CHAPTER 4
Two more Thursdays had passed studying with Tessa.
Tristan had pulled back significantly, and Tessa noticed.
She couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness and regret when she realized that he was closing himself off to her due to her rejection after the party.
She wished that she had the guts to tell him that she really did like him too, but that she was too nervous about how certain things would play out and she desperately did not want to get her heart broken, especially by him.
Did a guy like him even do relationships? Because she was certainly not a friends with benefits kind of girl. And she had a hard time imagining the star football player of a huge university just ignoring the onslaught of girls begging for his attention on a daily basis.
Again, she had a decent amount of confidence. She knew she was pretty and kind and smart, but she just wasn’t sure if he would be satisfied with those things.
And now they were stuck in a place where they felt awkward around each other when just a mere two weeks ago it had felt like they had known each other all their lives, and Tristan was really battling internally with the change between them.
Tristan found himself on a Monday afternoon walking across campus. The team had just played an away game the previous Saturday that they had won in a field goal. And now that he had returned to campus and it was business as usual, he had to resume his normal collegiate duties.
He had a meeting with his admissions counselor to discuss his current grades, next semester's classes, and which NFL scouts were coming out during the next game to watch him play.
He almost never found himself on this side of campus due to his apartment and most of his classes being on the far east side of the very large university grounds.
Vanderbilt was an old school, and a very large one.
It was covered in trees and old brick buildings and was always crowded with students bumping into each other, always in a rush to get to their next class.
He only came to this side of campus once a semester to meet with the counselor and decided to stop by the student-run coffee shop to grab a drink.
He desperately needed caffeine after the very physical game they had on Saturday, the long drive back home, and then the wild party they held on Sunday where he did not hold back in his alcohol consumption.
So today he was nursing a slight hangover, which usually included a decent amount of irritability on his part.
He gave the barista his order and handed over the money to pay for it.
She was a very short and cute blond that had her hair up in a poly tail.
He could tell immediately that his presence made her nervous, and she giggled out a very shy “great game on Saturday,” as she handed him his receipt.
He smiled at her politely and wandered over to the other side of the coffee bar to wait for his drink.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked out the large windows and watched the plethora of students running by in the cool October air.
His eyes caught a very familiar head of blonde hair and his body froze.
There was Tessa, looking beautiful as ever.
Her blonde hair was straight and in a French braid that hung delicately down her back.
She had on a cream-colored dress with lace stockings peeking out of the hemline that stopped right above her knees.
Her boots were tan with a slight wedge, and she wore the same cardigan that she had on their not-date at the Shakespear play that she accompanied him to.
As always, she looked effortlessly feminine and regal.
Her height, her smile, and her piercing blue eyes always stopped people in their tracks, and what amazed him the most was that she had no idea how beautiful she truly was.
He couldn’t help but smile at her and appreciate everything that she was. But his smile quickly faded when he could see who she was talking to - who was making her fucking laugh.
He immediately headed for the door, oblivious to anything going on around him.
“Wait, your coffee!” The little blonde barista said to his retreating back.
“Just a minute,” he mumbled, and flew the door open with such a force he was lucky he didn’t hit any students walking by, and he beelined straight for them.
Tessa spotted him almost immediately and gave him a warm smile with the slightest hint of apprehension that he wouldn’t have been able to notice if he didn’t know her so well.
“Hey Trist!” She said, but her smile faded when she felt the iciness of Tristan’s demeanor and his refusal to smile back at her.
Anxiety started pulsing through her veins when she realized she recognized the look in his eyes.
It was the same look she had noticed during the football game she attended, and she was suddenly very uncomfortable.
“How do you two know each other?” Tristan asked, not bothering to greet either one of them.
“Who? Jake?”
His green eyes squinted at her, and he shifted his weight before giving her a sarcastic, “Uh, yeah,” as an answer. She was taken aback and silenced by his reaction.
“You okay Kelly?” Jake asked, giving him a friendly slap on his shoulder.
