Hooped #2 (The Hooped Interracial Romance Series #2) (5 page)

“It sounds like something one of those deranged
basketball bunnies would do.” Kelly laughed again.

“Yeah. There’s no point in doing it unless you’re
having fun, anyway. Probably better to just take the high road.” I
nodded,
and we went back to talking about our respective
days, the subject of Devon completely forgotten.

Later that night, I had come back to the dorms after
dinner and gotten a shower; I decided that I was just going to hole up in my
side of the dorm room for the night and get some reading done. It was boring, I
knew—and Kelly had tried to convince me to go to the coffee shop event that one
of the clubs was putting on, an open mic night with a mobile coffee vendor
serving lattes and cappuccinos. I had decided that I would rather get some
reading done in my English survey class than listen to a bunch of people who
thought they could play guitar better than they really could.

I curled up
in
my
bed
and opened up my book, letting my
skin finish drying in the cool air conditioning, and started to read. My phone
buzzed, announcing a text message, and for a moment I considered ignoring it.
It was probably Kelly texting to ask if I was sure I wanted to stay in, or
Alicia
sending me a video of one of the
performers making a fool out of himself or herself. But curiosity got the
better of me. Even if it was one of my friends—the only possibility I could
think of—it might be
something
.

Instead of a familiar contact name, though, there was
a strange number—someone I didn’t know. I frowned and unlocked my screen,
opening the message.
Hey, Jenn. It’s
Devon.
I frowned again. Devon? How had he gotten my number—and what the
hell was he doing texting me?
Won’t you
tell me why you’re avoiding me? I don’t know what I did, but I hope you’ll at
least give me a chance to find out. Talk to me, please?
 
I moved to respond to the text—and another one
came in.
I thought we had a great time
Friday night. I definitely had a great
time;
I can’t forget how good it was. I’d love to take you out.
I stared at my
phone in disbelief.

Did he want
to take me out? Kelly’s suggestion—that I could use Devon’s interest in me to
humiliate him, give him a taste of his own medicine—flitted through my mind.
But no; I had already decided to take the high road. I had already decided that
it wasn’t worth being a petty bitch. I was just going to move on with my life.
I bit my bottom lip.
It has nothing to do
with the other night,
I wrote back.
It’s
nothing like that. Anyway, I think we should just…move on. I don’t want to go
out with you.
I sent the message and put my phone aside, thinking that that
would settle it. But a moment later my phone buzzed again. I groaned; I didn’t
want to look at it, but I couldn’t make myself stop as I reached over and
unlocked my screen.

Why
not? And if I didn’t do anything Friday night, can’t you at least tell me what
I did do? Maybe I could fix it.
I gritted my teeth. He
didn’t know? Was he playing stupid—or was it just that he wasn’t aware that I’d
seen him? He had to be playing dumb, didn’t he? I pressed my lips together in a
frown.

If
you can’t figure out why, I’m not about to tell you,
I wrote back.
I don’t know how you got my
number, but you might as well go ahead and lose it. This is pointless.
I
hit send and put my phone on silent—so that even if he answered me, I wouldn’t
hear it, wouldn’t get pulled out of my focus. But in spite of telling myself
that he wasn’t going to be able to distract me anymore, I kept thinking about
the fact that Devon had gone beyond just trying to catch up with me somewhere;
he was actually putting an effort in. Where had he gotten my number? Who had
given it to him? I wasn’t sure whether I was more impressed or appalled at his
persistence.

Chapter
Six

The next day, I checked my phone and saw that Devon
had not messaged me back. I was
relieved, but
at the same time I was almost a little disappointed. Part of me was glad that
he seemed to have gotten the message, and I would be able to just move on with
my life, but another part of me was not quite ready for Devon to give up. I
didn’t mention anything about it to Kelly; in spite of the fact that she had
brushed her notion of getting revenge on Devon aside as a joke, I thought that
if I told her about it, she would possibly convince me to go through with it. I
wanted to get on with my life; I didn’t want to punish Devon, even if he had
hurt me.

I told myself that I’d just take Devon’s giving up as
a sign, and stop thinking about him altogether. But in spite of my resolution,
I found myself thinking about him again and again as I went to my classes. My
Tuesday class schedule was less intensive than Mondays, but even still I was
appalled at how steadily I thought about him. I just wanted to get my head out
of the whole situation. I wanted to be able to go back to the way that things
had been before I had even met Devon Sealy.

You
need to get off campus and do
something,
I thought as I wandered my way back to the dorms from my afternoon class. I
didn’t even want to hang out with my friends; I just wanted some time to think
of something—anything—other than Devon. I decided that I would go to a movie; I’d
pick something that was playing that was really absorbing, and for a few hours
at least I’d have my mind so occupied that everything else would fall away from
me.

I dropped off my book bag, grabbed my purse and keys,
and went back down to my car. I drove to the movie theater and looked at the
listings for a while, trying to decide what I wanted to see. There were a few
promising possibilities; I decided against a romance—that was the last thing I
wanted to be reminded of—and I thought that a drama might be too much of a
downer. I settled on a new superhero movie, bought my ticket and a frozen Coke,
and settled in to be distracted for a few hours.

I managed not to think about Devon through most of the
movie; apart from a few scenes where one of the characters reminded me of him,
I was able to focus on what was going on in the movie, instead of what was
going on in my life. But every time the character that looked like Devon came
onto the screen, I thought about him.
Am
I making a mistake? Should I at least hear him out?
No
—he’s just a player, like everyone says. It would be a waste of
time.

I walked out of the theater at the end of the movie,
smiling to myself. If nothing else I’d gotten a little break from my worries
and from thinking about Devon. The movie had been fun enough; I would go back
to campus, grab some dinner with my friends, and get down to studying for the
rest of the night.

