The Broken Hearts' Society of Suite 17C

by LeighAnn Kopans

  Arielle finally made it to Harrison, wrenched open the heavy glass door, and ducked into the elevator to take her to floor 17. She let her forehead fall against its wall with the heavy jerk of the floor upward. She was definitely in trouble, because she’d definitely broken that promise.

  And right at this moment, she definitely didn’t care.

  Rion

  It was too goddamn fucking early to be awake. Rion cursed herself and her pounding head for agreeing to be at the Student Health Center at 10:30 in the morning just to be there when Crash pissed in a cup.

  Now that the possibility that Crash really was clean was in her head, she couldn’t think of anything else. Because if he was clean, she’d have to date him—she’d promised. And if she went out with him, she seriously doubted she could keep from kissing him. And if she did that…well, she was in a shit ton of trouble.

  Not to mention that Amy and Arielle were supposed to be here with her. And even though her voice had been grumpy when she told them they’d better not flake, the twisting in her stomach confirmed that she’d been dead serious.

  The irony of a girl who’d survived a group home, a drug bust, a night in prison, and a hearing before a judge needing her roommates to be with her when she met Crash again wasn’t lost on her. She was tough, but only when it came to closing herself off from other people. Anything remotely related to opening up to them? That was the real problem.

  Well, that and Crash had seemed pretty damn confident that he’d pass the drug test, and then she’d have to hold up her end of the bargain.

  She checked her phone and cursed herself again. How the hell was she five minutes early to an appointment she’d never wanted to keep anyway? Her stomach twisted further, then exploded into butterflies when she saw him walking up the hill.

  Brown corduroy pants, fitting exactly the same as his jeans—hugging his butt, sitting low enough to imagine his abs, but not low enough to see them underneath his soft cotton t-shirt. And, dear God, that leather jacket. Her hands twitched with the thought that she’d love to feel it. The tattoo peeking out from the collar of his shirt, the gently rising, sculpted cheekbone. His full lips and the glint of the ring that curved around the bottom one.

  As he got closer, he looked up, giving her a lazy smile that shot through her middle. The glint of that lip ring took away her purposeful thoughts of annoyance, and made her smile back at him. She’d been standing beside a bench, and took his arrival as an excuse to sit down, expecting him to stand and talk to her. But he made himself at home, scrunching in next to her. He was tall, and solid, but not too big to fit beside her. She liked that.

  She pulled back to look at him, against her better judgment. Jesus Christ, it was like a master marionette was handling her when she was around this guy, making her act like she was more attracted than she actually was. Or should be. Her eyes desperately searched for something out of place—bloodshot eyes, the smell of alcohol on his breath or pot on his jacket, the twitching fingers that were telltale signs of so many illicit activities. But there was nothing. Just Crash, serene as fuck, waiting to piss in a cup for the chance to date her.

  “Hey, sweet Rion,” he said, looking at her like it was only a matter of time before he’d be seeing her naked.

  Ah. There was the one thing that infuriated her about him, something for her to latch onto. His cockiness. “What did you call me?” she asked, injecting a growl into her words. “Am I like a fucking cupcake or something?”

  “Wow, you haven’t had your coffee yet, have you?” Arielle asked in a singsongy voice.

  Dammit. Rion had momentarily forgotten her roommates were meeting them here. She sighed. Introducing Crash to them felt like rolling out a welcome mat for him straight into her life.

  “Crash, this is the girls. Girls, Crash.”

  Arielle strolled up to the bench, with Amy at her elbow, holding out a steaming cup of dark roast coffee. She stood in front of Rion and bounced on her heels, smiling as she nodded to Rion to take it. Arielle rarely smiled, not in the six weeks that Rion had known her anyway. “What’s with you?” Rion asked, taking the coffee and holding it to her lips. It was too hot to drink just yet, but the cup felt good in her chilled fingers.

  “Something’s with her,” Amy said, her mouth twisting into a slightly put-out expression. “But she won’t tell me yet.”

