Payton
My pillow was wet and
stuck to my face. I inhaled, and my nose wrinkled as the stench of beer,
Kool-Aid, and—French fries?—stung my nostrils.
“Morning,
sunshine.” Jules handed me a red Gatorade and ruffled my hair. She was eating
curly fries and swiveled from side to side in my computer chair, the motion
making me seasick. She shoved a fry in my mouth. “It’s good for your hangover.
Eat up.”
I
peeled my cheek off the fabric, chewed the fry, and sat up. Immediately, I laid
back down and pulled the covers over my head, the material cold and damp
against my skin. What the hell? With a dull ache in my hip and my head
throbbing like it was having its own techno rave, it made it impossible to
recount the events of the frat party. Crap.
What did I do?
“This
is embarrassing, but what happened last night?” I pushed my comforter off and
took a swig of Gatorade to dilute the stale alcohol taste in my mouth. I didn’t
remember anything after seeing Blake at the party.
Crap, Blake. What
if he blew my cover?
“Let’s
see. You got insanely drunk and were carried home by a total hottie.”
Oh,
good. Andrew took me home. The night couldn’t have been that bad if he was
there to take care of me.
“What’d
you think of Andrew? So sweet, right?”
She
raised her brow and stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “I’m talking about that
guy with the cross tattoo on his smokin’ bicep.”
Shit. “Blake?” I squeaked and buried my head into my palms, pressing so hard
my headache was momentarily overridden by the black spots swarming across my
eyelids.
She
grabbed another curly fry and plopped it into her mouth. “Yeah, that’s it. Nice
guy. I’m not religious, but he can make me praise God any day of the week.”
I frowned
at the thought of Jules with Blake. He wasn’t religious, but his mom was a
devout Roman Catholic. Never missed a Mass in her life. He got that tattoo
after his mom died when he was sixteen—I would know; I went with him. Somehow,
he talked the guy into tattooing him, even though, technically, people had to
be eighteen in California to get ink. But that was Blake; he could talk someone
into doing just about anything.
Shifting
to get out of bed, I cringed as the fabric of my boxers pulled on my skin. I looked
down to see a reddish-brown stain on the side of my shorts. Blood.
“Why
the hell am I bleeding?” The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I
waited for her response.
Jules’s
smile turned into a Cheshire cat grin. Oh great.
“You
insisted on swinging around the light pole like a stripper and fell on your
ass. You even referred to yourself as ‘Wanda.’” She threw her head back and
cackled.
Oh. My. God.
Could
I seriously climb any higher on the embarrassment scale? Doubtful.
“Blake
was really sweet and carried you up to the room and tucked you in. He got you a
glass of water and everything.” I spotted the cup in the corner of my bed,
which explained the wet comforter and pillow mystery.
“You
kept saying how sorry you were. I don’t know what you had to be sorry about. I
mean, we just met the guy, but I told him that you’d make it up to him by
helping him out in medical ethics.”
He had
class with me? How had I not seen him in class on Friday? There were only forty
students since it was an upper-level class.
I
groaned and took another sip of Gatorade. “Oh, goody.”
This
was bad. So bad. Blake would want an explanation for going off the grid. I owed
him one, but I couldn’t even explain if I tried. Then again, he also had some
explaining to do.
How
was I going to face him? Or Andrew?
GIVEAWAY
Blitz-wide giveaway (INTL)
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Help celebrate the release of Jennifer Blackwood's UNETHICAL and Ophelia London's SOMEDAY MAYBE on Wednesday, October 22nd at 5:00 pm-8:00 p.m.
Special guest hosts include:
Lisa Burstein
Brenda St John Brown
Amy Jo Cousins
Angie Sandro
Jules Barnard
Stina Lindenblatt
Melissa West
Chanel Cleeton
Lia Riley
Megan Erickson...
A.J. Pine
Brooklyn Skye
Lex Martin
So please join us and enter to win some awesome prizes!
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AUTHOR BIO:
Jennifer Blackwood is an English teacher and New Adult author. She lives in Oregon with her husband, son, and poorly behaved black lab puppy. Her debut novel, UNETHICAL, comes out in October with Entangled Embrace.
