Playing For Keeps Read Online Free PDF Page A

her face in mine and chirping, “Rise and shine, Buttercake!”
    I blinked at the morning light streaming through our window. “Buttercake?”
    “Sugar Muffin?” she volleyed.
    “How about nothing food related. Or, even better, how about no nicknames and definitely no waking me up before I’m ready.” I rolled over so I was facing the wall, but Diya yanked the covers off my body. I moaned.
    “Blame my parents for raising me in a restaurant for the food names.”
    “Who do I blame for the wake-up call?”
    “Yourself,” she said, simply. “Remember before you left last night?” She cleared her throat, lowering her voice as though I had some kind of deep, man’s timbre. “ Do not let me miss my classes, Diya. This year is important! ”
    I grabbed a pillow and tossed it at her head. She laughed.
    “You’re right. I’m up.” I pushed myself into a sitting position and rubbed my eyes. “What time is it, anyway?”
    Diya ducked out of our room, but her voice trailed back to me. “Seven. Enough time for a healthy breakfast.”
    “Bitch!” I hollered after her. My first class didn’t start until nine. I flung my body back on my mattress as her laughter reached me from down the hall. Then I lazed in bed, a little smile playing over my lips.
    “Well, Kevin,” I said to the ceiling, recounting the way he touched me, filled me, pleasured me. “Will you actually call or will you leave me hanging?”
    I doubted I would hear from him again. That was okay, really. We both got out of last night what we wanted. I reached for my guitar, propped against the side of my bed, and strummed a few notes. “ His name was Keeeevin…I met him at twelve eleeeeven…he fucked my brains out…raised his hotness clout…”
    I laughed again and dropped the guitar. It was probably a good thing I wasn’t writing any more music.
     
    *
     
    Bea met up with me for lunch. We unpacked our canvas bags on a sunny spot of grass, watching students go buy.
    “How’s sorority life?” she asked.
    I squinted at some spot in the distance. Bea and I had been friends since freshman year. We met during Rush Week, when we were both rushing for Delta Gamma, but a few weeks in, she decided the sorority life wasn’t for her. Too much to do, too many people around all the time, too expensive. I, on the other hand, loved my sorority life. My social calendar was full, my motivated personality thrived on the various responsibilities, and there was always a friend around to laugh with, cry with, or watch movies late into the night with. And when it all became a little much, I closed my door and buried myself in my books.
    “It’s good. Diya woke me up at 7 this morning.”
    “Harsh.”
    “I kind of asked her to. She made me breakfast, though. It was good.”
    “Worth waking up early for?”
    I took a bite of my apple and chewed. “Yeah. You’ve had her cooking. You know.”
    Bea unwrapped her sandwich. “I do know. Her cooking is one of the few things that makes me wish I’d not given up on Delta Gamma.”
    “I wish you hadn’t. You, me, Kaitlin causing all kinds of mayhem.”
    Bea laughed. “There is no way Kaitlin would have even started rushing. You know her.”
    “Yeah.” Bea and I had met Kaitlin at a music school open house, freshman year. I’d wanted to see if a music minor was for right for me and dragged Bea with me. Kaitlin had been alone. The three of us got matched with the same guide and each fell to the back of the group, where we proceeded to snark about a million random things, including the music school guide’s paisley bow tie. Bea and I giggled, but Kaitlin was…intense. Very serious about her music. She’d snorted when I told her Bea and I had met while rushing, but then her eyes lit up when we mentioned we wanted to start a band. I’ve always wanted to be in a band , she’d said, in a small voice. It was one of those moments of fate, when you find just the right friends at just the right time. Kaitlin had