He Could See My Comments, I Used Them To Tease Him novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Sandwich Rule

A laundry room deal forbids typing in public, and Miranda breaks it three times in one day. Griffin proposes one true thing a day, with one guess.

I hid in the basement laundry room of Linden House, between a dryer and a box of lost socks.

It smelled like fabric softener and burnt popcorn.

Nobody finds you in a laundry room, and I had a plan to stay there until graduation.

The door opened ten minutes later.

"Your textbook," Griffin said, holding out my statistics book stiffly.

"I don't know you," I said.

"You said that already. In the library."

"It's still true."

He closed the door behind him and leaned on it.

"You called me three raccoons," he said.

"Please don't repeat it."

"The top one is nervous."

"I said don't."

He was trying very hard not to smile, and his thumb was dragging across his palm again.

A grey line drifted over his shoulder.

"[Griffin is trying not to smile. He's failing.]"

I pointed at it.

"See, that's the commentary track. It never helps."

"You think that's a commentary track."

"What else would it be?"

He opened his mouth and shut it again.

"Right," he said. "Sure."

I sat on the folding table and tried to look like a woman who had never typed the word forearms.

"Here's the thing," I said. "Everything I type is a lie."

"Everything."

"All of it. For the record, the jaw was a lie, the forearms were a lie, and the door thing was a lie."

"You typed that I held the door for forty people."

"You held it for thirty-one."

Griffin said nothing for a moment.

"You counted," he said.

"That was a lie too."

"You said you counted."

"I said it was a lie."

"So it's a lie that it's a lie."

"It's a lie that I'm going to keep having this conversation," I said.

I tapped my thigh, because I couldn't help it.

"Griffin is wrong about everything."

He read it and nodded slowly.

"Okay. That one's true."

"It's a lie."

"I'm keeping a list," he said.

"Don't keep a list."

"You've given me a lot of material."

I held up a finger and made my rule official.

"From now on, nothing true ever floats by itself. If I type one true thing, it gets two lies before it and two after."

"A sandwich."

"A sandwich."

"So one in every five is real."

"No. None of them are real."

"Then why do you need a rule?"

I thought about it for a while.

The dryer behind me finished its cycle with a loud click.

"Two terms," I said, finally. "I don't type around anyone else. You don't read me out loud. Ever."

"Deal."

He put his hand out, and I shook it, and it was warm and rough from rowing.

I let go first.

By dinner I had broken the deal three times.

The first time was the elevator in Pike Hall, which had four of us in it: me, two sophomores, and Griffin, who got on at the second floor.

Nobody spoke.

The elevator shuddered.

I tapped.

"This elevator is held together by hope and one paperclip."

Griffin examined the ceiling very closely, and pressed his lips together.

The second time was the dining hall line.

He was three people behind me, with the entire rowing team at his shoulder.

The chili was gray and steaming.

"The chili looks like a crime scene that moved on with its life."

I heard a small strangled noise behind me.

When I turned around, Griffin was holding a tray of salad with the face of a man at a funeral.

"You okay?" Beau asked him. "You look like you swallowed a fork."

"Allergies," Griffin said.

The third time was the campus bookstore, where I walked in on purpose, because I wanted to see how bad it could get.

He was in the register line, holding a case of protein bars and talking to the whole team about a race.

I tapped before I could stop myself.

"Beau is a golden retriever wearing a man's face and he knows it."

Griffin dropped the case.

Forty protein bars hit the floor.

Beau, a foot taller than anyone in the shop, looked down at the mess and then at me.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he said.

"I'm not," I said. "I have to go."

Griffin caught up with me in the snack aisle, between the ramen and the canned beans.

"Two terms," he said, a little out of breath. "We had two terms."

"There were no witnesses," I said.

"There were nine witnesses."

"They didn't see anything."

"They saw me drop forty protein bars."

I folded my arms and refused to look sorry.

"What do you want, Griffin?"

He looked at me for a long moment.

Then he said, quietly, "One true thing a day."

"What?"

"You type one true thing a day. Sandwich and everything. I get one guess which one it is."

"And if you guess right?"

"Then you lose," Griffin said.

"Lose what?"

He smiled, slowly, and for the first time I understood that the heartthrob of Carroway College was dangerous.

"I'll think of something," he said.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend