The Bad Boy's Dirty Little Secret BL Chapter 17: Avoiding

Night’s P.O.V

“We need to finish up on the project together this time.” I reminded my two best friends as we sat on the front stairs of our faculty, discussing who was taking responsibility for which part of the project. “This isn’t like high school, so don’t even dare expect one of us to complete the job alone and then take credit for the rest!”

Trey immediately put his hands up in surrender, giving us a sheepish smile as he nodded in agreement. “I promise to do the best I can.”

That was more than what I had expected from him, however, when I turned to face Landon…it was to find him spacing out once again, just like he had been this entire week.

“Landon? Landon!” I snapped at him, startling him into snapping out of his trance.

“Huh?” He looked around at me and Trey like he was seeing us for the first time. “What did you just say?”

“Damnit, Landon!” Trey snapped in impatience. “You want us to go over the whole thing once again? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“S-sorry…” He lowered his head, letting his long hair cover most of his face.

“We just divided the work among the three of us.” I told Landon, seeing as to how he was not looking all that well. “How about we come over at your house this evening? We can all get some work done together?”

“Hey! Ask before you make plans, Night!” This time, Trey’s anger seemed to be directed towards me. “Tanya and I had been planning to go to that new Korea place that opened last month! I even asked my dad to help us get reservations! There’s no way I’m cancelling for some stupid project!”

Landon and I looked up at Trey sharply.

“New Korean place?”

“What about us?”

We said at the same time.

“Find your own dates!” Trey narrowed his eyes at us. “Maybe then we can go on a triple date?”

“Triple what?”

All three of us turned to look behind us at the new voice, only to find Devon looking at the three of us with open curiosity.

“Devon?” I frowned at Kai’s friend. “What are you doing here? Looking for someone?”

“Your friend, Tanya. Isn’t she here?” He looked around confused when he didn’t see her with us.

“No…she’s a Med student.” Trey answered, frowning at Devon for asking about his girlfriend. “Is there anything you need? I can tell my girlfriend for you.”

I turned my head the slightest to hide my smirk. Look at the little mouse claiming his territory.

And then my eyes landed on Landon…who suddenly appeared to have gone incredibly stiff and still, like he had just turned into a statue. His face, however, was bright red like he was embarrassed or something.

Strange…

“Here.” Devon said and I saw him hold out something to Trey. “Your girlfriend dropped her student ID card at the club after practice yesterday evening. The Women’s Boxing club President asked me to give this to her since I knew your group.”

“Shit!” Trey immediately snatched the card out of Devon’s hands. “Guys! I’m gonna go run and give this to her before class starts. In case she gets into any kind of trouble.”

As if! The only person likely to get into trouble was Trey himself, but he’d take any chance he could to get closer to his girl.

“Be careful.” I warned him as he got his stuff together and shoved everything into his backpack. “Don’t run into any kind of trouble yourself.”

But Trey was already running off in the direction of the Medical faculty, which just so happened to be on the other side of campus…and would probably take him over an hour to return from…if he didn’t decide to wait for his girl while she took her classes.

“He’s not coming back, is he?” I looked up to see Devon smirking at Trey.

“Nope.” I stood up from the stairs, dusting myself off as I looked up at the man towering over me. “Thanks for returning the ID though.”

“No problem.” Devon shrugged, looking from me to Landon. “You guys had lunch yet? Wanna hang out with us?”

That insistently made me weary.

“Nah, its fine.” I shook my head. “Landon and I were heading to the fried chicken shop outside campus today. I’m bored of the canteen food already. Right Landon?”

I looked at Landon sharply, hoping that the idiot didn’t screw this up and helped me out of this situation for once. Out of everyone in my group…Landon was often times the clueless one who needed a proper explanation for everything before it registered in his head what exactly was going on around him. In this, my mission was clear…avoiding Kai at all costs…like I had been doing for the last four days and he’d been doing the same with me.

“Oh, yes, yes!” Landon immediately jumped up from the stairs and was beside me in an instant, slinging his arm around my neck to pull me closer to his side. “And we have our project and stuff to discuss as well. I don’t think it’ll be convenient to have lunch together with your group.”