As I headed out to my car, however, my pleased
thoughts were interrupted. “Hey, Jenn!” I nearly stumbled on the curb at the
familiar sound of Devon’s voice.
What the
hell?
I turned and saw Devon walking towards me, smiling the way he had
every time I had seen him.

“Are you stalking me?” I asked him, stopping where I
was to stare at him. Devon laughed, smiling ruefully.

“I wanted to talk to you,” he said. I crossed my arms
over my chest. Something about seeing the character in the movie that reminded
me of Devon made me feel strangely vulnerable.

“I told you,” I said, looking away from him. “You—you
might as well lose my number. I’m not interested.” Devon moved closer to me.

“Really, I just want to talk,” he said, reaching out
and touching my arm. “I don’t know what I did, Jenn. But I want to know.”

“Why don’t you just move on? I mean—there are plenty
of other girls.”

“But I like you,” Devon said, smiling at me with a
little flicker of charm in his eyes. “I had a really good time with you the
other night. I thought you had a good time too. I want to hang out with you
again. I just want to know…” Devon shrugged. “What did I do wrong? If it was
sleeping in…” he grinned.

“That—that wasn’t it,” I said, shaking my head. I
looked up and held his gaze for a long moment. “Look,” I told him, taking a
deep breath and exhaling
with
a sigh. “If
you really want to talk about what happened—and only that—then… I can give you
that.”

“Very fair of you,” Devon said, grinning a little bit.

“But only that. I don’t… I’m not ready to just hang
out. But it’s only fair to tell you.” Devon leaned in and kissed me on the
cheek; in spite of the fact that I was less than happy to see him, I didn’t
move away.

“Come to the game tomorrow,” Devon suggested. “We’ll
meet up right after, and get some ice cream, talk about what’s gotten you so
angry at me that I have to track you down to the movie theater to get you to
talk.” I smiled, almost unwillingly, but nodded.

“Okay. The game tomorrow night.” I felt my heart
beating a little faster; the last time I had tried to talk to him after the
game, I’d walked up on him kissing another girl. Devon gave me another kiss on
the cheek.

“I’ll catch you then. I’ll be looking for you, Jenny.”
I rolled my eyes.

“So you’re going to ruin a perfectly good opportunity
by calling me a name I told you I hate?” Devon’s lips twitched with a smile.

“Did it ruin it?” I felt my cheeks warming up.

“Go—before you do ruin it,” I told him, giving him a
little shove. Devon tousled my hair and moved off, giving me another flirty grin
as he made his way out to his car in the parking lot.

I
wondered
as I
walked out to my own car, just how long he’d been waiting. When had he figured
out where I’d gone—and how? I shook my head. I wasn’t sure how to feel about
the fact that Devon was being so persistent. In one way, it was incredibly
flattering; but it was also more than a little creepy.
I’ll just let him speak his piece, and find out what he has to say
about the whole thing. As if he has anything to say. But it’s only fair.
I
worried at my bottom lip as I climbed into my car. It was nice, at
least,
that I wouldn’t have to avoid the
basketball game.

By the time I had gotten back to the dorms, I had
decided that I wasn’t going to tell anyone about the meeting with Devon; not
even Kelly. I didn’t want any of my other friends to tease me about it—and I
was sure they would. And with Kelly, I didn’t want her to know I was meeting
with Devon; I thought that it would either end up with her telling me to use
the opportunity to get revenge on him, or with her telling me it was a big
mistake to even listen to him. I had to admit it felt like one of the worse
decisions I’d made in my
life, but
I
couldn’t help being curious as to what he would actually have to say for
himself.
We will see just how slick he
is. Or if he even cares.
He had seemed so incredibly sincere, and I thought
that if he was just interested in getting laid and going
to
the next girl, he was definitely taking a
lot of
troubles
; why would a guy who was
just interested in easy sex go so far as to track me down when I left campus?

The whole next day I was almost vibrating with the
secret I was keeping from my friends. I managed to make it through my classes
without getting incredibly distracted, but every time I met up with someone I
knew—Alicia, or Giselle, or even Kelly—the urge to tell someone what I had
planned leaped to the tip of my tongue. At dinner, when everyone was talking
about what their plans were for the night, Kelly tried to get me interested in
going to one of the club events: a movie night with popcorn and candy, arts and
crafts.

“I think I’m just going to hit the library and get
some extra studying done,” I said, shrugging.

“Dude, you’re going to burn out at the rate you’re
going. You need a night off sometimes!” I rolled my eyes.

“I took practically the whole weekend off. I didn’t do
any studying at all Friday or Saturday. I
gotta
keep
on point, don’t I?” Kelly gave me a look that was something like suspicion.

“There probably won’t be too many people at the event
anyway,” she said, relenting. “After all, half the school’s going to be at the
game.”

“All the more reason for me to take advantage of the
Library being quiet,” I said, giving her an innocent smile. Whatever she
suspected, she didn’t say anything.

I slipped out of the dorms with just enough time to
get to the arena before the game started, feeling both guilty and excited at
the same time. It was weird to have a secret from Kelly—but I didn’t want to
know what she thought about meeting with Devon.

I barely made it to the arena and then to my seat just
before the start of the game, my heart pounding. I thought about what Kelly
said—that half the student body would be there. I could only hope that no one I
knew would see me. I sat down just in time to watch the team run out onto the
court. Devon looked out over the audience as he made his way to warm up. I felt
and saw his gaze flick towards me—and he grinned. I laughed in spite of myself,
reacting to my nervousness and my giddiness alike.
It’s probably nothing,
I thought firmly.
Maybe he wasn’t even looking at you.