Chapter 4 Jett
The good thing about being legacies was that we got the run of the house. The other guys who shared with us deferred to us, and we got the best rooms. The worst thing about being legacies is that there was no peace or quiet; people were everywhere, constantly.
Which I usually complained about, but after the conversation with Coach today, I was on a mission. Whoever the blonde was from Friday, someone in this house must have seen her.
Gray was already in the kitchen, talking to a few of the guys.
In total, twelve of us lived in the house.
Gray, Ash, and I had the top floor. The game room was in the basement, along with two bedrooms where the freshmen were usually dumped.
On the ground floor, there were three bedrooms as well as two reception rooms and a dining kitchen.
On the next level up were four bedrooms along with the main master bathroom, which none of us used, so we usually allocated that bathroom for parties. When we had them. Which was rare.
The house used to be known as a party house, but neither myself, my brother, nor my cousin were here to party our way through college. We were serious about getting our degrees and more serious about our spots on the team.
My spot was in danger, and there was absolutely no way I was losing it because of some loose pussy and a spiked drink.
Anger coursed through my veins as I thought about it.
I didn’t know what I’d even taken, for fuck’s sake, and had my senses not been so fucking numb from Coach telling me that I had failed a drug test, then I would have paid more attention to the drug results other than the small, neatly printed “failed.”
Gray took one look at me and angled his body so that he was blocking my sight of the other guys.
That was my brother’s subtle hint that I was wearing my emotions, something both of us had been taught from an early age by our older brother to never do.
It was a trait we taught Ash when we were younger, which is why so many people thought we were heartless assholes.
Well, we were heartless assholes, but even if we weren’t, we wore the masks of indifference well.
“Guys,” I said as I walked around the kitchen island to see who exactly my brother was talking to.
“Hey,” Gray greeted when he turned to look at me over his shoulder. “How’s the ankle?” His quick look at my ankle reminded me I was supposed to be injured. This was so much shit.
“Annoying,” I snapped angrily, catching my twin’s quick grin at my tone.
“Heard you took a knock from Ash,” Jamie said as he looked me over. He was one of our defensive ends and was a complete dick. He tried to wipe me out every practice despite the fact that we were on the same fucking team.
“Yeah, my cousin forgets his own strength.”
Jamie snorted but said nothing. Again, I caught my brother’s look and, swallowing my temper, headed to the fridge.
“So, is Quinn going to come over to massage you better?” Derrick asked with a grin to his friends.
“Shut your mouth, dickhead,” Gray snarled before he turned to me. “I’ll take a water,” he said as he joined me at the fridge. “Ash is going to be here a little bit later,” he told me quietly as he took the bottle off me.
“Why?” I asked him as I scanned the fridge for something light and easy.
“Because he is.” Gray reached past me and took out some cold cuts of chicken. “Get the tomatoes and the lettuce,” he instructed as he headed to the island, where a chopping board was already set up. Within moments, he was making sandwiches for us both, while I sat on a barstool and watched him.
“Hey, so when I heard you got dragged into Coach’s office, I thought it was because you had been to the party on Friday night,” Derrick said as he propped up against the counter I was leaning on.
“You drinking the night before the game?” Jamie asked me as his eyes narrowed.
“Just one.” The lie wasn’t really a lie. I only remembered one beer. “He was there too.” I pointed at Derrick.
Derrick looked at me before he glanced at Gray and then back at me. “Yeah, I spoke to you for like fifteen minutes and then left. Wasn’t really there, you know.”
He did? I thought hard about it, and I had a dim recollection of him talking to me about the game the next morning. “Huh, that’s right, you were talking about routes again.” I shook my head slightly in mock despair as I rolled my eyes at the others and Gray, who laughed on cue.
Derrick flushed but joined in the laughter. He played corner and was always yammering about plays and routes, which I didn’t mind; he just got on my fucking nerves at the best of times.
“Where’d you go after?” Gray asked him casually as he sliced the sandwiches.
“Met up with some guys from class, played some pool. I was wired; there was no way I was sleeping.” He crossed to the cupboard and took out some plates.
