that moment shattered every belief she had that he’d fallen in love with her. The only thing she could do was run.”

“Huh. And she told you that?”

“No, but you don’t have to be cupid to figure it out.”

“How did you figure it out?”

I shrug a shoulder. “It happens when your favorite aunt is qualified in three areas of psychology.”

Her mouth drops open. “Three?”

“I know, I know. I come from a family of overachievers. I think I’m somewhat of a disappointment with my little English major and book writing ambition.”

“At least you’re doing what you love. And, for the record, you’d be a terrible cupid.” She giggles.

“Well, thanks.” I throw my pillow at her, smiling. “But like I said, it’s all okay now, isn’t it?”

“I have to admit, I never thought I’d see the day Braden Carter took a girl home.” Lila hugs my pillow to her chest.

“You and I both.” I smirk.

I never truly thought I’d see the day he’d be as in love as he is. Braden and Maddie have the magical kind of love every little girl dreams of – at least I did. I spent hours upon hours dreaming of the guy that would give me butterflies and sweep me so high off my feet I’d never go back down. My dreams were only fueled by Mom’s extensive library in her home office. I can’t count the times I used to sneak books out to read about the kind of love my best friends are experiencing now.

“Whatcha readin’?” Nanna peered over my shoulder.

I jumped, snapping the book shut. “Nothing.”

“Why you readin’ it then?”

“Dunno.”

She leaned over the back of the sofa and snatched the book out of my hands. My eyes widened as she took in the book. “Huckleberry Finn? You’re hiding for this?”

“Um, yeah.” I swallowed.

Nanna opened the book. Her eyes flicked across a page before she closed it again and pulled off the dust jacket. “Megan Harper. You sneaky devil.”

I smiled warily.

“Does your mother know you’ve stolen her copy of
Pride and Prejudice
when you should be reading
Huck Finn
?”

“No. Please don’t tell her, Nanna!
Huck Finn
isn’t terrible, but I don’t want to read it. I’d much rather read about Lizzy and Darcy.”

She didn’t respond.

“Please, Nanna.”

“I won’t say a word, girl. Between you and me, Huck Finn isn’t nearly as exciting as Mr. Darcy. Just don’t tell your mother I approve of your stealing her romance novels.”

“I won’t.”

Nanna gestured to the book. “Has he kissed her yet?”

I nodded happily. “It’s my favorite part.”

“Mine too.” She winked.

Our dorm door opens, snapping me out of my inner musings, and Maddie comes bursting in in an explosion of fiery hair.

“You have to make me ill or something. Or pretend I am. Or – oh! Cover me in face paint,” she babbles, slamming the door and pressing her back against it.

“Eh? Face paint?” I frown.

“Yep. I’m allergic.” She gestures to her face. “Makes my face go all puffy and spotty and stuff.”

“Aside from the fact face paint isn’t something I keep under my bed,” Lila comments. “Why on Earth do you want to be ill?”

Maddie slumps down the door, hugging her knees to her chest. “I’ve never … You know. Done the meeting the parents thing before.”

“Ohhh,” Lila and I say in unison.

“His parents aren’t bad at all.” I look at her. “Honestly, they’re some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”

“He’s your best friend. You have to say that,” she groans.

“Well, he is, but I don’t. Really, Mads. You don’t have to be worried about anything.”

“What if they ask me a hundred questions?”

“His dad won’t. His mom will, though – but not about you. About Braden.”

“And what do I say?”

“The truth.” I grin. “Aha! I win!”

Maddie and Lila both look toward me, their eyebrows raised.

“I told Braden I’d tell Maddie what to say to his mom, and I’m saying to tell the truth.”

“Smart move,” Lila acknowledges.

“I guess he didn’t tell you to convince me to lie?” Maddie sits up and smiles.

“Of course he didn’t. He naturally assumes I will do that, and more fool him.” I grin. “When are you going?”

“After English. We have it last tomorrow, don’t we?”

I nod, and Lila frowns. “I thought you were going Saturday morning. Something about Braden not wanting to leave Megs for two nights to party in a house full of horny frat boys.”

I drop my head back. “For fuck sake,” I mutter to the ceiling.

“Oh, that was the first plan,” Maddie explains. “I told him he was being damn ridiculous, and Megan was more than capable of looking after herself in a house full of animals.”

My head moves forward, and I smile gratefully at her. “See.” I glance Lila’s way. “This is another reason I knew they’d be perfect for each other. She kicks his ass, and I get a break from his adorable protective act.”

“Adorably annoying,” Maddie corrects me. “It drives me mad, so I have no idea how you put up with it.”

“It’s normal for me. He’s always done it, so it doesn’t really bother me anymore. It’s a bit like white noise now. Besides, I already begged his mom to give him a baby sister when I was thirteen, and she refused.”

“Wow, was he really that bad?” Lila snickers.