C5 Shanna

Shanna’s mouth dropped open like a gaffed fish.

I sat there, unsure what to do.

I knew I shouldn’t stay; I would totally be cock-blocking Shanna.

Plus, I was already having trouble fighting off bad, bad thoughts. Thoughts that would have given my long-distance boyfriend a heart attack.

But something inside me really wanted to stay around this sexy, mysterious stranger, if just for a few minutes longer.

However, I could already feel annoyance radiating from Shanna.

So could Derek.

He handled it like a pro.

“We can’t make her leave,” he said, turning to Shanna. “It’s, like, close to finals, isn’t it? What if she fails her exams because of us? You don’t want that on your conscience.”

He said it with the perfect mix of mocking (Awwww, poor little nerdling) and concern (We really can’t do that to her. Not cool).

“She’s not gonna fail her exams,” Shanna snapped.

Derek shrugged, not a care in the world. “We’ll have plenty of time. Don’t piss off your roommate.”

When he said ‘We’ll have plenty of time,’ Shanna both brightened and relaxed the slightest bit.

But she still muttered, “She’s not gonna fail her exams” petulantly under her breath.

He’d said something revealing: It’s, like, close to finals, right? Which meant he either wasn’t a student, or he was a frat boy awakening from a twelve-week bender.

And he didn’t look like a frat boy.

“You don’t go here?” I asked him.

“Nope.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m in a band.”

Of course you are.

Athens was famous for having been the birthplace of the B-52’s (who later fled to New York) and of R.E.M. (who stayed). Every half-assed musician who couldn’t afford a bus ticket to Los Angeles or NYC wanted to make their name completing the hat trick.

Despite his physical gorgeousness, my attraction started to wane. “Oh. That’s nice.”

Derek grinned wryly, and my heart skipped a beat.

Damn he had a sexy smile.

“I know, I know. Throw a stick in Athens, you’ll hit three musicians, right? Ten if it’s a Saturday night.”

Okay… so at least he’s a self-aware, self-deprecating, HUMBLE half-assed musician.

I tried to play it off. “I’m not really a music person, that’s all.”

“And what kind of a person are you, then?”

“UNH,” Shanna groaned. “Why are you asking about HER?”

“I thought I’d get to know your friend. Aren’t you guys good friends?”

Shanna bounded over to me and threw her arms around my neck. “The best,” she giggled, then whispered way too loudly, “Which is why you’re gonna leave, right? Shanna night, remember?”

I turned my head and looked at her only two inches away from my face. She smelled like a brewery – and a cheap one, at that. “You are so drunk.”

“Shitfaced.” The bad stage whisper started up again: “Pleeeaasssse? He’s soooo hot!”

He was, but it was dumb to announce it like that. The guy’s ego was probably already massive; now it had to be Godzilla-sized.

I looked over at Derek. I thought he would have been grinning himself silly seeing Shanna throw herself at him – but no.

He was staring at me. Not in a creepy way, but in a curious What are you going to do? kind of way.

I pictured him lying on Shanna’s bed, naked, with only a tiny bit of lamplight falling across his muscular, naked body…

I shivered.

Then I got a hold of myself.

I patted Shanna’s arm. “I’ll go.”

“Yaaaay!” Shanna squee-ed, releasing her beer-soaked hold on my neck.

“No,” Derek insisted, in a voice that would brook no dissent. “We’re not interrupting your studying. Studying’s important.”

Now it was embarrassingly obvious.

Derek wasn’t interested in sleeping with Shanna anymore.

He was interested in me.

Which alternately thrilled me and terrified me.

Maybe it terrified me because it thrilled me.