Page 46 of Palm South University: Season 2

What I don’t tell her is that I didn’t just see Adam. In fact, I had a pretty drunken heart-to-heart with him after seeing the scene between him and Cassie unfold. I don’t know where the kid’s head is at, but I know for fucking sure that I’m not going to sit back and watch him dick Skyler or Cassie around — and I told him that. He assured me he would never hurt either of them, but I could see it on his face — confusion. Adam Brooks is caught up in a game I’m not even sure he knows he’s playing. By the time he left, I know I had his wheels spinning. I just hope he takes the time to think about what he wants right now.

“What about Ex?” Skyler asks as Shawna passes her the bagel bag, licking cream cheese spread off her fingers.

Focus, Bear.

“Yeah she was here for a while. She mostly hung around that dude from the auction.”

“She’s been weird lately. Distant. More controlling than normal.”

I laugh. “Is that possible?”

Skyler shakes her head. “I wish I was joking.”

The girls start talking about how Skyler got into poker and I take my opportunity to relieve myself. When I’m behind the bathroom door, I remember the interaction between Erin and me last night. She practically avoided me all night, which isn’t anything out of the normal, really, but when we did end up in the same place and I tried talking to her, she teared up, running out of the room without so much as a word.

And she was worried aboutmeafter we hooked up.

There’s a reason everyone calls her Ex.

I wash my hands and make my way back into my room, casually picking up the random trash from the night before. Skyler and Shawna are cuddled up, staring at something on Shawna’s phone and laughing.

“Are you cleaning?” Shawna asks.

“Just picking up a little.”

“Oh, can you put on a little apron?” Shawna sits up in bed, excited.

“Maybe use one of those little feather dusters?” Skyler adds.

“Yes! And talk with a French accent.”

They high five and I just stand there gaping.

“Shit,” I murmur, scrubbing my hands down my face. “I’m in real trouble with you two, aren’t I?”

They both giggle and settle back into the sheets, their direction fixed on the phone again. I shake my head just as a loud knock sounds at the front door.

“No making out while I’m gone.” I say pointedly, mostly to Skyler.

“No promises.” She winks and Shawna holds up two fingers, lewdly waving her tongue between them.

Lord help me.

I can’t quite shake that image from my head as I walk down the hall, but when I wade through the brothers sleeping on the floor and the trash spread everywhere and find Alec on the other side of the peep hole, my stomach drops.

Squinting at the sun as I open the door just a fraction, hoping to hide the mess inside from the one alumni who’s managed to shut us down for half a semester, I force a smile.

“Hey, Alec. What brings you by?”

His jaw is set, mouth in a thin line, and it dawns on me that I probably don’t want to know the answer to my own question.

“We need to talk.”