Chapter 1 #2
“Sully!” His familiar gruff voice makes me smile immediately. He’s my best friend—sweet, warm-hearted, and loyal to a fault. He never left my side until I recovered—physically. I can always count on him.
“Miss you, man. So looking forward to seeing you.”
“Isn’t California treating you right?” I tease him.
Last week, out of the blue, he told me that he’s transferring here next semester riding a football scholarship. Go Growling Bears! I don’t know what happened, but something must have if he left the college his father chose for him.
“You know me. I’m good anywhere I land.” He snorts. “I’ll come for the college tour next week. Let’s grab a bite to eat before I fly back.”
“You got it,” I say as I feel someone walking next to me. I look up, and I see a familiar face. He’s in my statistics class.
“Epic! I’ll send you the flight details. Call you later.” Brad hangs up as I halt my steps to see what the guy wants.
“Sally, right?”
“It’s Sully,” I correct him. He’s not taking the piss, pronouncing my name wrong, like most of my high school bullies did.
“Freaky.” His eyes flick between mine, and I know he’s talking about my irises. One brown, one light green. It’s called heterochromia, the difference in color, and it does weird some people out for some reason.
“I’m Jacob.”
“Can I help you with something, Jacob?” I ask, feeling suddenly on edge. He’s standing too close, not by society standards, but for me.
He smiles. “You don’t know who I am, do you?” He sounds a little incredulous.
“Should I?” I’m positive I’ve never talked to him before.
“I’m the captain of the soccer team.”
“Sorry, I’m more of a football fan.” Only because of Brad. I don’t actually watch it if he isn’t playing.
He makes a tsk sound. “Nobody’s perfect.” He smirks. “My friend is throwing a party this Friday, and I’d like for you to come.”
This conversation sounds surreal for some reason. “Why?”
His voice turns deep. “I’ve seen you in class. You’re cute and…smart. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while now.”
I feel warmth rushing to my neck and cheeks, and I push my glasses up on my nose to give myself a moment as I beg my frontal lobe to produce some kind of speech. “I-I…”
“You really are cute.” The guy’s hand brushes my shoulder as his eyes turn half-lidded.
He’s handsome. Blond, tall, brown eyes, and an athletic body. He also smells good, like soap and some kind of cologne. And he’s flirting with me. Not that this is the first time. It’s not. I get hit on, but as soon as they find out how awkward and clumsy I am, they veer another way.
When I still keep silent, he adds, “Give me your phone number. I bet I can convince you.” He takes the cell from my fingers without waiting for my permission and then calls his phone to save my number.
What the hell is happening? I don’t rub shoulders with the cool clique. I’m the nerd from the wrong side of town. Well, Brad is popular but I never got along with his other friends. He’s the exception in my dorky universe. Is the college hierarchy different from high school?
He hands me back my phone as I’m suddenly pulled backward from the strap of my bag. An arm lands on my shoulder, and when I twist my head, I see my face reflected in Ren’s mirrored sunglasses.
“Ren, the man! What’s up?” Jacob raises his arm in a frat-bro-like pose.
Ren begrudgingly bumps the guy’s waiting fist with his. “Fine.”
He doesn’t sound fine to me.
“You know Sully?” he asks Jacob, his arm tightening.
“Just invited him to Alex’s party on Friday. You coming?”
Ren nods as he looks around the quad for a moment.
He’s an addition to the brotherhood like me.
Rami, one of the brothers, got together with Hunter, who adopted Ren and his triplet brothers.
Ren is majoring in biology and animal science, as well, and we bonded over our love of the fauna.
I know he checks on me, but I actually enjoy spending time together, studying, and playing video games.
“All the girls will come flocking when they hear you’ll be there.” I could be mistaken, but Jacob sounds upset about it. He gives Ren a not-very-friendly punch to the shoulder.
Ren growls at him. His body tenses, and the carefree dude disappears to make room for a dark presence exuding threatening vibes Jacob’s way. I’ve never seen this side of him; it’s unsettling. I turn stiff. My fight or flight response kicks in, even though I know Ren’s anger is not aimed at me.
“I’ve been acquitted of assault, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t do it,” he states.
He was accused of assaulting someone? Was it the same person who wounded his eye? The sunglasses cover it, but I can see part of the long scar cutting through his eyebrow. He never takes them off, though.
I feel his body slowly losing the stiffness as Jacob takes a step back. He nervously wipes his hands on the front of his jeans. “Okay. Ehm, see you Friday. You too, Sully!” He hurries away.
“What was that all about?” I ask Ren as he pulls me in the opposite direction.
“Stay away from that fucker.”
That’s not what I meant. “You know him?”
“More than I would like. He has a bad reputation. Likes to fuck na?ve guys and then shares every little detail with his asshole friends.”
My cheeks turn to fire again, since in this scenario, I’m the na?ve guy. I snort, trying to cover my inexperience. “I heard you have a bad rep, too.”
“My hookups know the score. I like to have fun. That’s it. I don’t treat them like my one and only and then…” he cuts himself off.
I sigh. “I have no intention of going to the party.” Plus, he isn’t my type. Dark, dangerous, and imaginary is what I like.
“I can take you.”
“Like a date?” I joke.
“A date? Me?” The sarcasm is dripping from his words, and he adds a click of his tongue at the end.
