Chapter 7 - Waylon

I wasn’t paying attention to what my brother was saying to me as he slugged my arm and laughed. I usually didn’t pay attention to them normally. But now, especially with the beautiful girl who yelled at Zoey catching my attention, I couldn’t look away.

“Are you listening?” Whit asked as he took a meticulous bite of his food. He cut everything into even squares before he even thought about taking a bite.

It was painful to watch sometimes when it took him more time to cut his food than to eat it. But no one else seemed to notice this strange habit.

“Waylon,” Whit asked. “Did you hear what I said?” He popped another square of food into his mouth.

“No, sorry. What?” My eyes didn’t move from the back of that girl’s head.

“I said that we need to prep for the first-week party we throw every year.” He took another bite. “Next week, Friday is the day.”

I contained a groan. I hated the first-week party they threw. It was an all-out rager where multiple people last year needed medical attention. I wasn’t thinking about that party yet. I was still wrapping my mind around my overpacked schedule.

Zoey and Scarlett clapped in excitement.

“I’m thinking jungle juice is a necessity,” Wynn added. “Everyone needs to bring a beverage to add to the punch.”

“Last year it was so good.” Scarlett giggled. “And we have to play games.”

Their voices faded to the background as I watched the girl walk to clear her tray and then thank the person at the dish stand.

She wasn’t like my brothers and their girlfriends. She said please and thank you. And she stood up for her friends. The kind of person I could see myself with.

I followed them with my eyes, I heard them talking about shopping as they walked out of the dining hall. I couldn’t let her leave without knowing more about her.

“I have to go.” I darted up, emptied my tray, and followed the two girls out to an expensive car.

The orange-haired girl clapped her hands as she climbed into the passenger seat. Ombre hair started the car but had a look of concern on her face. What was she thinking? Why was she concerned?

I jogged to my old Toyota Camry. It was dark green and older than most of the vehicles in this lot. I didn’t care. It worked for the most part, and that was all that mattered.

I followed after them at a safe distance so that they wouldn’t notice me. I didn’t know what I was doing, but the urge to follow her was eating at me, and I couldn’t stop it.

They walked into the store chatting, the orange-haired girl was more excited than ombre. As soon as they grabbed their carts and walked further into the store, I followed after them.

My hands were in my pockets as I made my way through the store. Periodically, I looked at something that I had no interest in buying. I couldn’t just charge through the store until I found them. It would look suspicious.

The orange-haired girl was skipping down the aisle, pushing her cart, throwing random things into it without a second thought. Ombre followed after her. Every so often, she would look at an item, think about it, and then add it to her cart.

“Wakely, how does this look?” The orange-haired girl just gave me what I was hoping for. The ombre-haired girl’s name.

Her name was Wakely. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.

I ducked behind a clothes rack and I looked at…footie pajamas. Beggars can’t be choosers.

“I think my boyfriend is going to love it.” The orange-haired girl said as she tossed whatever she was looking at into her cart.

“Wait, you have a boyfriend?” Wakely asked her, mouth open, shock etched across her face.

“Oh yeah, didn’t I mention him before?” She waved her hand in front of her.

“No, you didn’t. Tell me about him.” Wakely followed after her friend.

The orange-haired girl chatted about her boyfriend. I wasn’t paying attention to what she was saying. It didn’t matter. I only wanted to hear what Wakely said.

“What about the whole Waylon Walker thing?”

I froze. My name on her lips sent a shock through my system and my dick grew impossibly hard. I stepped around a mother and her son, who was screaming at her to get him a toy.

“I’m only human. I can look, but I can’t touch.” The orange-haired girl said with a wink to my girl.

I shook my head. I never felt like that about anyone. No one ever tempted me, but this gorgeous girl with cut-off shorts on and a plaid shirt wrapped around her waist was everything that I had ever wanted.

They walked to the checkout counter. From where I stood, Wakely was facing away from me, but she took a couple of deep breaths as she handed her card over to the cashier.