“What is this?” Tristan asked, motioning between them, keeping his eyes glued to Jake.
He knew Jake. Jake played third base on the baseball team and was the school’s best home run hitter. He was also a major player, was pretentious, rude, and came from an uppity family that made Tristan’s middle class Midwest blood boil.
“Uh...we’re lab partners in biochem,” Tessa said in a soft and unsure voice. Her eyes darted between the two men in front of her, both of their chests puffed out, eyes intense and brooding. What the fuck is wrong with them?
“Lab partners?” Tristan said with a sarcastic laugh. “So, what you’re ‘tutoring’ him then too?” Tessa winced at his use of air quotes around the word tutoring. What was he trying to say?
“What are you talking about bro, I don’t need a tutor. We are literally in the same class, we’re lab partners.”
“Tristan, what’s going on?” Tessa asked gently, attempting to take a step towards him but being discouraged by his tough exterior.
“So do you just hang out with all of your lab partners around campus?” He asked both of them, his eyes bouncing from Jake to Tessa.
“Sorry, are you guys dating or something?” Jake asked, mostly looking at Tessa. She felt frozen in place. No, they weren’t dating, but something inside of her gut made it very hard for her to say that out loud.
“No...we’re not,” she finally answered after a few moments of very tense silence. Her eyes stayed glued to the ground, not able to make eye contact with Tristan.
“So then what’s the fucking issue, Kelly?” Jake asked, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “If she’s not yours then I’m pretty sure I can walk my lab partner to her next class.”
Tristan took a deep breath to steady his nerves. He was known for erupting; for having poor anger management and letting his macho-ness win over his logic. But he really did not want that to happen right now. He didn’t want to do that to her in the middle of campus.
Tristan looked over at Tessa who was averting eye contact with him.
She suddenly seemed so small and uncomfortable.
Her arms were wrapped tightly around herself and she moved awkwardly from side to side.
He gave her a few seconds to say something, anything, in response to Jake saying that she wasn’t his.
Which was the truth - she wasn’t, but fuck he wanted her to be.
After he realized she wasn’t going to contribute anything to this conversation, he sighed defeatedly and began backing away, which is when her eyes finally shot up to his.
“No problem,” Tristan said with a dry, apathetic tone. “You kids have fun.”
He turned around just in time to hear Tessa say his name, but he didn’t stop. He continued walking down the long stretch of campus, trying his best to ignore the pull he always felt towards her. He didn’t even go back for his coffee.
“I don’t know what to do, Jordan.”
Tristan sat across from his brother in the tiny apartment they shared.
The two very large men in the very small one-bedroom apartment almost made it look like a fun house.
It was comically ridiculous to see their large frames draped over chairs that nearly took up the whole living room.
But Jordan had insisted that they live together in very close quarters so that he could keep an eye on Tristan and keep him out of trouble and also told Tristan that it would keep him humble being the star football player living in a ‘tiny shack’ as he put it.
Jordan was troubled by his brother’s demeanor as he sat across from him. He wasn’t used to seeing him like this. Tristan had two moods – infectiously joyful or frighteningly angry.
He wasn’t sure he had ever seen this version of Tristan. He looked sad, but a different kind of sad.
He looked...heartbroken?
Jordan was used to seeing Tristan have fun with girls.
He was easy going and confident around them and usually had them following him around campus like puppy dogs.
Sure, he had a few girlfriends here and there but never anything long term or particularly meaningful.
And he definitely never saw his brother get emotionally invested in a relationship before.
So Jordan was very curious what could possibly have Tristan, his little brother who stood almost three inches taller than him, looking like a sad little boy.
“Well, what happened exactly?” Jordan asked, cracking open a beer and lounging back into the chair.
“I told her I liked her and wanted to kiss her and she shot me down.” Tristan kept his eyes downcast and focused on biting his fingernails. “And then yesterday on campus...guess who I fucking saw her with?”
Jordan gave him a shrug, eagerly waiting for the answer.
“Jake Gardner.”