Chapter 21 Mia
After the intense and horrible weekend, staying in the suite that night was actually anticlimactic.
Ash watched football as he listened to me talk about the songs that we had sung in the bar.
He’d made some comments in regard to song choices and even made suggestions, and it was normal. A normal conversation.
With his easy manner and the fact that his focus was on the football game, I found myself relaxing with him. With relaxation came tiredness, and I had gone to bed, leaving him to watch the rest of Sunday Night Football.
In the morning, he woke me up before he left for practice, telling me he was sending a freshman to walk me to class. I was going to protest, but Ash Santo at five in the morning, looking gorgeous, was more than my brain was capable of accepting, never mind being able to form words.
The freshman was waiting outside the building and also had coffee for me. I didn’t ask who gave him my coffee order — it was probably Ava — but a small part of me wanted it to be Ash. I didn’t want to ask myself why, so I ignored the internal voice that was desperate to tell me.
Wade texted me during the day to suggest practice after classes, and like a dutiful friend, I texted Ava to ask if that was permissible.
Things with myself and Ava were still going to be tense, but at lunchtime, she still sat beside me and told me about her day, albeit the conversation was stilted.
She had her least favorite professor on a Monday afternoon, and she was always nervous before she went to his class.
I realized she would rather endure this weirdness between us than go to her next class.
Which was so depressing I couldn’t bear to think about it.
As both of us sat at a table in the cafeteria with hardly a word being spoken, I realized I wasn’t sure how to fix us.
Did we need fixing? This had never happened to us before.
I knew Ava was affected as much as I was.
She kept pushing her candy around on her tray rather than eating it.
If she didn’t eat the M&M’s soon, I would.
Her phone rang, and the speed with which she reached for it made me feel crappy. I saw her frown before she answered it.
“Hello?” Straightening in her chair, she listened before she started to look around the cafeteria. “Uh-huh . . . Shit, really?”
She turned to me and mouthed What the fuck. Curious, I mouthed back What?
“Me? Are you sure?” Ava’s hand shot out and grabbed mine as a wide smile broke out over her face. Her fingernails were digging into the back of my hand, and to take my mind off the fact that Ava was going to break skin soon, I plucked two M&Ms off her tray.
“Are you sure?” Ava asked again. “Um, I could? I can! I mean, of course I can.” She was nodding and practically bouncing in her seat. “Yes, I’ll see you soon.”
The phone dropped to the table, and Ava launched herself at me. “Mee!” she squealed excitedly as she hugged me close.
Laughing, I hugged her back. “Tell me what it is,” I said impatiently. “And give me my hand back!” I teased.
Her eyes widened when she saw the half-moons on the back of my hand. “Sorry! That was the college newspaper,” Ava told me with glee. “Bobby broke his leg and now can’t cover games, so they want me to do the sports news.”
“What? Bobby broke . . . what?” I shook my head in confusion. “What?” This was huge. She so deserved this.
“The college paper wants me, Ava Bryant, to be his stand-in. Apparently, Bobby told them I was the best person for the job and that I’m an English major, so the paper wants me to do a trial column for them to see if I’m any good.”
“Well, fudge on a cracker, that’s amazing!” I said excitedly. “Are you allowed?” I asked, turning serious.
Ava’s smile dimmed. “Jett isn’t controlling, he’ll be happy for me.”
“No! I don’t mean him, of course he will.” Clutching at her hand that she had been withdrawing, I tugged it back. “I mean, are you allowed with the dean and the probation and also with your class schedule?”
“Oh.” Ava looked at the phone and then at me. “I didn’t ask.” She looked at me worriedly. “Should I have asked?”
“Asked what?” Jett asked. He and Ash were across the table from us, and we had been too caught up in the moment that neither of us had noticed their approach.
“The college newspaper just asked me to cover sports because Bobby’s broken his leg,” Ava told Jett excitedly, and I watched as he dropped his backpack and came around the table.
“I’m going to be a sports reporter!” she told him.
In one move, she was off the chair and in his lap as he gave her a huge hug and kissed her soundly.
Rolling my eyes at their behavior but grinning anyway, I turned to Ash as he sat down across from me. “Hi.”
“Hey. Did the freshman guy have your coffee for you this morning?” he asked me absently as he dug in his backpack and brought out containers.
It was him. That shouldn’t have made me as happy as it did. “Did you tell him my order?”
Ash looked up from opening his lunch. “How else would you get your coffee if I didn’t tell him?”
