Chapter 18 Zeke
eighteen
Zeke
November
Icould get used to the whole acquaintances with benefits thing. In just over a week, my hockey game has improved so much. Being with Avalon gives me the escape I need from the world, but it also doesn’t come with the stress of someone expecting more.
We’re on the same page regarding us. And that there isn’t an us, not from a romance standpoint, anyway. I told her before we started this that she could sleep with whomever she wanted; we weren’t bound to one another.
So, she could be sleeping with someone else. I’m not. I don’t need to. I don’t get this satiated feeling with anyone else. Why waste my time with other women when I get everything I need from just one.
If I told the guys, they’d be convinced I’m in love. Which is ridiculous. It’s not love. It’s sex. The only love that’s there is my love for sex.
And boy, do we have a lot of it.
I totally converted her into an afternoon sex lover, which is when we usually find time to do it. Neither of us lives alone, and she doesn’t want to risk running into the guys.
And since she lives with her mom, we can’t go to her place after six pm, because she’ll be home.
Which means car sex.
Something I’m not mad about at all. I don’t know what it is about fucking in the back of my truck, but it’s exhilarating. I know Avalon feels it, too. Sex with Avalon’s always great, but something about doing it in the car turns us both on more than I thought humanly possible.
“Have you seen my shirt?” Avalon searches the floor of my bedroom.
I can’t help but watch her.
She’s beautiful. I don’t think I’ve met someone as beautiful as Avalon. She has a kind of beauty that’s innocent. If I saw her in public, I’d never expect the Avalon I know to come out of her tiny self. Her personality is the complete opposite of what you’d expect, and not in a bad way.
There’s a fire in her personality. One that drew me to her. Yeah, I saw her and thought she was attractive, but after our conversation, I was hooked.
“Hello?” She waves her hand in front of me. “Can you stop staring at me and help me find my shirt? I’m gonna be late for class.”
“I’m pretty comfortable right here.” I rest my arms behind my head. “Just admiring the view.”
She narrows her eyes before getting back to looking for her shirt. I honestly don’t remember what she was wearing when she showed up. It became irrelevant the second my bedroom door shut.
“If you don’t want me to steal another one of your shirts, I suggest you help me look.”
“I thought you said you burnt my last shirt?”
“I did. And I’ll burn another one if—”
“I think it went behind my desk.”
“Behind your desk?” Her nose wrinkles. “How on Earth did it end up behind your desk?”
I drag myself out of bed and don’t miss how Avalon’s eyes travel over my bare body. I raise an eyebrow at her, and her cheeks flush. As if it’s embarrassing, I caught her. Even though I was lying in bed doing the same thing.
Admiring her bare body.
“Nothing to be ashamed of.” I pull on my sweats lying over the back of my chair. “I’m a very attractive guy.”
She scoffs, “You’re ridiculous.”
“Maybe. But you’re the one who enjoys sleeping with this ridiculous guy.”
“Only until I come to my senses.”
I bend down to look under my desk and find Avalon’s shirt peeking out the bottom. I pull on it to free it from the space between the desk and the wall and then hand it to her.
“Thank you.” She grabs it from me and pulls it over her head.
She grabs her jeans and underwear in the corner of my room near the window and pulls them on as well.
“If you find my bra, please let me know. I don’t have time to look for it right now, but that was fucking expensive, so it’s not something you can hold onto as a perverted little trophy. ”
“I’m pretty sure only one of us has a piece of clothing from the other person.” I tap my chin. “I don’t think it’s me.”
“You’re ri—”
“Ridiculous. We already established that.”
“I need to—”
“Zeke, man!” We both freeze. It’s Jeremy.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I mumble.
“You said no would be home until—”
“No one’s supposed to be home. They should all be in class.”
“Zeke, you home? Of course, your home; I saw your car in the driveway.” I hear footsteps coming up the stairs.
“Get in my closet.”
“What?”
“If I don’t open this door, he’ll be suspicious.”
