Hooped #5 (The Hooped Interracial Romance Series #5) (2 page)

“Oh my god…” I stared at him in shock. Considering
what Kelly had done so far, it wasn’t that much of a stretch.

“We were really close, and I—I always thought of
myself as kind of a loser, school-wise, so I went along with her idea. It was
stupid.” I bit my bottom lip; Kelly had taken a huge risk, cheating for Devon.
She had to have known that it would be a major blow to her entire academic
career if she got caught.

“What happened?” Devon shrugged.

“While we were putting the plan together—getting her
and ID that had my name, all those things… she started to kind of lose it.”
Devon closed his eyes, shaking his head. “She kept saying things like I would
owe her forever, and I’d have to stay with her for the rest of our lives now.
She played it off as a joke, but…” he shrugged again. Devon took a deep breath.
“A few weeks after the test, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I told her that I
appreciated what she did, but I couldn’t see her.”

“Why didn’t she just come clean then?” I couldn’t
quite believe it—and yet it made way too much sense.

“I think she was afraid that she’d be in trouble too.
But she’s held it over my head ever since—constantly threatening to tell that
I’d cheated on the
test, that
I’d paid someone to take
it for me. I never paid her, Jenn—believe me. She did it because she wanted a
hold on me, and then once that was gone…” I sighed, shaking my head at how
crazy Kelly had been to do all of this. I had to believe Devon; the evidence in
front of me was clear. Kelly had been the one to suggest over and over to
me—pretending it was a joke—that we should ruin Devon’s life, get him in
trouble. She had been so crazy about him that she’d been willing to almost
sacrifice her own college career in order to destroy his.

“That’s
…how
could you just keep going with that hanging over your head?” Devon grinned
slightly.

“After a year or two, I figured she had to be over it.
I mean, the threat was still there.” He shrugged. “I’m actually kind of glad
she finally went through with it.” Everything was quiet between us for a long
moment, and then Devon looked at me with confusion. “It’s kind of weird that
she’d tell
you,
though, even if you are
my girlfriend.” I bit my bottom lip. Devon had been completely honest with me;
I owed it to him to come clean.

“Not as weird as you might think,” I started. I took a
deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Kelly and I have been friends since high
school, and she’s my roommate. I thought—I really believed she was my best
friend.” I looked at Devon, feeling my eyes sting with tears. “She never even
mentioned you until we hooked up, I swear. I didn’t even know you had any
history with her at all.”

“I believe you,” Devon said, reaching out and brushing
my cheek. “You seem like the kind of girl who would have avoided a friend’s ex
like the plague.” I laughed, even as tears started to spill out of my eyes.

“She—she told me a ton of terrible things about
you
and suggested we could ruin you…and she
tried to play it off as a joke.” I shrugged. “If I’d known she was like that,
Devon, I’d never have stayed her friend as long as I did. She’s not even one of
my friends anymore. She told me I had to choose between her and you and well…”
I smiled sadly.

“You chose
me;
I
take it,” Devon said with a grin. I nodded. “No wonder you haven’t been in the
dorm
much
if you’ve had to sneak around
her.” He pulled me into his arms. “I trust you, Jenny. I trust what you’ve told
me—and I know you wouldn’t have pulled something like this on me, no matter how
pissed you were.” I kissed Devon, feeling so relieved that the fatigue of the
day and the game finally started crashing in on me.

“I’m glad I chose you,” I said, curling up in Devon’s
arms as he pulled me down onto the bed next to him. “I’m also glad I came
clean.” Devon chuckled, kissing me.

“Now get some sleep. You’ve got a long day tomorrow.”
He pulled me close under the
covers,
and
I felt myself starting to slowly fall asleep. I cuddled close to Devon and sank
down into the darkness, contented once more.

Chapter
Two

The next morning, it felt so good to wake up next to Devon,
to know that everything was absolutely clear between us, no secrets. We fooled
around for a little while—kissing and touching each other—but Devon pointed out
that I had class to get to, and suggested that he could make me breakfast
again, give us a chance to just hang out and enjoy each other’s company.

I grabbed a quick shower while Devon cooked breakfast,
and when I joined him in the kitchen, saying hello to the few guys who were
already up and watching TV, he gave me the smile I was already starting to
love. He made scrambled eggs with cheese, toast, strawberries, and
bacon—somehow managing to put it all together in the twenty minutes since we
had parted. “I don’t think I’m even as good a cook as this,” I said, taking a
bite of the perfectly cooked eggs.

“Aw, come on—I’m sure you’re no slouch either.” I
grinned.

“I could make dinner for you
some time
; that’d be a good payback.” Devon chuckled.

“I know just how you can pay me back—and you don’t
have to chop a single onion to do it.” He stood, leaning over the table, and
kissed me on the forehead. He sat back down. “I’ve been thinking,” he said,
taking a sip of his coffee.

“About what?” I ate a piece of bacon, sitting back in
my chair; I was both worried and not worried at the same time.

“Well—about what you said last night. I don’t hold it
against you; I completely believe that you had no idea what kind of mess Kelly
was, or you wouldn’t have been friends with her, or gone after me, one.”

“Right. I’m so sorry I didn’t come clean sooner.”
Devon smiled, reaching across the table and taking my hand.

“And you trust me—you have no idea how much that means
to me.” He gave my hand a squeeze. “But obviously we have a lot more
connections than we thought. And I want this to be serious between us. I like
you a lot, Jenn. In fact…” he took a deep breath. “I kind of think I might love
you.”

“Really?” My eyes widened. “You really think you might
love me?” Devon chuckled.

