Page 31 of Reverse Pass

“Can you two hens knock it off?”

“How about we all fucking respect his privacy before I start knocking heads around?” Colton shouts over the chatter

“Fuck man, sorry!” Sam shrinks.

“Sorry man!” JB nods and walks off.

I lift the phone again, shielding it under the hoodie I’m wearing and open the photo again. The air in my lungs catches fire because holy fuck. The picture is Violet in the galaxy bikini top, one that looks even smaller than I remember. Her hair is down, a pretend look of confusion on her face and her finger pressed to her lips. It’s captioned ”Was it this one?”

Yeah. That would be the one

Violet

It is a little small. Now

A little? A stiff breeze is going to snap it

Guess we’ll see

Cruel of you since you know I’m not home until the morning

Colton and I are going to talk to a trainer, and we’re driving down tonight and back tomorrow. And I know I have an addiction to her when one night without her feels like it’s going to be painful.

She sends me a little devil emoji.

Violet

Sweet dreams. See you tomorrow

Sweet dreams

When I get home in the morning I just want to crash and burn on the bed. I’m thankfully class-free today because my professor canceled, and I don’t have to be at the gym to meet Colton and Jake until later this afternoon, so I can at least try to get a decent round of sleep in before I have to get back to the grind.

As I throw my bags on the floor, I notice a book sitting on the bed. It’s the same book as before about the tutor and the football player but there’s a new bookmark inside, and I flip it open. She’s highlighted a passage inside and I skim through it. They’re in his room studying together. She’s making him go over flashcards and then without saying anything she starts to strip. On the back of the bookmark Violet has scrawled:

History flashcards tonight?

I grin and pull out my phone.

Absolutely need to study for history tonight

Violet

9:30?

Yup. My room

K. See you then

True to her word she knocks on the door at 9:30, and I tell her to come in. There’s something slightly unreadable on her face, if I had to guess I’d say it was nerves.

Me too, babe. Me fucking too.

I’ve been looking forward to it all fucking day long, and I ran extra miles at the gym to try and wear off some of the excess energy buzzing through my body. Then I’d spent the last half hour desperately hoping she was going to be wearing that bikini top underneath her shirt.

“Got the cards?” she asks, a tumbler of something to drink in one hand.

“Yup.” I’m sitting back against the pillows on my bed, my legs stretched out trying to go through some of the dates while I waited for her. Mostly they’d all just blurred together. I did occasionally get some studying done in her presence, but she was too damn distracting most of the time.