“You said the guys are used to you hooking up with girls in the afternoon. Just run out there and tell him you have a girl in here.”
“If I run out there, it’ll look suspicious.”
“And me getting in the closet won’t be?”
“He’s not gonna go searching through my closet.”
“What if he needs to borrow a shirt?”
“He’s home in the middle of the afternoon because he needs to borrow a shirt from me?”
“I don’t know, but what if—”
There’s a knock on my door.
“Go,” I whisper, pushing Avalon into my closet.
I take a breath and swing open my door.
“Hey, Jere,” I say. “I didn’t expect you to be home this early.”
“Yeah, my class got out early, so I was gonna head to the rink and get some skating time in, but realized I didn’t have any of my gear,” he replies.
“And you want me to come with you? Sorry man, I can’t, I’m going to see my mom and—”
“Oh, I know. I wasn’t gonna ask you to come, but I grabbed my bag and realized you borrowed my hockey stick after practice yesterday because you were gonna play a one-on-one game with Marcus.”
“Right… your hockey stick,” I continue. “That’s in my closet.”
Avalon’s never gonna let me live this down. I knew I should’ve had her hide under my bed.
“So, can I have it?”
“Yeah, yeah, of course you can. Um—”
“Oh shit,” he gasps. “Are you with someone right now?”
“Whaaaat?” My voice cracks. “W-why would you think that?”
He points toward the ceiling, and my eyes follow until I notice the bra hanging from one of the blades. I can’t help but laugh. How neither of us saw her bra dangling from the ceiling is beyond me.
“Shit, man, you are.” He takes a step back. “Sorry, dude. I’ll steal Brooks's hockey stick out of his room or something. Sorry.” The second one he says a little louder, like it’s not directed toward me, but toward my guest.
I give him a small nod as he walks down the hall, and I swear I hear him laugh. I can’t blame him… the situation is comical.
“Coast is clear.”
Avalon comes out of the closet and repeatedly smacks me in the chest with one of her shoes.
“Ow, what was that for?”
“The closet! He almost came to the closet. The place you were sure was a perfect hiding spot.”
“But he didn’t.”
“Because he realized you had a guest!” she yells. “How did he know you had company?”
I point toward the ceiling.
“Oh, there’s my bra.” She smiles, but it quickly fades. “Oh my god, he saw my bra.”
“Really, don’t worry about it. They’ll never know about this. After Halloween, they were all nagging me about this blonde.”
“I’m not blonde.”
“I know. A blonde that Brooks saw me escort out of our place a few nights before Halloween. A blonde I never actually slept with.”
She tilts her head and folds her arms.
“I got home late that night when I went up to my room, I found her,” I cough, “lyingnakedonmybed.”
“What?!” Avalon howls. “She was just naked in your bed, without your knowledge of her even being there?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how she got in. The guys could’ve let her in if she said we were hooking up. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time the guys let your hookups in or the first time you came home to a girl waiting for you?”
“Both… I guess.”
This causes her to laugh louder.
“Wait, and you didn’t sleep with her?” Her arms fall to her sides. “Why not?”
“It just didn’t feel right,” I respond, and she bites her lip.
“That’s fair. So, was there a point to that story? Or are you just trying to show me what a stud you are?”
Now I laugh.
“The point is, if you’re worried about Jeremy catching me with you in my room, don’t be. If he tells the guys about this, they won’t think for a second, it’s you. We’ve already been there, and they know I don’t go there more than once.”
She nods, like the fact that my friends think I’m a man whore gives her a sense of relief.
“Except road sex,” I add. “When we travel for games, I typically hook up with the same girls.”
She rolls her eyes, “Good to know.”
“You should, um, get to class.”
“I’ll probably just skip it today,” she replies. “By the time I get to campus and then to my class, it’ll be nearly over.”
“What I’m hearing is you're good to go for another round.” I shoot her a wink.
“You’re—” She doesn’t finish her sentence; she just shakes her head and leaves. Because I already know—
I’m ridiculous.
But when it comes to her… I think I’m okay with that.