A Different Side (University Park #4) (8 page)

I grinned at the screen, imagining her sprawled naked. Her huge, perky tits staring right at me. Calling me. Not to mention, the rest of her curvy body. Would she send me a snapshot? It wouldn’t hurt to ask.

Me: Really? Show me.

With the phone tilted to the side, so Lexi couldn’t see, I waited anxiously, unsure if Shannon would send me anything.

Shannon: Why don’t you come over and see for yourself.

A slight laugh escaped me. Shannon wasn’t as obliging as Jennifer, but she was less controlling and demanding than Macy, which made being with her not so bad.

Me: I’m busy right now, but how about after practice? Say around 6?

Lexi strummed her fingers across the table and sighed. “Done sexting or do you need to leave so you can meet up with her?”

“Sorry about that.” I shook my head, realizing I had just earned another mark against me. “She can wait.”

Man! Why do I constantly allow these girls to distract me?

A snicker escaped her mouth, followed by a fake cough. Lexi obviously wasn’t impressed. I decided not to push it with her. This paper wasn’t an easy one and if I pissed her off, I’d be SOL. I shoved the phone in my back pocket. Shannon wasn’t going anywhere.

Lexi reviewed my next assignment for several minutes before finally speaking. “I recommend you do a comparative analysis of the two characters. It will add a more dynamic point of view and make it harder for your professor to argue the points.”

I leaned back in my chair and scrubbed my face with my hands. “Damn, you really know your stuff.”

Impressive.

She shrugged. “It’s what I love to do. Just like you love to play football, I love to read and critique papers.” She leaned forward, her body relaxing against the table.

“I guess so.” I cocked a brow, noticing how her boobs pressed up, giving me a nice view down her V-neck T-shirt. I tried not to look, but damn, it was hard not to notice. “Thank you for the suggestion. I think that’s a great idea.” She stared at me with an intensity that told me she wanted to be more than my tutor. I’d seen this look before, but there was something more to it. No doubt, she was curious about me, but for some reason, she was holding back.
Why?
I had no idea, but I decided to take a different approach and get to know her. Find out everything there was to know about Lexi Thompson.

“Lexi?” I cleared my throat a few times.

“Yeah?” Her body shuddered before she peeled her eyes off me.

“I said, thank you for the suggestion. I think that’s a great idea.” I chose my words carefully. I’d let her call the plays. Otherwise, I was terrified I’d blow this, which I couldn’t afford to do.

She tugged on her sleeves, and I noticed the trembling in her hands. Obviously, I’d gotten to her. “Oh, yeah, sure.”

I gathered my books and papers and stuffed them in my backpack. I needed to get the hell out of there before I did something stupid, like kiss her. Besides, the game was over. I had won. She was clearly on my side and wanted to help me. I didn’t need to push any further. “I’ll start working on it, and, um…I guess we can review it on Thursday.”

“Sounds good to me.” Slight disappointment laced her voice and she eased back in her chair. “See ya later.” She watched me carefully, but I stuck to the plan and got the hell out of there.

“Yeah, see you later.”

***

I lay in bed, unable to stop thinking about Lexi. She was totally invading my space and I liked it.

I liked the way she bit her lower lip as her eyes appraised me.

I liked the way her pouty lips called to me, begging me to devour them.

I liked her sweet scent of peaches and honey that swirled around me.

Shit, I liked it so much, but I’d be totally screwed if I messed this up.

Moaning, I rolled over and covered my head with the pillow. Lexi was off limits. She was my tutor and I needed her to remain as such. It didn’t stop my curiosity, though. I wanted to know everything about her. Retrieving my phone from the nightstand, I unlocked it. I went straight to Instagram, but nothing pulled up. Then I searched on Twitter, only to find nothing. As a last resort, I went to Facebook and searched for her name. A few profiles showed up, and I immediately spotted hers. I selected her page, but nothing was visible. She had everything hidden.

I thought about sending her a friend request, but decided against it. Girls posted on my page all the time and there was no telling what she would think. I considered deleting everything, but didn’t feel like messing with it. Frustrated, I tossed my phone aside. I’d just have to ask if anyone knew her.

