Page 34

KEENE

O n Monday, Alec and I left the campus printing and design office, chortling conspiratorially between ourselves. He’d designed the poster with a picture of Mystery Girl’s panties on it, and we’d written up a catchy slogan:

Screw the glass slipper; my Cinderella left these behind on Friday night, and I’d very much like to return them.

Call me. K. D.

Then I’d left my number underneath.

Fairly certain our flyers didn’t follow the campus’s community poster guidelines, we’d printed fifty copies, anyway, and just started handing them out to people as soon as we started down the sidewalk.

“Hey, check it out,” Alec called to a group of girls passing us as if he were some kind of carney trying to coax them into playing the ball throw at his booth. “If this is you or someone you know, please call.”

I shoved a page into the center of the chest of some guy strolling by. “Yo man, make sure these aren’t your girlfriend’s,” I taunted without even pausing.

It must’ve taken him a bit to peel the sheet off his shirt and read it because five seconds later, I heard him call me a dirty name.

I smirked and bumped my arm into Alec’s. “Let’s go this way.”

Faithful best bud that he was, Alec only shrugged and followed my lead.

* * *

By noon, I’d gotten three calls and nine text messages.

The few who’d been able to get past my first verifying question and guessed what K.D. stood for hadn’t been able to name the object tattooed to the side of my mystery girl’s wrist, so they’d all ended up being bogus.

The message Mr. Felter sent me from the Academic Integrity Department, however, had me a little concerned.

I mean, I seriously doubted this was an offense that could get me kicked out of school, but I was mildly wigged out.

Still… Whatever slap on the hand the student advisory council wanted to give me for passing out unsanctioned flyers, I’d gladly take.

More frustrated by the fact that I still hadn’t found Mystery Girl yet, I moped moodily through the buffet line at the student union and paid for my lunch before spotting Hudson and Faith sitting by themselves at his favorite spot near the corner windows.

As I approached, the two of them glanced up, only for Ivey to immediately shake his head in reprimand. “Dude,” he chided with a laughing cringe. “Are you fucking serious?”

“What?” I asked, no clue what he was referring to.

Faith slapped down a copy of my flyer onto the table between us when I sat across from them. “This was being passed around in my business marketing class.”

“Really? Sweet.” I snagged it up to glance over the poster again, nodding out another proud grin. Younger and I had totally rocked this thing. And it must be gaining some serious traction if Faith had already seen a copy.

At this rate, the real Mystery Girl might just call at any moment.

“Sweet?” Faith cried in outrage. “How in anything holy is this sweet ?”

My brow furrowed. “What do you mean?” I was making Mystery Girl come to me. That was fucking genius!

“You posted a picture of this poor girl’s underwear all over campus, dumbass,” Hudson explained.

“I mean, seriously,” Faith added. “What the hell were you thinking?”

My mouth opened because I couldn’t believe they didn’t understand the utter brilliance of my plan. “Bro, this is going to make her come to me .”

“Yeah,” Hudson agreed with a scoff. “To kill you, maybe.”

“I would be so pissed at someone for spreading around a picture of my panties,” Faith explained, shaking her head in disbelief.

“And I would have to kill anyone who looked at them,” Hudson told her, pressing a hand to his chest. “Especially that white pair of yours with the bow on the front. Mmm…” He closed his eyes briefly as if remembering them fondly before gazing over at her.

“It’s been a minute since you last wore those, you know. Daddy’s been having withdrawals.”

I snorted, purposely cutting into their moment. “Look. Pissed or not, it’s going to prompt some kind of action from her.”

“Murder,” Hudson whispered to Faith. “It’s gonna prompt murder.”

“And when she comes crawling out of the shadows to reply,” I went on, ignoring him. “I’m going to be ready.” This girl was as good as caught . I was going to figure out her identity by the end of the day, tops.

“You should invest in steel boxers,” Ivey advised. “Because she’s going to do a lot more than knee you in the junk after this.”

“I’d cut off your whole damn pecker,” Faith announced, making me wince and pull back away from her.

“Ouch,” I hissed, shaking my head over such savagery. “That’s a bit excessive, don’t you think?” If I were Ivey, I’d definitely wear steel boxers from here on out.

Yet the crazy guy merely smiled at her, his eyes glazing over as if she were amazing.

It was weird.

Reason number eight hundred and twenty-two why I was never falling in love; it freaking made you think cock-severing comments from your lady were actually adorable.

No, thank you.

