Page 59 of For the Fans

“Oh, crap…” I whisper, shifting Robin off of my lap and onto the couch.

Standing up quick, I grab a nearby fleece blanket and cover her with it.

“Shh… You just stay there,” I tell the cat before rushing toward the door. “Don’t move.”

Unlocking the door, I suck in a calming breath before opening it a crack, expecting to see someone from campus security, here to tear my new baby from her home.

Instead, I’m met with sandy hair, hazel eyes, and a familiar scowl.

“Uh…” My mouth hangs open while I stare at him blankly, purely baffled by the fact that he’s actually here. Unexpectedly. “What are you doing here?”

His eyebrow cocks. “You invited me, remember? Jesus, how much weed do you smoke??” My confused blinking goes on while he rolls his eyes. “You said it was important and serious, or some shit—Can I fucking come in?? Or are you gonna make me stand out here in the hallway like a moron?”

I’m still beyond surprised, but now I’m also annoyed, because while I did ask him to come over, I’m already regretting the decision to have this arrogant jerk-wad in my home, messing up my chi.

Stepping aside, I motion for him to come in. “By all means… Show up in the middle of the night, unannounced, acting likeI’mthe unreasonable one.”

Kyran stomps inside. “Again, you begged me to come over. “

“Okay…beggedis a bit of an exaggeration…” I mumble, and he spins to face me, lifting that damn eyebrow again.

“Want me to show you the text?” He folds his arms over his chest.

“I have the text. I wrote it, dumbass,” I murmur, then hold my hand up before he can argue any more. “Anyway, whatever. You never responded, so forgive me for not expecting you to show up at midnight.” He sways in place, tipping his chin all around the room. My brows knit. “And drunk, apparently…”

“I’m notdrunk,” he grunts, resuming his walking, checking the place out, poking at stuff. “I left a party early to come see what you could possibly need that’s so important you can’t text it…” His voice trails, then his face snaps in my direction. “This is your dorm room??”

“No, I’m just hanging out in here,” I rumble sarcastically, to which he rolls his eyes. “Yes, it’s my fucking dorm room.”

He scoffs out loud and shakes his head. “Figures you’d just stumble into a place like this…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” My gaze narrows.

“You know what it means,” he says pointedly. “These apartments are reserved for the dean’s kids and full-ride MBAs, not stoners with a two-point-five GPA. Seriously, I think half the professors actuallylivein this building…”

“Hey, my GPA is a three!” I retort, then mutter, “Almost…” He huffs, still shaking his head, that constant holier-than-thou attitude really starting to piss me off. “Look, I didn’t ask you to come over to argue and insult me.”

“Okay, so spill it.” He spins, waltzing toward the living room. “What do you want, Avi?”

My frustrations with him are replaced swiftly by nerves. Sure, I invited him over to tell him the truth, about my OnlyFans and all the requests… But now that he’s actuallyhere, dressed in hisexpensive preppy clothes, being his usual douchey self, I’m sort of fumbling for the courage to speak the words. I just know he’s going to freak out. He might even punch me in the face… Not that I did anything that would warrant such a reaction. But he’s not exactly known for hisunderstanding.

“Alright, well… Here it goes.” I pull in a breath. “I have—”

“Uh, Avi…” he interrupts me, and I exhale, rolling my eyes.Jesus, he can’t even let me speak for one second…“I don’t want to alarm you, but I think you might have a rat…”

My forehead lines. “A what??”

He nods toward the couch. “That blanket is… moving.”

Following his line of vision, I see the lump where Robin is covered by the blanket moving around. Kyran is backing away slowly toward the kitchen, and I have to laugh. He grabs a frying pan from the counter, then tiptoes back to the living room with his arm cocked like he’s about to strike.

“Kyran, wait!” I jump in front of him before he can smash my poor kitten to death. “It’s not a rat!”

His eyes shift to mine. “Then what the fuck is it??”

“Okay, let’s just take that away from you…” I remove the frying pan from his grip, setting it down and turning to whip the blanket back, revealing my little Burmese fluff ball.

He stares at the cat, then at me, then at the cat, before shaking his head. “I have no words.”