I chuckle. “I could never picture you as the romantic type.” I tap my shoulder to his chest.
“No shit!”
“But maybe I do want to have fun.” Maybe I need it. With all those sexy dreams I’m having, is my subconscious hinting at letting go a little?
Ren turns his sunglasses my way as we continue walking.
We are the same height, but I feel like he’s looking down at me.
Then he gives me that tongue click again, and it sounds derisive this time.
I push his arm off my shoulder, but my petty retaliation is thwarted as I trip on my loose shoelaces.
He grabs my forearm before I smash my face to the ground.
Patting my shoulder, he says, “You should go for someone who takes care of you. Like your friend, sky-blue eyes, what’s-his-name.”
I frown. He seems to forget it every time. “Brad.” I talk about him constantly, and Ren even saw him once. I introduced them before Brad moved to California.
“Did you sleep with him?”
This again? “No! I told you already.” I stop on the curb, push up the messenger bag on my back, and crouch down to tie my shoe.
“Why do you keep asking me that?”
When I’m done, my phone beeps. Brad texted me his flight details.
“That’s why.” He points at my cell. “You are constantly talking to each other, and nothing happened?” Ren sounds incredulous.
“Don’t you have good friends?”
He doesn’t answer straight away. And I know why. He is charming with blond, shiny hair, confidence, and don’t-fuck-with-me vibes, but he’s also easy to approach and laid-back. I see how girls send appreciative looks his way everywhere we go. They must jump on him at every turn.
“I have you,” he finally states.
“That’s…” I can’t finish verbalizing my thought. The air is yanked out of my lungs as Ren shoves me back against a tree trunk. Hard. And then throws himself on me.
I hear tires screeching, a loud thud like metal hitting a hard surface, and then I see a black car moving at full speed away from the curb where we were standing a moment ago.
“Fuck! Did you see that?” I hear someone exclaiming as Ren pulls his body back to look at my face.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I wince. My mind goes back to the memory of the scaffolding and the man who saved me. Masked or not, why does this keep happening to me? Gods, I’m a mess.
Ren takes my hand and carefully peels me off the tree trunk. I feel a burning sensation on my right shoulder. Fuck! It’s going to bruise. My messenger bag cushioned the encounter with the tree, and at least the rest of my back is fine. I pull the strap and move it onto my hip.
“What the hell happened?” I ask.
“That car almost hit us,” Ren tells me with gritted teeth.
“It did?” My eyes widen as I scan his face in shock. It all happened so fast. My brain is still trying to put together the pieces. “So, does this mean that you saved me?”
“Umm…” He scratches the back of his head.
“Are you guys, okay?” a couple of people ask us. “Did you see who was driving?”
“No,” Ren replies. “But I got the car license plate.”
He did? Wow. I can’t even remember the car model. I arch my back and roll my shoulders. Damn, it hurts.
“Let’s go sit and grab something to drink.” Ren points toward the campus café a couple of blocks away. At least he didn’t suggest going to the hospital like my overprotective brother would have.
We start walking again as he taps on his phone. Is he reporting to the brotherhood?
“Don’t tell Ollie. Please,” I plead with him.
“If my big brother finds out, he’ll turn full mother-hen on me.
I don’t want him to worry and turn my life into a bubble-wrap hell.
” And Rague? Whatever punishment Madam Karma has in store for the driver, my brother-in-law would execute a much gorier one if he got wind of this.
Same as Lori. With what is going on lately, they have a good reason for being overprotective.
“It was clearly an accident. A drunk student, perhaps.”
He sighs. “I won’t tell them, but I’m asking Dare to check that car plate.” One of his triplet brothers. “That fucker should have stopped and checked on us.”
He’s right. We could have both been hurt or worse; the decent thing to do was for the driver to stop.
“What are you going to do when you get the driver’s name?
” Because Dare will find it. Rami is the brotherhood’s hacker and a game creator.
After he got together with Hunter, he took Dare under his wing, teaching him everything there is to know about programming and unauthorized access to whatever data.
As we keep walking, I feel the need to say, “Ren, thank you. You know, for saving my life—”
“You’d have done the same for me,” he cuts me off with a shrug and a crooked smile, and damn, I’m reminded again why he’s popular among girls.
“But if you really want to thank me you could buy me a drink and then take one of my shifts at Pet Manor this week.”
I snort at his proposal. A drink and a shift at the pet shelter he owns. Maybe it’s because we experienced a similar childhood, or it’s the interests we have in common, but this connection I feel with Ren is getting stronger the more time I spend with him. He’s really become a good friend.
It’s crazy how my life has changed. Misfortune and pain have been a constant presence since I was a kid. I only had Ollie and Brad in my corner, and then later came the brotherhood and its latest addition. Ezra.
“A soda will suffice for now.” Fortunately, Ren’s words take my mind away from dangerous territory.
For now? “How can you drink soda in winter? I’d rather get a hot drink.
” I playfully bump Ren’s shoulder with mine, forgetting for a moment about the hit it took against the tree.
I hiss at the sting and roll my arm to once again check that I didn’t break anything, when the button on the cuff of my jacket gets stuck in my hair.
“The real question is: how are you still alive?” He clicks his tongue as he faces me to help untangle the strands.
“How indeed.” I huff.