After a quick shower, I got dressed and went to the kitchen.

“Hey, man,” Josh mumbled from the other side of the bar. A piece of toast hung from the side of his mouth as he worked to get his books into his backpack.

“You’re late for class,” I reminded him, opening the fridge.

“I know. I had to study for a test in another class.” He yawned and stretched.

“If you didn’t spend all your time with Shelby, then maybe you’d get something done,” I teased.

“Whatever, man. Shelby isn’t the problem. She’s my saving grace. In fact, she’s taking notes for me right now.” He tossed his backpack over his shoulder.

“I guess you’re lucky then.” I loaded up the blender with milk, fruit, protein, and topped it off with honey. As I squeezed it into the container, the sweet smell infiltrated my nostrils and I immediately thought of Lexi.

His eyes glossed over. “You have no idea.” I hit the button on the blender, breaking him from his goo-goo daze, and me from mine. “So, how’s tutoring going?”

I laughed. “Funny you should ask.” I poured the mixture in a cup and contemplated asking him if he knew Lexi. I rarely talked about girls — only about the ones to avoid or the ones who made it worth my while. But, I figured, what the hell? “Do you know Lexi Thompson?”

He paused for a moment, his eyes darting to the ceiling. “No. Why?”

I shrugged. “No reason.”

“Don’t lie to me.” Josh took a swig of OJ and then wiped his mouth. “You wouldn’t be asking unless she means something to you.”

The words struck a chord within me. Maybe he was right; maybe he was wrong. I reasoned with myself that I was just curious. “She’s my tutor.”

Josh coughed and pounded on his chest. “No, not your tutor.” He motioned for me to stop. “You finally found one you can work with. Don’t screw it up.”

“I know.” Images of Lexi danced around in my head, clouding my concentration.

With a quick handshake, he said, “You’re only asking for trouble.”

“You’re right, but, man, I can’t stop thinking about her for some reason,” I confessed.

“Holy shit, you’re serious.” Josh dropped his backpack with a loud
thud
. “I’ve never, ever, heard you say anything close to those words before.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have told you.” I took a big gulp of my shake, pissed I’d revealed anything to him.

Josh walked around the bar and draped an arm around my shoulder. “Dude, you know you can tell me anything. If you say you can’t, then that’s really messed up. Especially after all we’ve been through.”

He was right. Josh was a great friend. He’d been there for me through all my shit — all my down times, and definitely my good times. “I’m just curious to know more about her, that’s all.”

“Why don’t you just ask her instead of trying to get the scoop?” He patted me on the back. “Most of the time, you’ll just get rumors anyway.”

Josh had a point. “I didn’t think about that.”

“That’s what you do when you want to know a girl. You ask her out, you find out what interests her, you tell her a little about yourself. Basically, you share information and get to know each other.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I know how to ask a girl out.”

“Do you?” Josh inclined his head and then slid his hand off my shoulder. “Because I can’t remember the last girl you dated.”

I stopped and thought about what he’d said. Other than my high school girlfriend, I’d never really dated anyone. College had been nothing but a revolving door, providing a variety of different girls from every walk of life. I had never really dated any of them, just took them to bed.

“That doesn’t matter.” Leaning against the counter, I sucked in a breath. “In fact, I do know some things about her.”

“Really, like what?”

“For one, she’s extremely smart. She knows everything there is to know about grammar.”

Josh threw his head back in laughter. “She better. She’s a writing tutor.”

Shit. I hated when Josh was right. Tearing a paper towel from the roll, I cleaned the counter. I may have been a pro at charming the panties off a girl, but when it came down to it, I really didn’t know shit about relationships. The girls in my life were there to satisfy my needs, and at the end of the night, we always went our separate ways. I didn’t want that from Lexi. Even though I didn’t know much about her, I knew she wasn’t that type of girl.

“Alright.” I threw my hands up in frustration. “I don’t know much about her.”

“I guess that only means one thing.”

“What’s that?”