“You know I’m too worked up the night before a game, but don’t worry,” he said with a pointed look at Jamie, “I didn’t drink, and Jett was nursing his beer, he said he was going to leave and go home. ”
“Well, he wasn’t alone,” Jamie muttered dryly as he watched Gray make the food.
“Thought you weren’t at the party?” I asked him shrewdly.
“Wasn’t,” Jamie huffed as he eyed the steady pile of sandwiches Gray was preparing. “The whole fucking house could hear you getting laid.”
Gray’s hands paused slightly before he continued to slice the sandwiches. “You got laid?” he asked me with fake humor.
“Course he got laid,” Jamie snorted as he looked over at me. I could see his distaste for me clearly, and I had to remind myself that Coach would not appreciate me giving the lead defensive end a minor concussion. “Heard the bitch screaming for more even with my headphones on.”
“What can I say,” I replied coolly as I stood and accepted the plate from Gray. “I aim to please.”
“Yeah, well can you aim to please when it’s not the night before a game?
You set the rules when you came into the house.
No drinking before a game, no parties before a game, no fucking in the house before a game.
” Jamie pulled himself up to his full height, and with the weight of him, other guys would be intimidated.
But I wasn’t other guys.
“Yeah.” I took a hearty bite of my sandwich. My brother made the best chicken sandwiches. “You got something to say to me?” I asked Jamie around my mouthful.
“How come you get to break all the rules?” Jamie asked as he leaned forward, resting his meaty forearms on the counter.
“Because he’s a Devil.” Gray stacked the sandwiches onto two other plates, leaving some on the chopping board. “Now eat your fucking sandwich before he shoves it so far down your throat, you’ll finally know what fucking deepthroating feels like.”
Grinning at my brother, I took my water and my sandwich out of the kitchen, Gray on my heels.
When we were in my bedroom, the two of us ate in silence before Gray sat back on my couch, his head against the wall.
“No one saw you with your screamer.”
“Not one person?” I asked in disbelief as I sat forward, my head falling into my hands.
“Nope.” Gray popped the p as his hand ran over his face. “If I didn’t know better, I would say you imagined her. But she was still here in the morning, Ash saw her ass, and Jamie just confirmed that you were heard at least, if not seen.”
“Why can’t I remember any of it?” I turned my head to look back at Gray, and in the quiet of my room, he looked worried.
“You know what it sounds like, don’t you?” he asked me quietly.
“Yeah, I know exactly what it sounds like.” Shaking my head, I stared at the bed.
“Yo,” Ash said as he walked into the room, closing the door behind him. “Tell me that’s for me.” He pointed at the two sandwiches sitting on the plate.
“Like I would leave you out,” Gray scoffed as Ash flopped backward onto my bed. “Thought you’d be longer. Find anything?”
“Nothing,” Ash groaned as he sat back up. “She’s a fucking ghost.”
“How?” I demanded as I shot to my feet. “Do you know how often people are watching us?” I looked between the two of them. “Every fucking moment. How the fuck did no one see me with her?”
“Because you’re a Devil,” Gray answered as he held the plate out to Ash. “No salt, no mayo, no butter, just chicken, lettuce, tomatoes.”
“My man,” Ash said gratefully as he accepted the plate. “Thanks.”
“Welcome,” Gray murmured as he returned his gaze to me. “Jett, we know how to move without anyone seeing us. If you didn’t want to be seen, no one would have seen you.”
“Except the girl,” Ash mumbled around his food.
“Which confirms that you didn’t meet her at the party, but on the way home.
” Gray was now looking at his phone. “Between the other end of campus and here, there is a whole lot of ground, but more importantly, the woods to the east. Would you have taken a shortcut?” He looked up at me, his light blue eyes calculating.
“It would make no sense, but if you weren’t thinking straight . . .”
“What a fuckup.” I started to pace as I racked my brain about Friday night.
We had no classes on Friday afternoons as we all had practice.
Practice had been fucking merciless, and Coach had been worse than normal.
His wife had recently passed away, and he was channeling his grief through avenues of torture on his players.
When the center started throwing up from the intensity of the workout, Coach had eased off. But it had been brutal.