Chapter 16
Sixteen
Wolf
I wasn’t sure what I was doing.
Sleeping in the bed with her. Taking her to breakfast, then driving her to class. I’d lain awake last night, listening to the rhythm of her breathing, trying to unjumble my head.
She hadn’t blocked me.
She had reached out about my dad.
The two things that had eaten a hole in me were bullshit. But she’d still broken it off with me suddenly, for reasons she’d never really explained. She’d still run off with Brent for the summer, leaving me shattered and without answers.
I glanced across the truck cab at Jade and the dark tornado of hair whipping around her face while she roller-coastered her hand through the open window.
The warmth that spread through my chest felt like betrayal.
Why did my idiotic heart want to fall right back into a routine with the girl who used to be my priority, when I had only ever been her option?
Yeah, no idea what the hell I was doing.
I wove between the camper vans that littered the campus. The university turned into one massive tailgate party during home-game weekends. People would set up TVs and grills, not bothered about going to the actual game, but rather, being in the middle of the atmosphere.
We passed an RV flying a State Tiger flag. Flapping in the breeze right below it was my number thirteen jersey. A bitter knot settled in my gut, knowing I wouldn’t be on the field. What made it worse was that, with Williams and me out, Benchwarmer Brent’s dumbass would be in.
The truck rattled over the first speed bump in the parking lot. “What time are you out of class?” I asked Jade.
“Four-thirty. Why?”
“I’m done at the same time.” Really, I was done at three. “I can drive you home.” I told myself it had nothing to do with the fact that I wanted to spend time with her. That it was the right thing to do since she’d ridden in with me, and her car would be in a police impound lot by now.
I parked at the back of the lot, hoping I didn’t attract the attention of any fans.
I’d barely shoved the stick shift into park before Jade had her door open. Like she couldn’t get away from me fast enough. It looked like I wasn’t the only one struggling with whatever the hell was going on between us.
The strap of her backpack caught on the plastic pillar loop.
“You late or something?” I asked, opening the door while watching her fight with her strap.
By the time I had rounded the back of the truck, her cheeks were red. I was surprised she hadn’t ripped the entire seatbelt out with how hard she was pulling on it. “Before you break my truck,” I said, grabbing the backpack. “Take this off.”
She slipped the strap off her shoulder.
When I leaned in closer to release the bag, the coconut scent of her shampoo lifted from her hair.
Damn me for liking it as much as I did. When I looked up from the tangled strap, her gaze was on mine, my lips only a breath away from hers.
I could have leaned in and kissed her before she would even register the movement, but I’d already seen where that would get me.
So, I refocused my attention on the strap.
The not-so-distant thump of bass sounded moments before Rogue’s Land Rover swerved into the spot across from my truck, his horn blaring.
“He’s so obnoxious,” Jade mumbled just as I wrangled her bag free.
I stepped to the side, handing it to her as she got out.
“Thanks for the ride.” She shrugged on her backpack, glancing at Rogue as he climbed out of his car. “And breakfast.”
“No problem,” I said.
She turned and walked off. Denim shorts and a baggy T-shirt shouldn’t be so damn hot on someone.
“Sleeping in your bed…” Rogue stopped behind my truck. “Taking her to—” One of his dark brows lifted. “Breakfast? Is that what I heard?”
“We didn’t have food in the house.”
“So, you took her out?” He patted my back. “What a romantic.”
“Shut up.” I ducked between cars to take a shortcut toward the quad.
Rogue, of course, was right behind me, chuckling to himself. “I just need her out of the house, Rogue,” he said in a mocking, bitch-ass tone that made me cringe. Surely to God, I hadn’t sounded that whipped? “Look, I don’t blame you if you want to screw around with her.”
I wasn’t screwing around with her. I had empathy for her.
I knew how hard it was to have a sick parent, to have bills piling up.
And like I’d told her, I didn’t need her attracting attention and bringing cops to my door.
It was self-preservation, if anything. At least that was what I told myself, knowing full well that I could have just sent her home, to her own apartment, where she wouldn’t be my problem.
All I had to do was keep it strictly platonic.
No touching. No more kissing. No jerking one out in the shower to the thought of her—like I had that morning while she was asleep in my bed. Then it would be fine. Absolutely fine.
“Not even going to deny it?”
I dodged a group of girls standing in the middle of the sidewalk. “I’m not screwing around with her.”
“So, you mean to tell me, you had a girl in your bed, and you didn’t fuck her?”
God, I did not want to be discussing this crap with him. “No. I know how to keep my dick in my pants.”
“And you call yourself a football player, pfft .”
