Chapter 16 Jett #2
“Heard you had Ava here on Friday,” Derrick rushed out. “I didn’t realize that was who I was hearing.” He gave us all a meaningful look, and a tight knot formed in my stomach.
“Who’s Ava?” I asked. Her name didn’t roll off my tongue; I liked Bitch or Uptight better, so the natural sounding hesitation worked.
Derrick looked genuinely confused for a moment before he gave me a sly smile. “Oh yeah, I get it, love ’em and leave ’em. Good one.”
I saw Gray look at Ash, who looked equally annoyed. “Hurry this up,” I snapped.
“The girl on Friday was Ava. Yes?” He looked unsure now, and I needed that set in stone.
“What makes you think that?” Gray asked. “You see her?”
“What? No, I heard her but didn’t see anyone. Actually . . .” Derrick rubbed the back of his neck. “No one saw her. How’d you get her out?”
“Why are you here?” I asked him again. I was already tired of this.
“Well, you know how Ava is,” he started. No, I really didn’t. “She’s like football mad.”
“She is?” Ash asked quietly.
“Yeah!” Derrick came into the room more, his eagerness to tell us something we didn’t know overriding his good sense. “You know, I heard that even the sports editor on the paper checks the stats with Ava after the game.”
My attention was fully on Derrick, but I knew both my brother and my cousin were exchanging looks. “She seems great,” I said to Derrick. “A true fan.”
“Oh no, she is really shy. Or you know . . . so I thought.” He was looking both excited and resentful at the same time, his feelings for Uptight not exactly hidden.
“You want a pass at the girl from Friday,” Gray said from his corner of the couch. “That’s why you’re here?” His contempt was easy to pick up on, and even though Derrick didn’t know him that well, it was plain that Gray wasn’t impressed.
“Yeah, she’s like my dream girl.”
“Your dream girl is the girl from Friday being fucked senseless and screaming to let the whole house know whose dick she was on the end of?” I asked him as I stood.
Why was this even bothering me? I couldn’t explain it, but I wanted to punch him for knowing what Ava sounded like when she came on my dick.
“Yeah,” Derrick nodded eagerly.
“I don’t know who Ava is.”
“You chased her across the campus today,” Derrick told me with a little more firmness in his voice than I liked, the hard glint in his eye pissing me off even more.
“Her?” I asked him. “The blonde?”
“Yes,” he stressed.
“So? You think she’s from Friday?” I looked back at Gray and Ash and smirked. “Why the fuck would I chase someone I already had in my bed?”
“What? But . . . everyone’s saying that she was,” Derrick’s eyes were flicking between the three of us in confusion.
“What am I saying?” My flat stare wouldn’t encourage any further questions.
“But—”
“If no one saw her, how do you know it was her?” Gray asked quietly. Too quietly for my brother.
Derrick looked completely confused now. “But everyone’s saying that it was her,” he repeated.
“Are you saying that Jett’s lying?” Ash asked with seemingly casual curiosity.
“Yeah, Derrick, you calling me a liar?” I raised an eyebrow as I looked down on him.
“No!”
“Sounds like it to me,” Gray said as he stood. “Weren’t you talking with Jett at the party?” he asked him. “Was your Ava there?”
“No. Just one of the band guys she hangs out with.” Derrick looked genuinely agitated about that, and I made a mental note to look into this further.
“So you didn’t see her with me, you didn’t see her here, and you didn’t see her leave . . .” I trailed off as I took a step closer. “Tell me again how she’s your screamer?”
“You chased her,” Derrick mumbled almost inaudibly.
“So?”
“Man!” He scratched his ear as he looked at me. “I was so eager for it to be her, know what I mean?”
No. I didn’t.
“I’d love to tap that,” he said with an unhappy shrug. “She’s smokin’.”
She was? Yes, she was, but again, I didn’t like this little fuck noticing.
“So . . .” He looked at me expectantly. “Who was it then?”
“Get the fuck out of my room.”
Derrick started to laugh before he registered the scorn on my face and the fact that Ash and Gray were on their feet behind me. With a sound that reminded me very much of a squeak of a mouse, he turned and practically ran out of the door.
When I had closed it firmly behind him, I turned to the other two. “Bobby checks with her on football stats?” I looked at Ash. “Still think she’s innocent?”
“Another piece of the puzzle,” he answered thoughtfully.
“Douche told us something else though,” Gray said, on his phone again. “Wade? He was definitely there. I’m thinking it’s time we get some alone time with this guy.”
“Agreed,” Ash and I spoke together.
“They play Thursday at the Bar One,” Gray told us as he stood and shoved his phone in his pocket. “Don’t know why you’re so adamant to deny it was her here, but if you aren’t sharing that, then,” he grinned widely, “you need one of the Elises to cover for you for Friday.”
“Fuck.” He was right, I needed a cover story. Which meant I would have to pick one of them. Shit.
“Sucks to be you.” Gray clasped my shoulder as he left my room, Ash chuckling behind him as he followed him out.
Fuckers.