My eyebrows furrowed as I stared at the woman. There was a look of shock, and then she said something that I couldn’t quite make out. The cashier beamed at her and excitedly swiped her card. She gave her a wave as she left.

I stood in line behind two other people who were behind Wakely and her friend. I watched as they exited through the door.  I wished I were closer, but I knew where they were going. I just needed to talk to the cashier.

I tapped my foot as the line slowly filtered through.

“Um…do you have something for me to scan?” The cashier asked me as I approached her. The moment she took my full form in, her cheeks became rosy. I knew I was hot to most people; that wasn’t vanity, it was the truth, and I could make anyone blush if I tried. But I didn’t care about that.

“No,” I said bluntly. “I had a question. The girl that you were talking to before. Do you know who that is?”

“Oh my god, yes.” She leaned forward and whispered. “That was Wakely Gilford.”

My eyebrows furrowed more. Where did I hear that name before?

“The big tech mogul’s daughter. She’s like this big who’s who that all young girls aspire to be.” She looked around and then leaned even closer. “She’s like this super genius, last year she went to this big tech university in Seoul. And she was the top of her class.”

I had her full name now. That was important. But there was one question that lingered. “Do you know why she chose to come to this university instead of the one in Seoul?”

“That’s the thing, no one really knows. Some rumors say she was pregnant and needed to come back here, but she doesn’t look pregnant to me. Then other people say that her dad, Barrett Gilford, is a control freak, there was a video of him freaking out on some of his employees.”

I didn’t know a lot about Barrett Gilford or his daughter. But the way she acted showed me that she was nowhere near as cruel as Zoey and Scarlett.

“Anyway, she’s this super cool girl who is inspiring young girls to get into engineering.” She shrugged and looked at me, then at the line of people behind me.

“Who are you talking about?” A woman asked as she leaned forward to hear the gossip.

I bit back a growl.

“Wakely Gilford.” The cashier said.

“I have to thank her, she is the one who inspired my daughter to get into computer science when before she wanted to be a teen mom.” The woman behind me said.

“So cool.” The cashier said.

I cleared my throat. “Thank you,” I said quickly as I bolted to my car.

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to catch up to them, but I knew what her parking spot was, and I was only down a few spots from where she would park.

The parking lot was dark, people were still unpacking their vehicles and getting settled into their dorms. I looked around for the girls, an orange head bobbed over the vehicles.

I ran as fast and as silently as I could. I wanted to know what they were saying. Their arms were filled with items that they bought. If she didn’t already hate me, I would offer to help Wakely with her things.

“When we get back and unpack, do you want to watch a movie?” The orange-haired girl asked. “I’ll order ice cream.” The girl seemed so eager as if she were starved for attention.

“Um, sure. That sounds good. But I’m for sure going to set up my room and take a shower. I’m disgusting from the day.” Wakely said as she adjusted the television in her hands.

I followed them through the quad and to Williams Hall. The very same dormitory that I was staying in. My heart soared. She was so close to me that it would make my job easier to get to know her.

She climbed flight after flight of stairs. Her fingers were turning white as she gripped the box and the bags. I fought the urge to catch up to her and help.

“Almost there, Wake!”

“Cora, where do you get the energy?” Wakely huffed and then laughed.

“It’s a thing called ADHD, gives me boundless energy, but zero focus.” She let out a laugh.

At least now I knew the other girl’s name. I probably should have known her; she had the same orange hair for the last two years, and I just never attempted to introduce myself.

Maybe I should have, then I could be friends with this Cora girl, and she could introduce me to Wakely officially. But everything was twenty-twenty hindsight.

She stopped on the third floor, the very same floor that I was on, just in the opposite direction that they were walking.

I didn’t like that. She was staying in the coed dorms where any guy could see her. She didn’t know it yet, but she was mine. And I had to make sure that no one else would touch her. No matter what.