Wow…was everything alright with Landon? I’d never seen him jump onto my bandwagon so fast before…

“Ah…that’s a bummer.” Devon looked so genuinely disappointed that I almost felt sorry for him…almost. “I guess I’ll see you guys later then.”

“See you.” Landon waved him off and then he was dragging me to the side, as fast as he could, even before I could wave goodbye to Devon.

“What the hell?” I slapped his hand away from my neck once we were at a safe distance away from our building. “What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

“What? Me? Nothing!” Landon gave me an awkward smile. “Nothing at all.”

“That sounds even more suspicious.” I stopped to arrange my papers and place them inside my own backpack. “You’ve been weird all week, Lan. Almost like you’ve been avoiding something…or someone?”

Wouldn’t I know how that felt? Especially since I had been doing it myself for the past few days?

“Hell no!” Landon said instantly. “Why would I do that? Are you crazy?”

His words made me even more suspicious; however, I let it go for the moment.

Who was I to judge? I had bigger secrets than him…probably.

“So…what do you really want to do tonight?” I asked him finally, once we were finally seated at the said fried chicken diner and waiting for our lunch to arrive. “Since Trey is going out with Tanya…I don’t think we should start the project just yet. Or he’d just ditch us like he did last time and then beg us to put his name on the assignment regardless of the fact that he didn’t do anything!”

“At least then we still had Tanya helping us.” Landon gave a huge dramatic sigh. “Who would’ve thought she’d make the escape the first chance she got? She’s now studying to become a doctor!”

“She’ smarter than the rest of us.” I shrugged. “She was a straight A’s student and you still didn’t answer my question.”

“Let’s party then?” Landon shrugged. “But let’s not go back to the gay bar tonight?”

The speed at which he made that comment had me looking up at him with a frown once again. “Why?”

“Well…because…err…” Lan scratched the back of his head for a second before answering. “Well…you know…in case your ex decides to show up once again tonight.”

Even the thought of meeting that terrible man once again made a shiver of terror run down my spine…however, with that fear, came memories…memories of the time I had tasted Kai’s lips on mine…and then everything had gone south…

“Yeah.” I swallowed, reaching out to take a sip of my water.

“Shit!” Landon cursed when he saw my expression. “I’m sorry, man! I didn’t mean to bring back those memories.”

I was pretty sure both of us had very different memories in mind, but I didn’t correct him as the waitress brought out our food and placed it on the table…along with a piece of paper that she handed me with a wink.

I gave her a tight smile but didn’t accept the paper. But the woman didn’t give up either. She placed it in the basket of fries as she left, but not before placing a kiss to the paper, staining it with her ruby red lipstick.

I took the paper and placed it on the trey, so that her makeup didn’t get in our food.

“Oh…” Landon sighed. “It must be tiring to be so handsome and the center of attention all the time.”

“You want?” I pointed the paper at him, but he shook his head vigorously.

I shrugged and placed it to the side. Sis was barking up the wrong tree here.

“Let’s do it then.” I told him finally. “Let’s go to some fancy bar and get hammered! I haven’t gotten laid in a while.”

“Dang, you’re right!” Landon smirked. “I almost thought you were becoming a hermit! Let’s do it then!”

“Let’s.” I held up my coke glass to him, since it was only one thirty on a Friday afternoon and we would be hitting the club only at night.

“Cheers.” Landon clinked his glass to mine, his smile still in place.

I was glad my friend was having fun and almost back to his usual self. I missed that about him this past week…but most of all, I missed myself, the old me who loved to hook up and loved to have sex because it made me feel wanted in a way I never did before.

Unknowingly…I had started to change the moment I had laid eyes on Kai Hunter, through that tiny slit in the stall door as our eyes had locked in the bathroom mirror.

I hadn't been with anyone in two weeks and one kiss with him had me more worked up than my fucked up relationship with my ex…

I had to pull myself together…I had to get back on my feet and become the person I was, always had been…

I was Night Winters. And I never settled for one. Never…

But even as I thought that…the only image I saw as I closed my eyes…was that of a boy with midnight black hair and blue eyes…a face that was now permanently etched into my consciousness.