Page 32 of The Switched-Up Playbook
“Yeah, duh, they’re great! Aren’t you? Yes, you are.” He continues to rub the little thing behind its ears, smiling like a sap, and my stomach does a stupid little flip.
“So you know the guy?” I ask to distract myself from the odd feeling. When Nate tilts his head, I toss my chin over my shoulder to indicate the way back to the shelter, where the blond is probably still laughing about his prank on me.
“Oh, you mean Linden? Yeah, of course.”
I raise a brow and wait for him to elaborate.
“He uh...went out with Nicko once. And they live together.” Nate shrugs.
“Really? Someone went out with yourbrother?Voluntarily?” I snort and try to picture the two together. The blond at the shelter seemed much too sweet and meek for someone like Nate’s bad-tempered twin. I guess if he’s into that, then all the power to him.
But “once” speaks for itself.
“Hey!” Nate growls at me, and I raise my hands, though I have to bite down on my tongue to not laugh.
I had barely given Nicholas van der Hoff’s sexuality any thought since he exploded in our interview. Although apparently, he has gotten less private and hypocritical about it if he doesn’t worry over sending his brother pictures of his Grindr hook-ups. Pondering over it now holds me in place long enough for Nate to get several paces ahead.
“Uh, are you coming? We’ll be late for practice.”
“Yeah, yeah, be right there.”
“Sounds like you need some convincing! Last one back at the shelter has to do laundry this weekend!”
“What?!”
He’s already running by the time I come back to my senses.
Violet and Lila bark happily as their tiny legs fly along to keep pace. We both slow down when the dogs are falling back, but Nate still wins the race to the shelter. That challenging gleam is back in his eyes when he grins at me, holding the door open.
“Have fun doing laundry, Hart!”
“Cheat,” I grumble as I squeeze past him—and tell myself that my heart is only pounding because of our run.
Nicko, October 25th
You need to go to creative writing class today
Mr. Fiore is kinda strict about attendance
OH?! You know who could’ve attended his own classes if he hadn’t attagonized Kappa Nu?
Antagonized
Literally what I wrote
Sorry I wasn’t letting them spew shit about your roommate
Oh btw, you’re banned from Kappa Nu parties now
For the rest of your life
Devestating
DevAstating!
Kappa Nu might not have managed to kill my brother, but I definitely will by the end of this week. I truly don’t know what has gotten into my laid-back twin, but his course load is insane. After today’s morning run with the team, I have raced from one class to the next, all the while lugging my duffel bag around, since there won’t be enough time to return to the dorms before training. Last week, I got to skip a few of Nate’s classes in favor of catching up on my own course work, but this time I’m not so lucky.
The door is already closing when I slide into the room at the last second, my breath still coming out in rough wheezes from sprinting up all those ridiculous winding stairs. St. Bernard’s needs to work on their obsession with the wizardry vibes; it’s getting a bit embarrassing.