He looked genuinely confused, and I tried to hide my sudden frustration at his obliviousness. “Yeah, obviously.” He stared at me for a moment longer, causing me to widen my eyes at him as if to say What? Shaking his head, he returned to inspecting his lunch.
“I spoke to Wade. He says you’ll be done by six,” Ash told me as he took a bite of what appeared to be chicken pasta salad.
“You spoke to Wade?”
“Are you okay?” Ash asked as he paused again to look at me. “You keep repeating things I’m telling you.”
“Because you spoke to Wade! Do you usually speak to Wade?”
“Why is this a thing?” he asked me as he put his fork down. His eyes flicked to Ava and Jett briefly.
“Why did you speak to Wade?”
His eyes narrowed, and he looked suspicious, like I was asking him a trick question. “So I know when you’ll be finished?” His eyes ran over me quickly, assessing. “Did you hit your head? Have you drunk enough water today?”
“No, I didn’t hit my head. Stop looking at me as if I’m fragile,” I snapped at him irritably. “Why did you need to ask Wade? Why not ask me?”
He leaned back in his seat as he shook his head slightly.
“Jesus fuck, woman! I literally just passed him in the fucking hall. He said, ‘Mia’s going to practice with us after class, is that okay?’ I said, ‘Sure, what time’s she finished?
’ He said, ‘Six.’” Ash scrubbed his cheek as he spoke to me.
“You want me to record it next time?” he asked in exasperation.
Why was Wade reporting to Ash? “Why didn’t you say that to start with?” I demanded.
“I didn’t think I needed to.” He was looking at me as if I were special and not in a good way.
“And why is Wade even asking for your permission?” I carried on, frustrated that I felt like crying. “Why will there be a next time?”
“I don’t think he was. It was two guys passing each other in the fucking hall, and one guy told the other guy something. It wasn’t a big fucking deal.”
“You swear all the time,” I snapped at him, knowing I was being slightly unreasonable.
“What?” He looked completely irritated and perplexed. “Like seriously, what is wrong with you?”
“You swear too much,” I told him coolly.
“You live with Ava,” Ash retorted as he looked at her, and I avoided looking at both of the people sitting to my left.
“So? Because Ava swears, you can swear? Real mature.”
He looked incredulous. “What the fuck are you even saying?” he asked me in exasperation. “I just want to eat my lunch, not endure the fucking Spanish Inquisition!”
“Fine.”
“Fine!” He stabbed his fork into his pasta and shoveled some into his mouth.
“Did you two hook up again?” Ava asked cautiously. “There seems to be a lot of pent up . . . aggression.”
“No.” Ash looked affronted at the thought.
“I’ll pass,” I snipped at her as I pretended to ignore Ash’s grunt of agreement.
I sat for a few minutes trying not to give in to the urge to leave, but the speed and aggression with which he was eating his lunch was making me irrational.
And how quickly had he dismissed the idea of hooking up with me?
Jerkface. Eventually, I gave up. I couldn’t stay here any longer, or I was going to say or do something stupid.
Pushing my chair back, I bent automatically to kiss Ava’s cheek.
“Tell me everything later. I’m excited for you,” I said to her. “I have practice until six, but it’s okay, I have permission from the Brute to go out and play.”
Ash’s fork bounced off the table, and with a saccharine sweet smile for Jett, I turned and walked away from them.
I made it halfway across the cafeteria when I was lifted off my feet and flung over a shoulder.
My screech was loud, but was drowned out by my fellow students’ laughter ringing in my ears as humiliation washed over me, and my fists bounced harmlessly off his back.
“Ash?” I recognized Quinn’s stunned voice. “What’s going on with you and Mia?”
Ash didn’t slow, but his next words made me actually grateful no one could see my face.
“Going to teach Red some manners!” he called over his shoulder.
I heard a mocking laugh, which I just knew would be Gray, and I swore to get revenge on this brute as I was carried out of the cafeteria and down the hall.
“Are you going to put me down?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“Nope.”
The guy was tall, and his legs ate up the corridor in long, strong strides. It worried me that not one person asked me, the girl, quite obviously being taken against her will, if she was okay or needed help. Futilely, I hit him one more time.
I heard several doors being tried and then a sharp command of “out.” I was staring at mosaic floor tiles, and the smell was undeniably bathroom. He shirked me off his shoulder, and all the blood leaving my head as I was put on my feet caused me to stumble.
Turning to face him, my rage was swallowed when I saw his anger.