The Freshman Tease ✓

42. Push Back

Katie

With a lot of help from Lincoln and John supporting both my arms, I manage to get upstairs. Angela carries up my wheelchair behind us. "Thank you so much," I say gratefully, as I sit back down.

"No worries, just call for us if you need help getting downstairs later," John says, patting my shoulder.

Lincoln pushes me down the hall to his bedroom. I notice the door to the room across from his is ajar, it's Jasmine's room. I see her sitting on her bed, speaking on her phone.

"So this is your childhood room huh?" The walls are a pale periwinkle blue. The double bed frame is a deep wooden brown with a light grey comforter, the desk is pretty bare - just a couple stray pens and notebooks, the walls have a couple posters of cars and movie prints, and there is a large wooden bookcase with various books, pictures, and figures.

"Yup. Haven't lived here since I was seventeen, and it hasn't changed much." He sits down on his bed, and carefully maneuvers me out of the wheelchair and onto his lap.

I bury my face into his neck. "I'm nervous about meeting your family tonight, there's way more people coming than I expected," I grumble against his warm skin.

He laughs and strokes my hair. "It'll be fine, I promise." He pulls my face back and makes a trail of kisses from my forehead, to my nose, to my cheek, and to my lips. He holds me tight against him, I don't have the best balance with the clunky casts, and it'd be pretty bad if I fell.

His lips are soft and gentle. I reach around to hold his golden hair at the nape of his neck. I slightly open my mouth, letting him sneak his tongue in, he tastes like waffles and Lincoln. My stress melts away, and the only thing that matters to me right now is him. He moves his face lower and kisses my neck. I have to hold my hand tightly over my mouth to muffle any noises that might slip past my lips, definitely not something I'd want his sister or parents to hear.

When we pull apart, my hair is a mess, my lips are swollen, and my face feels flushed. He doesn't look much better. I laugh and use my thumb to wipe off the lipstick that smeared onto him. "I think we should freshen up in the bathroom," he says, carefully lifting me back into the wheelchair.

As he pushes me down the hall, we run into Jasmine who's heading back to her room. She looks at Lincoln, then me, probably judging how we look right now. She furrows her brows, looking extremely unimpressed. She doesn't say anything before walking around us and back to her room.

I want to die.

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On our way back to Lincoln's room, I notice the door to Jasmine's room is still ajar and she's sitting at her desk. "You go back first, I'm going to talk to her," I whisper. His eyes widen but he nods and leaves me in the hall.

I never thought in a million years I would willingly go talk to someone who looks like they want to bite my head off. I feel like prey walking into a predator's cave. I knock softly on her door. She looks up, slightly surprised, "Come in."

I struggle a bit but manage to climb out of the wheelchair, and do an awkward limping half walk half hop inside. I lean on the wall next to the door. "So uh...it's, it's not what you thin-"

She turns in her chair and raises her hand to stop me. "It's alright. You're two consenting adults, it's just not something I want to think about my brother doing, you know?" To my surprise, she laughs a bit. "Was there something you needed?"

I gulp, I don't want her to see my fear, but I think I'm doing a terrible job of hiding it anyways. I take a deep breath before speaking, "Do you not like me? I don't understand what I could've done to you, we just met."