A
willowy girl emerged with her umber hair pulled into a loose ponytail hanging
across one shoulder. Her cheeks were a
pink that deepened as her eyes widened upon seeing him standing there. She almost looked scared. The fact that he was easily a foot taller
than she was probably didn’t help. He
wondered if he should introduce himself but wasn’t used to girls looking like
they would rather run in the opposite direction.
“Sam!” Lena rushed to hook through her roommate’s
arm with one hand while introducing the pair of men with the other. “This is Stefan and Luca. I told you all about them on the phone.”
“Right.” Her voice was soft and trembled with nerves,
but she held out one of her dainty hands in Stefan’s direction. “You’re her brother.”
Touching
her felt warm and easy, and he wanted to feel her hand against more than just
his palm. “And you’re Sam, her
not-a-sorority-girl roommate.”
He
couldn’t help being a jerk, could he?
Why the fuck did he say it like that?
Stefan tried to think of something that might make her laugh to follow
up with, but Sam’s gaze told him that he didn’t need to. The nerves and softness had transformed into annoyed
amusement. Her voice was stronger,
tinged with irritation. “That’s me.” She nodded.
“You’re some sort of fraternity officer, right? In charge of what? Teaching boys how to pretend to be men or
something like that?”
Luca
laughed under his breath, and Sam took her penetrating eyes off Stefan,
removing the hand he still held to offer it to the other man. “And you’re the best friend.”
“Luca
Aldea,” he admitted. “Nice to finally
put a face to the name. Lena’s talked
nonstop about you since you guys were assigned.”
“Don’t
make me sound lame!” Lena admonished.
“Not all of us met our bestie when we were in diapers.” She gave a pull to Sam and walked the pair
through the gate of men for the door.
“Ignore Stefan. He’s used to
every girl he meets falling in love with him and doesn’t know how to not be a
jerk. Oh,” she added, pointing at the
Challenger that was parked in an RA space near the building. “He’s blind, too. He parks that thing wherever he wants.”
Sam
looked over at him with raised eyebrows.
“A Hellcat Redeye? In New York
City?”
“The
best part of the City is leaving it,” he replied, impressed that she could
identify the car faster than most men he knew.
“What
do you get? Sixteen? Fifteen, in this traffic?” She walked around the racer slowly, admiring
its sleek finish.
“Not
even. I’ve hit eighteen on the highway,
but rarely.” Stefan tapped the
hood. “This baby breaks a hundred
without a sweat.”
“Translation?”
Lena’s stage whisper purposely carried as she leaned against Luca’s
shoulder. “What the hell are they
talking about?”
When
Sam laughed, it reminded Stefan of the bells that lined the decorated streets
around Christmas. “This car drinks gas
like it’s free. Your brother seems to
think his ability to speed is a worthy reason for destroying the environment.”
“And
here I thought you actually liked cars,” Stefan said dismissively as he opened
the door and moved the seat so that the girls could sit in the back, “not that
you were one of those tree hugging, eco-terrorists.”
“I
do like cars,” she said matter-of-factly.
“I just like the earth more. And
I’m not,” Sam smarted as she strolled by him for the back, “a terrorist. People can be both responsible and fun.”
“Doubtful.” Stefan looked up after he watched her bend
over and crawl into the backseat to notice Luca and Lena eyeing him with amusement. “What the fuck are the two of you staring
at?”
Lena
giggled, slipping next to Sam when Luca mimicked Stefan on the passenger side while
grinning and shaking his head. “I don’t
think you mentioned liking cars,” Lena remarked as the girls clicked their
seatbelts.
“My
grandfather was a mechanic. He loved
anything that moved. I guess it
stuck.” Sam met eyes with Stefan through
the rearview mirror and shrugged. “Sort
of like a Redeye in a city with traffic twenty-four hours a day.”
Luca
chuckled quietly while Stefan bit the inside of his cheek to debate a response
that would both piss her off and inspire her to keep fucking with him. “See, now I thought stuck would be what
happens when a girl like you tries to drive a stick.”
“Anytime,
anywhere,” she mouthed back. “Seeing as
this bad boy is a sequential, though, I’d be able to put it down regardless.”
Before
he could answer with a reply about what she could do with his stick, his sister
groaned loudly. “Enough car talk! Sequential whatever. Save it for the restaurant.” Lena turned so that she could face Sam for
the remainder of the short drive, and they began to discuss their
schedules. Although he periodically
glanced at them in the mirror, Stefan didn’t interrupt. Instead, when the pinched smile on Luca’s
face appeared in his peripheral vision, he asked in Romanian, “What are you
smiling about?”
“Apparently
there is a girl on this planet who doesn’t fall all over you.”
Stefan
cleared his throat with annoyance before saying, “Fuck you.”
“And
it pisses you off.” Luca nodded, clearly
entertained. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Nothing
about some girl I don’t even know pisses me off. I could care less who Lena rooms with or what
Pearl River back there thinks of me.”
“Hey,”
Lena piped. “I may not be able to
understand because you talk too fast, but I still know when you’re talking
about me.”
Turning
down an alley to park behind the restaurant, Stefan confirmed, “That’s
right. We spent the afternoon moving
your shit into your dorm and listening to you go on and on so we could take you
to dinner and talk about you behind your back.
Life’s all about you, prinţesă.”
He got out of the car and moved his seat forward so that Sam could exit,
murmuring, “Wow,” with a wink. “Not even
here an hour, and I’ve already got you in my backseat.”
Sam
ground her teeth together before saying mischievously, “You’re a little young
to be overcompensating. You know what
they say about guys who drive amped-up muscle cars.”
“No
more car talk,” Lena stipulated. “You
two have got to have more in common than engines and transmissions.”
I wouldn’t be so sure,
Stefan thought as he fell in step behind his sister and her newfound
friend. When Luca looked at him with his
bullshit knowing gaze, Stefan rolled his eyes.
He didn’t care about Sam’s opinion of him in the least, but he sure as
hell wasn’t letting some freshman from the wrong side of the tracks take him to
task. Stefan could shit talk with the
best of them. Sam was a novice in his
world, and he would beat her just to prove a point. It might take him a little time to work out
her triggers, but he had a semester or two to learn her secrets.