  “I don’t know what it is yet!” Arielle protested as she elbowed Amy in the side and giggled. Christ on a fucking cracker, Arielle never giggled. “But it’s pretty good. Was. Good. I think. I mean…oh my God, Rion. This is about you.” Arielle slid her eyes to Crash and smiled again. “Hello.”

  Amy looked around awkwardly at the one or two students clutching coffee cups, heads down and backpacks heavy on their way to the first class of the day. “It’s not about me,” Rion growled. “It’s about Crash.”

  “Right,” Amy said slowly. “Hey, Crash.”

  “Nice to see you again,” Crash sat up from his reclined position, which Rion couldn’t help but notice pushed the barest outline of his dick into view against the crotch of his pants. He shook hands with Amy, then Arielle, turning his charming easy smile on them, too. “Nice to meet someone else named after a cartoon character.”

  “Vintage video games meets vintage Disney,” Arielle said, letting out a hearty laugh. This somehow pushed a flash of rage up through Rion’s chest, flushing her cheeks with heat.

  So what if he flashed a flirty smile at her roommates, made them laugh? Why did she even fucking care?

  Crash clapped his palms together, and rubbed them back and forth twice. “Okay, I have an appointment. C’mon, Ri.” He stood up, stretching his long legs even though he’d barely been down one or two minutes, and strode to the door, holding it open for Amy, and Arielle, who still had that fucking annoying silly grin on her face. Maybe Arielle was high. Maybe that bitch who’d broken up with her had finally really broken her.

  Rion didn’t have the time or energy to think about that now. She had a class to get to, and her favorite one, too—basic audio engineering. Getting this over with would free up more brain waves and let her focus in there.

  She rolled her eyes at Crash to make sure he knew how much his insistence on dating her was inconveniencing her life. He flashed her a teeth-baring smile, like her every annoyed expression would be so worth it when she finally had to break down and go out with him.

  Leave it to Rion to antagonize even the guy who wanted to go out with her.

  She sighed, and took a seat in the waiting room as Crash sauntered up to the desk and checked in. “Just a drug test, ma’am,” he said, loud enough for the whole waiting room to hear. Rion slid lower in her seat. At least it wasn’t as embarrassing as an STD test.

  “Is it for an employer?” the receptionist asked.

  Crash shot Rion a wink over his shoulder, fast and sly. “Not exactly,” he said with a smooth nonchalance.

  “So you’re paying for it.”

  Crash nodded and handed over a credit card.

  “Okay then. Fill this out and we’ll call you back when we’re ready for you.”

  Crash took a seat at the end of the row, right next to Arielle. Crash bent over the clipboard, scribbling his information into the blanks, and a thought flashed through Rion’s head. She leaned over to Amy and whispered, “Tell her to look at his name.” She looked confused for a second, but then pursed her lips into a little ‘o’ and nodded.

  She leaned toward Arielle and whispered in her ear the same way, but Arielle’s head was clearly somewhere else. She shook it and said, “Look at his what?”

  At that second, Crash clicked his pen shut, stood up, and returned the clipboard, grinning as he made his way back to his seat. “What do you want to know, Rion? I’m an open book. Ask me anything.”

  “Nothing,” Rion grumbled. “Whatever. Shut up.”

  He nodded seriously. “Great response. Nuanced. Definitive.”

  Rion glared and was about to tell him to shut up again
when a young nurse in blue scrubs walked out. “Williams?” And Crash nodded again, stood up again, and Rion watched his ass move against his corduroys again. She sighed. The beauty of that butt might make his cockiness bearable.

  “I’ll be right back,” he called over his shoulder.

  The minute he left the room, Arielle bolted upright and craned her neck around to look at Rion, who had slumped down in the chair and let her neck loll around on its back. “He is cute,” she hissed, looking at Rion like she’d lied to her about there being free ice cream or something.

  The mask she’d been trying to put on around Crash since the last time she’d seen him, since he’d touched her face so tenderly and nearly knocked her off her feet, fell away. Rion closed her eyes. “I know. Goddammit, I know. It’s awful. And I have to work with him.” She gripped the top of her coffee cup with one palm. She didn’t feel like drinking any of it, but knowing it was there was good.

