Hooped #2 (The Hooped Interracial Romance Series #2) (4 page)

I hurried away from my desk when Dr.
Fewkes
dismissed us for the day, gathering up my things as
quickly as I could and heading for the door almost before she had finished
reminding us about the next set of readings. If I could make it out of the
building and onto the quad, I was sure Devon would be far, far behind me.
Why do you even think he’s going to follow
you? Why do you think he’s not just going to go to wherever his next class is?
I shook off the thought, scrambling down the stairs—I didn’t even want to wait
for the elevator. It was stupid, but I didn’t want to open up any chance of
either having someone comment on my blushing or having Devon run into me.

I burst through the doors of the building and turned
sharply to the right, heading for the main walkway. My next class was on the
other side of campus, and even if I wasn’t running away from the possibility of
Devon wanting to talk to me, I didn’t have much time before the start of my
next class. I let my mind wander as I put more distance between myself and the
building, starting to relax.

“Jenn!” I nearly tripped over my own feet at the sound
of my name in Devon’s familiar voice. I took a deep breath, slowing down not
because I wanted him to catch up to me, but because if I tried to run I’d only
bring more attention to myself—and probably end up falling on my face in the
process.

In a few moments, I saw Devon in the corner of my eye,
coming up from behind me at a jog. “Hey, pretty girl,” Devon said, his voice
sweet and warm. I glanced at him sideways, raising an eyebrow.

“Hi,” I said, giving him something that wasn’t quite a
smile. I didn’t want to be rude or make a
scene,
and
I knew that he’d just keep trying to get my attention if I didn’t
respond.

“What class are you headed to? Can I walk you there?”
I shrugged.

“I’m on my way to Intro to Economics,” I said.
“Besides, don’t you have a class of your own to get to?” Devon frowned for just
a moment before smiling at me once more.

“I’d be happy to be a little
late
if I could walk you to class.” I looked from his face to the
people walking around us; some of them looked amused, some of them looked
appalled, some of them looked envious, and some of them looked like they were
just waiting for the scene to erupt.

“I know my way,” I said levelly. “I’ve been going to
that class for weeks now.”

“A pretty girl like you shouldn’t have to walk alone,
though,” Devon said, his voice taking on a wheedling note. “I’ll carry your
books if you want.”

“They’re not heavy,” I told him. “There are plenty of
pretty girls walking
alone;
you could
walk with one of them.” In the corner of my eye, I saw Devon’s expression
change from happy pleasure and hope to disappointment.

“You seem like you’re in a hurry,” he observed.

“I am,” I said, only softening a little. “Class is in
less than ten minutes. I don’t really have time to talk to anyone.” I started
walking a little faster. Devon kept pace with me for a few moments more, and
when I glanced at him furtively I saw that he was trying to come up with
something to say; it was strange—bizarre, even—to see him looking so confused,
so uncertain.

“We can catch up later, then. I’d hate to get in
between you and your routine,” Devon said, giving me another one of those
flirty smiles. I shrugged, glancing away from him. “Catch you later, Jenny.” I
looked at him again to tell him that I hated—hated—to be called Jenny, and saw
that in spite of the cheerful tone of voice, his face still wore that
perplexed, disappointed look. He turned onto a different walkway, leaving me
alone.

In spite of myself, I had to laugh. It actually felt
good to brush him off; it felt good to see the disappointment on his face. He
had thought that I was some kind of fool who would just dance to his tune the
minute he paid me the least little bit of attention; it was almost like revenge
to disappoint him.
It made me feel stronger, and
it made me feel like somehow I’d gotten part of what I’d given him back.
He had made me feel unwanted—and now he knew exactly how that felt.
Two can play that game,
I thought,
glancing
around
me with a
little self-satisfied
smile on my lips.

My sense of triumph carried me through my economics class,
and I was still smiling about it when I left the building. It was too early to
go to lunch; the rest of my friends didn’t get out of class until one, and I
was less than pleased by the idea of sitting by myself in the dining hall. I
decided to head over to the student union lounge and see what was going on
there; I’d kill some time and meet up with the others, and maybe I’d tell Kelly
about my little victory later on. Now that I had decided not to become a hermit,
I wanted to find non-party things to do with my time to get me out of the
dorms.

There was an event hosted by the Arab Student Union:
Middle Eastern food and music, and I thought to myself that nothing could be
more perfect
as a way to kill some time. The
dining hall didn’t normally have very good lunch, so a snack would be nice. I
wandered around the tables, sampling different bites of food, looking at
pamphlets, and talking to people.

I had forgotten completely about Devon’s comment that
we would catch up later until he appeared at my elbow, right as I was looking
at the bulletin board. “Hey, Jenny,” he said, grinning at me in that
infuriating, flirtatious way. I gave him a quick, polite smile.

“Hi, Devon.” I moved to sit down at one of the tables,
taking a few steps away from him; but he didn’t take the hint. Instead, he
followed me, sitting down and holding my gaze for a moment.

“You can’t have anywhere you need to be if you’re
hanging out here,” he pointed out. I shrugged.

“I need to meet with my friends for lunch in a little
while.” Devon smiled at me, and something inside of me wanted to wipe the
self-satisfied little smirk off of his face.

“But you can talk now, right?” He asked, giving me a
little, hopeful look.

“I’d really rather just wander around,” I said, giving
him an
almost apologetic
smile.

“Then why’d you sit down?” Devon asked, gesturing to
the table.
So I could get away
from
you,
I wanted to say.

“My book bag’s kind of heavy,” I said instead. I couldn’t
bring myself to be quite as mean as I wanted to, not while Devon was looking at
me with his big, dark eyes.

“I offered to help you with it on your way to class,”
Devon pointed out, tilting his head slightly.

