Page 154 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 10

Friday

A million years ago, according to Dr. Clark

“Why would you choose to live in an all-boys dorm?” Rob asked as he tossed his duffel bag on my bed.

“It’s not a dorm,” Mason said. “It’s a final club. And it’s fucking awesome. We throw the best parties on campus.”

“Is it even technically on campus?” asked Rob. “It was like a five-minute drive. At least, that’s how long the driveway made it seem.” He collapsed onto the leather Chesterfield sofa and frowned. “And why is your room decorated like we just walked into the Caldwell’s mansion?”

Matt laughed. “This place does remind me a bit of home.” He tapped the wood paneling with his knuckles and stared at the built-in bookshelves. “Minus the fact that you have gryphons outside your creepy mansion instead of gargoyles.”

“And the fact that it’s filled with only men,” Rob added.

“Would you stop being annoying for five seconds?” Mason said. “You’re lucky you’re even here. It’s very exclusive.”

“Not that exclusive if they took your ass.”

Mason smacked Rob in the back of the head.

I ignored them and walked over to Matt. He turned away from me and looked out the window.

He looked worse than the last time I’d seen him.

There were dark circles under his eyes. And I’d heard that the Empire High Eagles had lost their last three games.

Rumor had it that their leading wide receiver had been benched because he’d shown up drunk to practice too many times. Matt was their drunk wide receiver.

“How are you doing?” I asked.

He cleared his throat. “Ready to fuck some shit up,” he said.

Was he though? Because he looked a mess.

“Speaking of fucking shit up, we brought some delicious homemade brownies,” Rob said and pulled out a plate of brownies. There were already several missing.

How did brownies have anything to do with fucking shit up? But I was hungry. I grabbed one and took a bite. I wasn’t sure who they were homemade by, but they were actually pretty tasty.

Mason grabbed one too. Rob pulled out two and tossed one at Matt.

I had no right to judge Matt. I’d showed up drunk to high school plenty of times.

Or high. I was actually high right now. But I also didn’t have a whole team depending on me.

I was just fucking up my own life. So yeah, I wasn’t judging.

But I was worried about him. I just wanted one weekend where we could just be…

us again. The four of us against the world.

The way it used to be. Before everything broke.

Matt turned away from me. “So what’s the plan for tonight?” he asked Mason. “Because I need a drink.”

Matt did not need a drink. Neither did I.

But it was Friday. And I was a little worried that half the time I looked as sad as Matt did.

My girlfriend had suddenly stopped talking to me several weeks ago.

I’d tried to call her and her number was disconnected.

I would have been worried about her, but I knew she was fine.

She just didn’t want to talk to me. Because even though she’d changed her Facebook account to private, she seemed eager enough to accept a friend request from a new fake account I made that didn’t show my face.

It wasn’t even a good fake account. I had like one friend and one picture.

So that was done. And honestly, maybe I wasn’t that sad.

Because the more time that passed, the more I realized I didn’t miss her.

Back in high school we made sense. When I first met her, I liked that she wasn’t part of my world.

But she made it pretty clear that all she wanted was to be a part of it.

The more time we spent together, the less I liked her.

But I found that was the case with most people.

Except for my three friends in this room.

“Well, like I was just telling this idiot,” Mason said and pointed to Rob. “The Gryphon Club throws the best parties on campus.”

“But if it’s a secret club, how do you throw parties?” Rob asked. “Because whoever you invite will know about said secret club. Meaning it’s not a secret anymore.”

“I swear to God, Rob, I will kick your ass.”

“I knew you missed me,” Rob said.

Mason laughed. “I did not. But just so all of you know, I’m not getting shitfaced tonight. I have a game tomorrow, and unlike some people in this room, that matters to me.”

Matt groaned. “I was only drunk for a few games. Besides, we suck this year. Our quarterback is trash. He makes you look like Eli Manning.”

“I’ll take the compliment,” Mason said. “But three games, man? Come on. If you keep that up there won’t be a spot for you here.”

“In this all-boys dorm,” Rob said. “Oh, the horror.”

Matt laughed.

“No,” Mason said. “On the Harvard football team.”

Rob shrugged. “So do you guys all shower together too? Because I stopped by the bathroom and I only saw one big community shower. And there was a tub. What the hell is up with that?”

“Yeah, what kind of pervert would want to take a bath every night?” Matt asked.

“You don’t have to take a bath,” Mason said. “But it’s there if you want it.”