“I’m going to laugh so hard when this blows up in your face,” Hudson told me as Alec and Xander arrived at the table together.

“When what blows up?” Younger asked innocently, snagging the empty seat next to me, while Xander seated herself at the end between him and Faith

Overlooking the question, I watched the two of them busy themselves and prepare their trays to eat before I cleared my throat. “Arriving at lunch together now, are we?” I goaded. “Is there something you two would like to share with the class?”

Alec glanced up in utter confusion while Xander shot me a dark scowl. “Shut up. We literally bumped into each other as we were walking into the student union at the same time.”

“Mm-hmm,” I murmured with lifted eyebrows as if I didn’t believe her. “But don’t you usually eat somewhere else for lunch?”

When my best friend shot me a look, ordering me to shut the hell up, Xander blinked before explaining, “Yeah. I usually eat with Frankie, but she got stuck working an extra shift, so I thought I’d come here and see if I knew anyone else to eat with. But if you want me to go…”

She made a move to stand, until Faith shot out an arm, grabbing her wrist. “Don’t you dare leave me alone with these three. The testosterone level at this table seems extra stupid today.”

When Hudson gasped and shot her a betrayed glance, she set her hand on his arm without even looking his way and lifted her eyebrows meaningfully at Xander. “And by that, I mean, only Keene’s.”

“Oh, snap.” Alec glanced over at me with amusement. “What’d you do this time, man?”

“Me? I think you mean, we …” Bouncing my brows at him, I snatched the flyer from the end of the table and thrust it his way. “Look what Woods caught being handed around in her business class.” Grin spreading, I announced, “We’re going viral , baby.”

“What in the world is that ?” Xander asked, sitting up straighter in her seat to see the poster before she finally just snatched it from Alec’s hand.

“Uh…” Alec made a move to take it back, but she pulled it away to gape at our creation.

“Oh my God,” she murmured, her eyes flaring wider and wider with horror the more she read it. “Oh my God.” Looking directly at me, she rasped, “You didn’t.”

Disregarding the panic and horror in her eyes, I grinned proudly. “We totally did.”

“Oh my God,” she repeated, clearly at such a loss that those must’ve become the only three words she now knew. “And you?” She swung toward Alec as if he’d betrayed her. “You just—you let him do this?”

“Uh…” As Alec slunk deeper in his chair, looking vaguely cornered, I grinned and slung an arm over his shoulders, jostling him companionably.

“What’re you talking about— let me? He designed the damn posters.”

Younger shot me a look, begging me to shut up, and he sank lower to avoid my arm, while Xander just groaned.

“Oh my God. I can’t—I just…” Carefully folding the poster into fourths, she stood up and gathered her things. “I have to go,” she announced distractedly, not glancing back as she took off.

“Smart girl,” Hudson said with an astute nod. “Keeping her distance from you before she’s stuck with the reputation of befriending idiots.”

“Because it’s totally too late for us,” Faith added, swinging her fork to motion back and forth between Hudson and herself.

He grinned at her, and they shared one of those couple’s looks that always made me roll my eyes, and then they laughed together.

“She’s never going to speak to me again,” Alec lamented, watching Xander out the window as she crossed the quad in the direction of the library. Smacking my arm, he demanded, “Why the hell did I let you talk me into this?”

“Because you’re an idiot too,” Hudson told him matter-of-factly before he took a bite of his spaghetti, only to wince. “Jesus. Who seasoned this shit? Seriously. No one loves oregano that much.”

“Tastes fine to me,” I said with a shrug, and I stuffed my own mouth with a heaping forkful. Ivey sent me one of his haughty chef glances and began to pick at his salad.

“And Girl Union’s just jealous she didn’t think up the idea first,” I told Alec, unconcerned by everyone’s concern. “Because it was a great idea.”

Alec glanced at me, then grimaced. “Oh God. I am an idiot,” he realized.

Hudson nodded sagely. “Admitting it is the first step to recovery.”

“What the fuck ever,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “We did nothing wrong.”

And Faith tipped her head toward Hudson, saying, “Clearly, he’ll never recover.”

As they laughed together, I sent them a dry glower. “I’m going to so enjoy watching you two eat your words when this plan actually works. Because she’s gonna respond. I know it.”

* * *

Eight hours later, Mystery Girl had not responded.

“The fuck?” I muttered, running a harassed hand through my hair as I stormed into my bedroom and moodily smacked the door shut behind me. Why the hell hadn’t she replied? Or retaliated. Or something!