Because, according to him, football players needed a case of the clap and the sole goal of spreading their seed. “Enough about who I’m not fucking.” I shouldered through the crowded walkway toward the student center. “Did you bring the sign-up form for the auction?”
“Yeah.” He scratched his arm. “I’m guessing we’ll make an easy five hundred bucks today.” We walked into the building, and a cold burst of air hit my skin. “Petey and Bellamy are already setting up the table. Because they didn’t have to wine and dine some girl this morning.”
Ignoring that comment, I followed Rogue into the cafeteria. The hum of conversation and clatter of cutlery drowned out his bullshit as we headed to the back of the room where Petey, Bellamy, and his girlfriend, Drew, were erecting an Omega Dicksolon banner.
Rogue dropped his backpack on the table and rummaged through it, scratching his arm again as he pulled out a stack of sign-up sheets, followed by a metal cash box. His gaze narrowed when he held the box up to the light. “Oh, fuck no.” He shoved it in Bellamy’s face. “You see that?”
Bellamy’s dark brows creased. “Yeah. It’s a box.”
“No, look at that!” Rogue’s finger swept the dinged-up lid. “Fresh scratches. From those fucking rats!” The box hit the table with a clang. “That’s it. I’m calling an exterminator.” He pulled his phone from his pocket, tapped the screen, then put it to his ear.
Bellamy’s attention drifted across the table to me. “You think maybe the drugs are getting to him?”
I glanced at Rogue, still scratching his arm like some crackhead in his pink Gucci shirt. “It’s a very real possibility.”
“Rogue’s always been a little…off.” Drew shrugged. “Dropped on his head as a baby, my mom says.”
Bellamy snorted. “Tell me he and Hendrix aren’t kindred, eccentric spirits. Head injuries and all.”
Rogue lowered the phone for a second. “Don’t compare my bloodline to one of the Hunt brothers.”
“And that’s why we don’t bring money into the fold, Bell.” I jutted my chin toward Drew. “They judge.”
“Give me a break, Wolf. Mother Teresa would judge Hendrix—Hi, yeah, I need an exterminator.”
“And you,” I mumbled, securing the banner while Rogue argued over the phone that two weeks was too long to wait when his health was at stake.
Before he hung up, he said he would call management. His rich boy was showing. “I swear to God. They expect me to live with those things!” He collapsed onto one of the folding chairs behind the table, still clawing at his arm. “I can’t live like this.”
And I couldn’t live with his diva ass banging a broom against the ceiling at midnight.
I rounded the table and gave him a pat on the back.
“Don’t worry, princess. I’ll swing by Wal-E-Mart and grab some traps on the way home.
” I sank onto the chair between Bellamy and him. “Big Bad Ratatouille won’t get you.”
“It’s not funny. Everything around me is crumbling,” Rogue mumbled.
I’d pay money to feel like a few rats in the attic were my world crumbling.
“Don’t be so dramatic, Rogue.” Drew rolled her eyes before kissing Bellamy. “See you later. Have fun persuading women to sell their bodies for your—” she made air quotes—“‘penguins.’”
Rogue glared at her back as she strolled through the cafeteria. “I’m not dramatic.”
“The fuck you aren’t,” I said.
“Rats!” He banged his fist on the table. “We have rats living in our house.”
Bellamy leaned back in his chair, one dark brow arched as he glanced around Rogue’s back. “He never would have made it in Dayton.”
“Fuck!” Rogue frantically scratched over his arm, which was now red raw.
“Definitely think it’s the drugs,” Bellamy whispered.
I eyed the claw marks with suspicion. Pink clothes, laxatives, rats…
Something bouncy caught my periphery seconds before Megan rounded the table.
“Hey, Wolf.” She flipped her blond hair behind her shoulder, and I pulled in a hard breath. “I just wanted to say I think it’s really crappy the coach suspended you.”
I willed her to leave. Of course, she didn’t pick up on my disinterest; she just kept yapping.
“I can’t believe Brent tried to take a swing at you.”
Pretty sure I rolled my eyes at that.
“Why would he be so dumb?”
Because he was that dumb. Almost as dumb as her.
“Easy.” Rogue thumbed at me. “Because Wolf’s fucking his ex-girl.”
Megan’s psychotic, bleach-white smile dropped. “You’re dating Jason Voorhees.”
Bellamy buried his face in his hands. “Jesus Christ…”
Great. The last thing I needed was her trying to start shit. I shot a glare at Rogue. Idiot looked happier than a pig in shit. He may like a toxic merry-go-round; I, however, did not.