Page 68 of Sticks and Stones (Shadow Valley U)

Her face is getting red. The flush creeps up her neck, and her mouth opens and closes. I wipe fucking tears from my eyes while she gets more pissed by the second.

The student worker glances over at us, but I ignore her.

“Come on, baby. Maybe you should take a self-defense class or two…”

“You—youasshole,” she shouts, shoving me back a step.

I catch her wrists and drag her in. I kiss her before she can stop me, nipping at her lower lip. “Mmm,” I whisper, “you should’ve just stayed in bed with me.”

“I have to study,” she grits out.

Yeah, yeah.

I release her wrists, and she straightens her shirt. She circles the table and rights the fallen chair, huffing hard enough that displaced strands of her dark hair float out in front of her face.

She’s adorably out of sorts.

When she sits back down, I frown. I drop into the chair beside her.

“What are you doing?” she asks, her voice guarded.

“You’re cute when you’re pissed.” I tuck her hair behind her ear and let my fingers trail down the side of her neck.

She puts her earbuds back in.

Pointedly.

I chuckle to myself and lean back, watching the side of her face. She goes back to reading something, her lips moving. Until her phone lights up between us, and her attention goes to the screen.

“Aren’t you going to answer it?” I shift forward.

Unknown number.

Wren flips the phone upside down.

“Do you know who that is?”

She shrugs. “No. I don’t know. Maybe.”

“That sounds suspicious.” I narrow my eyes. “Sticks?”

“Stop calling me that,” she hisses. “And it’s nothing.”

I snatch her phone. She makes a noise of protest, but she doesn’t stop me from using her face to unlock it and then going straight to her recent calls.

A half dozenunknown numbercalls from today and yesterday. Only one, the first, was answered. And she said it was her ex.

“Brad?” I force out.

She just shrugs.

I shake my head at her, then shoot off a text to Archer.

And a second one to Evan.

Twenty minutes later, both guys join us in the library. Archer has his school bag slung over his shoulder and two cups of coffee. He drops into the seat across from Wren.

She yanks out her earbuds again, glaring at me.