“Is that so hard to believe? You’re amazing! You’re
smart and gorgeous and funny and just—great. All the guys are jelly.” Devon
grinned. “But if we’re going to be serious, we have to agree to be completely
honest from here on out—both of us.” I nodded slowly.

“Yeah, not being honest hasn’t done us any favors yet.
If I’d been up front with you…” I shrugged. “But we can be honest from now on,
right?” Devon nodded, grinning so broadly, his eyes sparkling with happiness.

“Finish your breakfast, maybe we’ll have some time to
fool around before you have to run to class.” I widened my eyes, feeling my
cheeks warm up with a blush.

“In that case I can totally do without breakfast, you
know. I’ll be fine.” Devon laughed.

“
No,
you won’t.
Eat up; I didn’t cook this just to give it to those pigs in the living room. I
made it for you! And then we’ll go fool around until you have to run to class.
Deal?” I laughed with him.

“Okay, fine,” I said, only a little disappointed.
“It’s a deal.”

As I went from class to class, I thought about my
relationship with Devon. Everything felt so good and right; I was actually able
to focus through the lectures—which I hadn’t been able to do when things were
so up in the air, before. I was almost completely certain, after everything
that we had been through, that nothing could possibly come between Devon and
me
anymore. I was pleased that he had come to
me for help in passing the ACT, and I was even happier that he had been the one
to bring the idea of being completely honest to the forefront. He wanted us
both to be totally up-front with each other from now on; if he were planning on
using me and then ditching me, he wouldn’t have been the one to suggest it,
would he?

I also thought about Kelly. What she had told me—what
she had admitted—along with what Devon had confessed to me meant that I could
never trust her again. I hated to think that I could be friends with someone so
dishonest, and frankly crazy; it was insane of her to have tried to take
Devon’s ACT for him, and just as absurd to try and hold it over him for the
rest of his life, and then throw him under the bus once he got together with
someone seriously. I shook my head to myself, thinking about it as I went from
one class to another.

I would have to stay away from her, at least while
Devon
and I
were
preparing for him to re-take the test. I couldn’t trust myself not to let
something slip—and I couldn’t possibly trust Kelly not to figure out another
way to get at Devon somehow. Would I now be her enemy too, since I was with the
guy she had decided she needed to either have or get back at.
What is wrong with her? It’s been so long
since they dated
; why
would she still be
clinging to this?
It didn’t make any sense to me that anyone would continue
so long after their relationship had ended.

The more I thought about it, the happier I was. It was
bizarre; there was so much stress, with the preparations for Devon to re-take
the ACT and everything else that was going on in my life. And yet, I was more
comfortable and at peace with my life than ever. If Kelly was going to get in
the way of that, there was no reason for me to keep being friends with there,
was there? I thought that if she was really going to be so horrible to me as
well as to Devon—if she couldn’t just be happy for me that I’d found someone,
and couldn’t just accept that it was never going to work with her and
Devon—then there must not be any reason to try and keep things up with her.
There was no reason to apologize, or to make up. If she was really going to lie
to me, and she didn’t feel bad about
it
or even want to make amends, then I must have been mistaken about what good
friends we had been before I’d even met Devon.
She kept carping on how Devon was trying to use me
…
but she’s been using me all along.
I could
give up on the friendship with her, as far as I was concerned. It might make
things a bit awkward with our circle of friends for a while, but if I just let
her fade into the background of my life, then things would just move forward.
It made me feel even better; I didn’t even have to worry about Kelly
anymore
if I didn’t want to be friends with
her.

Chapter
Three

That night, Devon and I went back to studying
together. It was almost strange to me, how much the rest of the guys simply
accepted the fact that I was hanging out in the frat house, spending time with
Devon. I felt as if I was almost one of them; as if it was just a simple fact
that Devon and I were together. I knew that some of the girls on campus—the
ones Devon had fooled around with in the past and the ones who wanted to ‘tame’
him themselves alike—envied me, but I thought that as long as they weren’t like
Kelly, I could live with a little jealousy.

We started in on the material that Devon was weakest
at, breaking it down into the different subjects and spending a little bit of
time on each one. I switched
between
the
books, picking the one I liked best overall to show Devon some tricks for the
English section of the test—it had the best tips for breaking down the
questions for that section—and one of the other three for the Math section. It
almost amazed me how much better Devon did on the practice tests for each
section after relatively little work. “You are way, way smarter than you
think,” I told him, showing him the scores he’d gotten.

“I have a great tutor,” Devon countered, kissing me
passionately. We took a break before diving into the reading section, talking
about what we would do together once all of the stress of him re-taking the
test was out of the way. “The season doesn’t last forever, you know,” Devon
pointed out to me.

“Well duh, it wouldn’t be a season then,” I quipped.
Devon grinned.

“What I mean is, once we’re in the off-season, we can
just relax. I’ll still have to hit the gym—gotta stay at my peak—but I won’t
have practice, I won’t have games. We can go out on dates, see
movies, all that
stuff.” I rolled my eyes, grinning.

“We do that now!” I gave him a playful shove. “You’re
just looking forward to a time when you can keep me in your room all weekend
without missing a practice.” Devon laughed.

“No, I think that’s you,” he told me, pinning me down
on the bed and kissing along the column of my throat. “You’re the most
sex-obsessed woman I’ve ever met, babe. Seriously.”

“Well, that’s thanks to you,” I told him, reaching up
and threading my fingers through his hair, holding his face close to mine as I
looked up into his eyes. “If you weren’t so great in bed, I probably wouldn’t
be so obsessed with keeping you here.”

“Well, we need to get back to work in a minute,” Devon
said. He kissed me. “But maybe if you’re good, I’ll learn everything in a blink
of an
eye,
and we can spend the rest of
the night seeing how many times I can make you come.”
 
I laughed.