Moving in Reverse by Katy Atlas Read Free Book Online Page B

“Maybe
Homecoming. I think you can preserve some dignity if you wait till
then.”
    “ Yeah, but I refuse to
watch Ivy League football teams on principle. My grandfather was a
quarterback for LSU. He’d roll over in his grave.”
    “ Fortunately for you, no
one bothers to go into the games, right? Just the
tailgates?”
    I stopped at a crosswalk to wait for
the light to change, bouncing up and down to keep warm. Jeff put
his arm around me, rubbing my shoulders.
    I froze, still on my tiptoes, and felt
my stomach contract.
    “ I, um—” I fumbled
awkwardly. “I have a boyfriend.”
    Jeff looked down at me, a small smile
forming on his face.
    “ I mean,” I tried to
backtrack. “I don’t want to presume, but um, in case you were...” I
let the sentence trail off, not quite sure how to finish it now
that it was out of my mouth.
    Fortunately for me, Jeff laughed. “No
worries, Casey Snow,” he said. “I think everyone on campus knows
that you have a boyfriend.”
    I smiled sheepishly.
    “ But hey,” Jeff gave me a
sideways grin. “If he doesn’t treat you right, you give me a call,
okay?”
    I rolled my eyes, smiling. Maybe frat
guys weren’t quite the stereotype I’d expected.
    “ This is me,” I said,
gesturing to the right, where the path to my dorm separated from
the sidewalk. “Thanks for getting me home.”
    “ Night,” Jeff kept
walking, and then a second later, turned back around. “You really
should join Kappa, you know. You’d fit right in.”
    “ Thanks,” I said, not sure
why anyone would think that, but figuring it was probably some sort
of a compliment. Turning, I jogged the rest of the way to the door
of the dorm.
     

Chapter Eight
     
    The lights were off in the room when I
got inside, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I turned them
on. Darby groaned from underneath her blanket and looked up at me,
squinting.
    “ Liiiiights,” she moaned,
burying her face in her pillow.
    “ Sorry,” I mumbled,
crossing the room to sit on her bed.
    “ I looked for you at the
party,” I whispered, wanting her to know I’d gotten there, at
least.
    “ Oh my god, Casey,” she
groaned. “Please, just go to bed. If you turn on that light again,
I’m seriously going to puke.”
    I sighed. We’d talk in the morning, I
guess.
    “ Ok,” I whispered. “Sweet
dreams.”
    Without turning on the light, I felt
my way across the room to my bed. I pulled out my cell phone to
check the time — it was just past midnight.
    I kicked off my shoes and lay down in
the bed, staring up at the ceiling in the darkness. We were on the
sixth floor, and I could just barely hear the traffic in the street
below us.
    I wasn’t even slightly
tired.
    Before I could stop myself, I sat up
in bed and reached for my bag, a warm feeling spreading through my
body as I pulled my boots back on and stood up. Now that I knew
Darby was fine, I figured my roommate duties were satisfied for the
night.
     
     
    Ethan, Blake’s roommate, answered the
door when I knocked on it about twenty minutes later. Blake usually
stayed up pretty late, since most of his friends and family were
still on the West Coast, but apparently Ethan had put him
completely to shame. If he didn’t have class in the morning, Blake
told me that sometimes Ethan wouldn’t go to bed until the sun was
coming up.
    “ Hey Casey,” he said
quietly, and opened the door for me to come in. Ethan was a little
weird, but as roommates go, it probably wasn’t any more of a
mismatch than me and Darby.
    Sure enough, when I walked inside I
could see his computer screen blinking with graphics and dialog
boxes.
    “ Case,” Blake’s voice
sounded like he’d just fallen asleep.
    Ethan went back to his computer and
put on headphones — a college-roommate attempt at giving us some
privacy, I guessed.
    I walked over to where Blake was
sitting up in bed, feeling my heart flutter the way it always did
when he was nearby.
    “ Hey,” I whispered,
sitting down next to