Josh pointed at me. “You’ve got a lot to learn.”

“I knew you were going to say that.”

∑

Chapter 6

We must accept finite disappointment,

but never loose infinite hope.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

It had been a long weekend. Saturday’s game resulted in a loss — the second one of the season — and I was pissed. I was even more pissed that Shawn messed up his ankle during Wednesday’s practice and didn’t tell Coach until Thursday morning. We had to regroup and learn some different plays, which meant I had to cancel my meeting with Lexi. What sucked was the fact that I had started my paper, hoping to impress her.

I sat at the kitchen table, trying to study. Practice was at three and I needed to get busy, but had no motivation. As I glanced at my biology syllabus, I saw that I had a test on Wednesday. I had only read two chapters and wasn’t ready for it. That drove me to get started. I cracked open the textbook and started reading. After three chapters, I took a break, feeling somewhat accomplished. Tomorrow and Tuesday, I’d review everything and be ready for the test. My accounting assignment was a piece of cake. For some reason, the numbers came easy to me.

My stomach rumbled, so I trekked to the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. Carrying the plate back to the table, I checked to see what else I needed to do for the week. At the bottom of my backpack was a piece of paper. I unfolded the paper and stared at Beth’s number. I typed her number into my phone, but instead of calling her, I sent her a text.

Me: Hey, Beth. It’s me, Raven. Busy?

As I waited for her text, I glanced at my syllabus. October 21
^st
caught my attention. I skimmed the paper and saw I had a blog post due tomorrow.

Shit.

On my last two posts, I had received a seventy and a sixty-five. I couldn’t afford to get another low grade. I had to ace this post. Beth would have to wait. I needed Lexi’s help.

As I started to search for Lexi’s phone number, I remembered out of the hundreds of phone numbers in my contact list, the one number I didn’t have was Lexi’s. Go figure. And it was the one number I needed the most.

I took another bite of my sandwich, contemplating what to do. Unsure of where she lived or if she might be at the writing lab, I opted for my only alternative: I messaged Coach and asked if he had Dr. Phillip’s cell number. It didn’t take long for him to text back with a number. For a few seconds, I thought about what to say.

Me: Dr. Phillips, it’s Raven Davenport. I’m working on an assignment that’s due tomorrow and need to ask Lexi some questions, but don’t have her phone number. Can you tell her to call me ASAP? Thanks.

I stared at the screen, re-reading what I had typed. It had to be the longest text ever, but it explained my situation. Satisfied with it, I hit the send button and waited. And waited. After several minutes, I finally set the phone down and returned to reading. I re-read the same paragraph five times before finally giving up. I picked up my phone and unlocked it. Nothing.

Damn!

I double-checked the number Coach had given me and verified it was correct. What the hell was taking so long? The clock moved slower than a play with a time out. After fifteen minutes, my phone finally buzzed.

Dr. Phillips: Hi, Raven. You’re in luck — I do have her number. I’ve attached the contact card.

I opened the contact information and saved it to my phone. I had Lexi Thompson’s phone number.
Finally!
The numbers blurred on the screen, as if warning me not to dial. I blinked a few times and then rubbed my eyes. It would be okay to contact her, right? If it weren’t, Dr. Phillips wouldn’t have given me her number.

It took me even longer to think about what to text. I knew my spelling and grammar needed to be correct — she’d be checking. I deleted and rewrote my message about five times before giving up and settling on something simple.

Me: Lexi, it’s Raven. I need your help. Can we meet tonight?

My finger hovered over the send button and my throat tightened. I took a few deep breaths. The message was fine — no errors and to the point. It was legitimate business, no flirting or inappropriate comments. What was the worst that could happen? She could get mad that I texted and refuse to help me. Maybe even refuse to work with me anymore. More than likely, that wouldn’t happen. Not based on the vibe I felt Tuesday. No, she’d be willing to help me.

With baited breath, I pressed the key and placed a death grip on my phone. I stared at the screen, my heart pounding like it was the last play of the game and it was up to me to throw the winning touchdown. Why the hell was I getting so nervous? What was up with that?