Matt frowned. “But who would want that?”

“It’s actually great for sports recovery to sit in cold water for a few minutes,” Mason said.

Rob shook his head. “I don’t think that sounds right. But forget the weird bath for a second, you didn’t answer my question. Is there really only one bathroom for all of you?”

Mason shrugged. “There’s one on each floor. But yeah. Why are you guys making this so weird? They’re just like locker rooms.”

“With a bath though,” Matt said with a laugh.

Rob laughed too. “Don’t tell me…there’s a daily dick measuring contest in the showers.”

“If there was, you’d lose,” Mason said.

Rob laughed. “No, you would. Big boy, small dick. Facts.”

“I’m going to kill him,” Mason said and turned to me. “I’m finally going to do it.”

“Bring it on,” said Rob.

“Give Mason a break,” I said. “He’s having a really hard time because the coach believes in celibacy during the season or something. He’s on edge.”

Rob opened his mouth and then closed it again. He glanced at Matt and then back at Mason. “Wait. So let me get this straight. You’re not having sex. You’re not drinking or doing drugs. And you have a small penis? It sounds like college sucks.”

Matt laughed. “We need to remind our brothers how to have a good time.” He rubbed his hands together. “Don’t worry, we’ve got tonight covered.”

“Um…” I looked at Mason and then back at our younger brothers. “No, we have it covered. We’re showing you two the ropes tonight. And I’m not on the team. So unlike Mason, I still know how to have a good time.”

“All. Boys. Dorm,” Rob said. “No, you do not know how to have a good time. Luckily for the two of you, Matt and I are here.” He pulled a bottle of tequila out of his duffel bag. “Now can you please direct us back to campus from this isolated creeper den?”

***

“Why are we doing this again?” Mason asked me as we followed Rob and Matt wherever they’d deemed appropriate after spending literally five minutes on campus.

“Because our party doesn’t start for another hour,” I said. “And it’s going to be hilarious to see their faces once we show them up.”

“True.” Mason sighed. “But this fucking sucks.”

I laughed. “It’ll be worth it, I promise.” But maybe I was going to eat my words, because Rob was heading up the steps toward the library. Mason and I both looked at each other. And then we quickly caught up to them.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “This is the library.”

“I know,” Rob said. “The kinkiest girls hang out in the library. They’ll know where the best party is.”

Mason groaned.

Seriously, why did Rob and Matt not trust us here? Apparently running Empire High had gotten to their heads. But they didn’t know anything yet. Watching this plan crash and burn could be mildly entertaining, though. “Fine,” I said. “After you.” I gestured toward the front doors.

We walked into the library. I hadn’t spent much time in here, but I knew this was probably a bad idea. Rob was…well, loud. And libraries were notoriously quiet.

Rob and Matt wandered around until we got to the Loker Reading Room.

We stopped at the large columns and stared at all the tables of people studying.

I looked up at the ornate curved ceiling of windows.

It was my favorite part of the library. I kept meaning to sneak in here at night when all the lights were off.

I bet it would be easy to see the stars through those windows when it was dark.

“I’m confused,” Rob said. “I thought it was supposed to look like Hogwarts in here? It just looks…old.” He stared at the wooden tables and wooden chairs.

“Why would this look like Hogwarts?” I asked.

“Didn’t JK Rowling base the Hogwarts grand hall off this or something?”

“Pretty sure she based it on Oxford, man.” Actually I knew for a fact that it was Oxford. But if I talked about this too much he’d call me a nerd and never want to go back to the Gryphon Club tonight.

“Why are there so many people in here on a Friday night?” Matt asked.

“Because we’re at Harvard.” This was one of the best schools in the country. What wasn’t he getting?

“Shh!” someone said.

Matt laughed.

I was also almost 100% positive that Matt and Rob did not deserve to be accepted here. But luckily for them, I wasn’t in charge of admissions. And even more luckily for them, our parents were very generous donors. Hell, I probably didn’t deserve to be going here either. I’d never know for sure.

Watch this,” said Rob with a wink. He walked over to the nearest table and sat across from a girl studying.

She did not look up.

He proceeded to talk to her.

She still didn’t look up. But she did say something back to him.

“He’s going about this all wrong,” I said. “Why hasn’t he lightly touched her arm to get her attention? It’s all about that one touch. And eye contact.” I leaned against one of the columns and folded my arms across my chest.

Mason shook his head. “Amateur.”