  “I mean, I’m gayer than Christmas, and even I think he’s attractive,” Arielle said, nodding. “Like, there aren’t many guys on the planet I would make out with, but he’s one of them. If I was drunk.”

  “Girls,” Amy said, lowering her voice. “We’re at the health center.”

  The look on the receptionist’s face confirmed that lesbians drunk-kissing hot tattooed guys was not acceptable material for conversation in this particular waiting room.

  “And,” Arielle continued, “He seems kind of nice. He’s funny.”

  “He’s cocky. It’s like oozing out of him.”

  “That’s what she said,” Arielle said under her breath, and Rion couldn’t help but give her a chuckle at that one.

  “What?” Amy asked, looking to either side. “What’s the joke?”

  Rion took one look at Amy’s perplexed face and started full-on laughing. Soon, both she and Arielle were in the throes of belly-shaking laughter, with Amy sitting between them looking a little pissed off.

  Then, the door swung open, and Crash came out just ahead of a preppy-looking lab tech in form-fitting scrubs. “Thank you,” he murmured back towards her, and the tech giggled in response. Jesus fucking Christ. Was this guy releasing pheromones into the air around him that obliterated college girls’ willpower?

  Crash walked over to Rion with the tech at her side. She had a clipboard with a form and some scribbling on it. “Well?” Rion said, standing up to meet his eyes. He had to have smoked something in the last couple weeks. Something that would at least register on the positive end of the instant test, and require further testing.

  The tech looked up at Crash. “According to HIPAA, I can’t say anything unless…”

  “It’s fine,” Crash waved his hand. “I want her to hear.”

  “Okay…Um, well, everything came up clean. No drugs in your system, nothing to worry about.”

  Rion waited for the sinking feeling of defeat to take over, but instead, the butterflies returned. She’d promised to go out with Crash if he was clean, and she’d known the whole time that deep down she really wanted him to be. She just didn’t actually think it would happen.

  “Thank you so much, Merilee,” Crash said, shaking the girl’s hand and leaving her with a starry look in her eyes.

  “Well, that settles that,” Arielle said, shouldering her messenger bag and tugging at Amy’s arm. “We’re going to be late for bio if we don’t get moving, Ames.” Arielle grabbed Amy’s arm and spun away, giving Rion the most obvious wink of the century.

  Rion was caught, and she knew it. “Thanks, guys. See you tonight.”

  “Yes! Tonight! There’s a Doctor Who marathon on. I’ll buy the munchies if you watch with me, Rion,” Arielle chattered, never losing the loopy grin on her face. Rion gave Amy one last “What the hell is going on with her?” look, and shook her head when Amy shrugged.

  “Nice girls,” Crash said as he waved to the receptionist on the way out.

  “Surprisingly, yes,” Rion said. She did appreciate her roommates, the way they put up with her swearing and her dark moods, which, she was well aware, greatly outnumbered the lighter ones.

  “What do you mean by that? What’s surprising about your roommates at Indiana Northern, the nicest school in the Midwest, being…nice?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Rion shrugged.

  “You do know,” Crash said, nudging his shoulder into hers, which made her stomach go fluttery again. “You try to deflect, you try to end conversations by acting like you don’t know or you don’t care. But you know exactly what you were talking about.”

  Rion cursed herself for having left her coffee cup on the table on the waiting room’s side table in the midst of all the activity. She could really use it to warm her hands now, or throw it in Crash’s full-of-himself, fucking beautiful face. She looked up into his eyes and, yep. Confirmed. He was an incredibly gorgeous specimen of a man.

  Dammit.

  She sighed. “I’ve never met a rich girl, or a girl from a small town high school, that I liked. I’ve never met someone who had a totally easy life that I actually got along with.”

  “Until now,” Crash said, watching her.

  “Yeah,” Rion said, staring at the ground. “That’s all I meant.”

  “So, what now?” Crash asked.

  “What do you mean, what now? I’ll go out with you, just like I promised I would.”