“You did,” I agreed, keeping my voice carefully level.
Suddenly the easy, charming grin left Devon’s face.

“Hey,” he said quietly. “I’m starting to think you’re
avoiding me, Jenny.”

“Please don’t call me that, I hate being called
Jenny.”

“Jenn. Are you?” I looked away.

“If you’re just after a pretty girl to talk to, there
are lots of them here,” I said.

“I want to talk to you, though,” Devon told me,
smiling again. “Besides, I can’t see any girl here who’s prettier than you
are.” I shrugged, swallowing past the tightness I felt in my throat.

“I need to go; my friends are probably waiting for
me.” I started to stand.

“Jenny—Jenn. Come on. Can’t you at least tell me what
I did?” I looked at him in shock—he didn’t know? But I realized that he hadn’t
actually seen me stumble across him kissing some other girl the day after he’d
taken my virginity. He had no clue that I knew exactly what kind of person he
was.

“I’d really rather—I’d rather you just left me alone,”
I said, picking up my backpack and turning away from him. I saw the look of
disappointment on his face
again
and
didn’t let myself look back as I walked away. It wasn’t worth encouraging him
to continue to see any more of it. In spite of the thrill of another triumph, I
had to admit to myself that I didn’t feel completely great about how sad he had
looked. I told myself that he’d deserved it.

Chapter
Five

I went through the rest of the day wishing that there
was someone I could talk to about what had happened; I felt like if I didn’t
tell someone about Devon and how I’d brushed him off, I’d explode. But no one
other than Kelly knew about the fact that I’d even slept with Devon, much less
that I’d caught him kissing some other girl the very next night. I fidgeted my
way through the rest of my classes, and by the late afternoon, I was up in my dorm,
pretending to watch TV and actually waiting for Kelly to get back from her
Existential Philosophy class so that I could tell her all about it.

While I was waiting for her, my mind alternated
between thoughts of triumph and satisfaction and feelings of guilt. Devon had
done me wrong; even if he didn’t think I knew about it, and even if he hadn’t
actually said he wanted to date
me
or be
exclusive with me, what kind of guy went around kissing girls the day after
being so sweet and kind, taking someone’s virginity? It had felt good to see
him realizing that I didn’t care about him—it had felt like the best possible
revenge.
But did he actually do you
wrong? You slept with someone on a
whim;
it wasn’t like he’d said anything like ‘I love you’ or anything like that.
I couldn’t believe that it had meant nothing to him—but I hadn’t done the due
diligence of actually figuring out how he felt about me before dressing him up
in my mind as my next boyfriend.

I wasn’t sure how I felt when Kelly finally came in,
throwing her book bag into the room. “How’d you get through the day?” she
asked, coming into the common area and throwing herself down onto the couch
next to me.

“Oh man,” I said, shaking my head. “You would not
believe what happened to me.”

“A cute millionaire asked you to fly away to Paris
with him?” I laughed.

“No. Devon Sealy transferred into my class.” Kelly’s
eyes
widened,
and she stared at me.

“No shit! So much for avoiding him, huh?” I nodded.

“But—you will be very, very proud of me.”

“You managed to ignore him?” Kelly asked hopefully.

“Better than that.” I grinned. I told her about Devon
trying to talk to me after class, and then again in the student union lounge.

“Oh my god, that’s awesome!” Kelly said, pumping her
fists in the air in a triumphant little pose. “Go Jenn!”

“It felt good,” I admitted. “To see him there, knowing
that I didn’t give a damn, that I wasn’t just going to fall into line and swoon
because he wanted to talk to me.” Kelly laughed.

“Oh god, I wish I could’ve seen it!” she shook her
head, grinning.

“I kind of feel bad about it a little
bit,
though, now that I think about it,” I
said, frowning a little. “I mean it wasn’t like he’d really done anything
wrong.” Kelly’s eyes
widened,
and she
stared at me in disbelief.

“He didn’t do anything wrong? He took your virginity
and then went right
to
the next girl!”

“But really, it wasn’t like he’d asked me out or
anything,” I pointed out. “It wasn’t like he made any kind of claim on me.”

“Still—do you think he’d admit that he’d been kissing
some girl? No. Even if he had asked you out, he’d probably still have just
picked up some other chick and not even seen the problem with it.” I shrugged.

“We don’t know what he would’ve
done
because it didn’t go down that way.” Kelly
rolled her eyes.

“Please. You know the stories. He gets girls to fight
over him—and if he could, he’d get you to do it too.” I shrugged again.

“Whatever. It felt good to get a little back of my own
on him. I can move on with my life.” Kelly looked at me for another long moment
before nodding.

“Yeah. There are plenty of cute guys on campus who
aren’t assholes like Devon.” We talked about the rest of our days for a while;
Kelly told me about one of the students in her Philosophy class falling asleep
during a discussion about Kierkegaard—and the professor’s revenge: dropping a
heavy book just a few feet away from the student’s head.

Somehow the conversation turned back onto Devon. “You
know,” Kelly said, giving me a sly grin. “Now that Devon’s sniffing—since I
mean, he’s after you—you could totally get back at him.” I frowned.

“What do you mean?” She shrugged.

“Make him totally humiliate himself. Tell him you
won’t talk to him unless he throws the next game.” I stared at her in shock.

“That—that could ruin him,” I said. “That’s—that’s
beyond revenge. That’s…” I shook my head.

“It doesn’t have to be that specifically,” Kelly said.
“You could like, make him declare his love for you in the student union, or
something like that.” I shrugged.

“Honestly, I’d rather just forget I ever met
him
and go our separate ways.” I sighed. “It’s
not worth it.” Kelly laughed.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Besides, you’d have to be
some kind of a
crazy
bitch to ruin some
guy’s life, right?” I snickered.