College senior Jake Mallory cares more about his reputation as a former high school jock turned party animal than his grade point average. His time in class is spent counting down to the weekend, when he'll hit the gay club scene with his roommate Holly, who doubles as his designated driver. To celebrate being back at school after summer break, Jake parties so hard, he wakes up Sunday morning with blurred memories of the past two days. Worse than his hangover, though, is the fact that he can’t find his iPhone. Holly's best friend Evan Williams is a grade A nerd, complete with slicked-back hair and thick, dorky glasses. Jake can't stand Evan on principle, though it's obvious to anyone with half a brain that Evan has a major crush on Jake. No matter how mean Jake is to him, Evan just won't take a hint. He might even know something about the missing phone, but Jake won't give him the time of day to hear what he has to say. When Jake logs into the cloud online to access his homework, he finds photos uploaded from his phone that he doesn’t remember taking over the weekend. In them is a hot, sexy guy he hooked up with in the back seat of Holly’s car. Soon he realizes the guy must have his phone, and has begun taking explicit photos with it as if to tease Jake. Holly knows who the guy is but she isn't telling, so Jake begs her to arrange a meeting. He wants his phone back, but more than that, he wants a chance to take things further with the hot stranger. She agrees to throw a house party and invite the guy over. At first, Jake is pissed when he doesn’t show up. Jake doesn't even know who he is. But as the night progresses, he gets his phone back ... and so much more.

Head in the Cloud

Though if Evan were willing to retrieve the aspirin for him, Jake wouldn’t have to do it himself.


“It fell under the bed,” he said, which was as far as he would go to asking Evan for help.


Holly sighed and shook her head, but Evan was already dashing up the stairs. “You’re an ass, you know that?” she asked, pouring herself a glass of juice.


“He offered.” Jake held out a hand for the carton. When she gave it to him, he drank straight from it, which earned him another sigh. “What?”


“Yeah, yeah, you love me anyway.” Jake didn’t drink all the juice—he wanted to save some to wash down the pills. While he waited for Evan to return, he asked, “So you don’t have my phone?”


Holly gave him an odd look. “Why would I?”


“I didn’t give it to you to hold for me or anything?” Jake persisted.


Suddenly Evan appeared in the doorway, brandishing the bottle of aspirin. “Here you go, Jake.”


Chapter 5