  Crash laughed. He turned and gave her a weird little bow as they walked. “Yes, I understand that. And I appreciate it. So what would you like to do?” He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around casually, like she was supposed to hand him a fucking itinerary or something.

  “I don’t know…I figured we’d…go out? Sometime?” Rion raked her eyes down over him. She hoped it was somewhere public, or she might not be able to resist touching him for another minute.

  “So let me get this straight. You made me take a drug test, and now you want me to plan a date, too?”

  “I mean…I guess you don’t have to plan it. I don’t really…know much about dates.”

  “How in the world is that possible?” Crash asked, turning to walk away from the health center, down the path that led straight through the quad. Thank God. In a second, they’d be engulfed in a sea of people.

  “I just…don’t go on dates?”

  “Nope. I won’t believe that for a second. That is, pardon my language, fucking impossible.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rion said with a slight edge to her voice. The guys at her high school had been crass degenerate assholes, and the ones at the group home had been the same, with the addition of being high, drunk, or violent half the time. Tate Sullivan had been the most worthy guy there, and even he turned out to be a force of ruin in her life. The most romantic thing the guys Rion had known did was remember the condom. “Kids don’t exactly date where I come from.”

  “Which is…where?”

  “Northwest Indiana. Close enough to Chicago that the City gangs spill across state lines, spreading through the Section 8 housing. And in group homes.”

  “You were in a group home? Can I hear more about that?”

  Rion’s heart stopped and sunk to her stomach. “Maybe. Sometime.” Crash had just proven he was clean—a Good Kid. It was Rion’s turn to wonder whether she was good enough for him. Maybe she’d been wondering that all along. “It was a foster home, not a juvie home,” she hurried to explain. A ball of anxiety twisted itself into being. Was leaving out the fact that she’d been arrested and sentenced lying?

  “Well, whatever you’ve been through, and whatever kinds of guys you’ve met, I can’t believe you’ve never been taken on a date. A beautiful, interesting, mysterious girl like you, and nobody ever gave you the kind of attention you deserved.”

  Rion bristled. “How do you know I want that kind of attention?” One of the reasons she’d never fit in with the group home kids was that she wanted to be by herself, lost in her music. She couldn’t help it that Tate had been so charming and hot, and she�
�d just wanted someone to hold her, and the way he’d touched her had made her feel important, valuable. It wasn’t her fault that one thing had led to another, and then suddenly they were a couple. She couldn’t help it that she’d just needed to feel wanted by somebody.

  And look where that had left her.

  “Okay. So you’ve never been taken on a date, but you’ve never really wanted to be on a traditional one either. I guess a nice dinner and a movie are probably too cliché for you?”

  Rion smiled. “Not the number one way I’d want to be spending my time, no.”

  “Well, since you’re obviously waiting for me to figure out a solution to this little conundrum, I have a suggestion. You’re hungry, right?”

  At that second, Rion’s stomach grumbled. “How did you…?”

  He shrugged. “I figured you didn’t roll out of bed until right before I was supposed to meet you. Right?”

  “No. I rolled out of bed right before my class. This is just a stop on the way,” she said.

  He clapped his hands together and blew into them. “ When does your class start?.”

  Rion pulled out her phone, glanced at the time, and raised her eyebrows. “I still have 45 minutes to get there.” Dammit. She needed to learn to think before speaking, especially in front of hot guys that threatened to confuse her thoughts as it was.

  “Perfect. You’re going to call me a god after this.”

  Rion laughed shortly. “Don’t count on it, buddy.”

  “Buddy? Did you seriously just call me Buddy?”

  “Did you seriously just tell me I was going to end up worshiping you after whatever you have planned?”

  “Well,” Crash said, turning his ice blue eyes on her and flicking an eyebrow up. “Maybe not after breakfast.”

  A shiver ran down through her body as a half-second image of what might make her worship him flashed through her mind. Rion may have been stand-offish, she might have been a loner with a mile-high wall around her heart, but she was a still a red-blooded eighteen year old girl. And it had been way too long since she’d properly gotten off.