Pregame(9)

I checked my wallet hoping that I would have enough money for a cab  since I wasn't sure where Wes's apartment was in relation to mine. I had  left my debit card at the apartment in case I were to lose my wallet  and all I had on me was eight dollars and a couple of pennies. I looked  up the number of the cab company that all of the university students  used, figuring that I could just grab my visa from the apartment when I  got back. Problem solved.





I dialed the number to the local cab company and was placed on hold,  stuck listening to elevator music as I waited for the customer service  representative to get my location to send a cab.





"Brookelyn."





I turned to see Wes strolling down the walkway now fully dressed with a ball cap on his head and his car keys in his hands.





"I know, I'm leaving, I just have to wait for a cab. I'm on the phone with the cab company now."





He sighed. "C'mon let me give you a ride. I'm not making you take a cab  back because I was being a jackass. I shouldn't have kicked you out like  that or called you a stuck up bitch. I'm Sorry."





He stood in front of me, looking down at me from where I sat. He held  out his hand for me to take, and I grabbed onto it as he pulled me up  from the step.





"Are you sure? No one's awake right now to pick me up but I'm fine with  getting a cab, really." He just shook his head as if it wasn't a problem  and gestured to his truck. I smiled to myself when we walked around to  his side without opening my door. He wasn't trying to impress me or act  like a gentleman. He was just being himself, which was truly refreshing.





As he backed out of the driveway I looked over at him and the relaxed  way he sat with one hand on the steering wheel and the other propped on  the middle consol. He had a natural coolness about him that wasn't  practiced or pretended.





"Thank you, Wes. I'm sorry about accusing you like that. It wasn't right."





He didn't turn his eyes from the road but a smiled a small smile. "It's all good, don't worry about it."





I gave him directions to my apartment, which turned out to be only a few streets over from his place.





"Besides, you did me a favor." I looked over at him and crooked my head, confused.





"When Jade came back out of Luke's room she was ready kick my ass and that was before she noticed you were gone." He explained.





I thought about Jade's reaction to Emmy and the possibility that Wes was dating her.





"What was up with that, anyways? Why'd she get so upset?"





Wes sighed as he pulled in front of my building and placed the car in park before looking over at me.





"Jade and Emmy are from the same town so they've known each other for a  long time. The rest is Jade's story to tell, not mine." I understood,  and I also appreciated his silence. There was clearly a better side to  Wes than what was depicted in Gabe's story.                       
       
           



       





I grabbed my purse and thanked Wes again and stepped out the car.





"Brookelyn?"





I stopped walking and turned back to peer back inside the truck at Wes  through the lowered window. He was wearing that boyish grin and my heart  hammered in my chest despite myself.





"You're too good for him."





Before I could even process what he'd said, Wes drove away, leaving me more confused than ever.





SIX


"You know, for someone who has sworn off all men, you sure have two very hot ones wrapped around that little finger of yours."





I looked up from my textbook at Elle as she worked out math equations in her notebook.

"No one is wrapped around my finger. I haven't seen or spoken to Gabe  since the party or Wes since he dropped me off Sunday morning." I rolled  my eyes at my best friend. "And I haven't ‘sworn off all men.' I'm just  protecting myself."

"From what?! Brooke, if you keep letting what happened stop you from  being with either of them," she paused, "or both of them, then he wins.  Don't let that bastard win."

"I'm not going to let him win, Elle, but I'm also not going to force  myself to be with someone." She opened her mouth to argue but I stopped  her. "Besides, if I was going to get into a relationship it wouldn't be  with either of them."





"Yeah, you're right. I hate to admit it, but you are." Elle sighed,  stuffing her calculator and notebook into her backpack. "Gabe lost his  chance when he got wasted off of his ass and called you Emmy and Wes  doesn't seem like the boyfriend type."

I was surprised at how easily Elle backed down. When I had gotten back  to the apartment on Sunday and gave her a rundown on what happened after  she left the party she was no longer Team Gabe and instead declared  herself Team Wes.

The past few days went by slowly and I found myself getting bogged down  with work as the semester drew on. The time I spent in the library made  it easier to avoid Gabe who hadn't yet stopped texting and leaving me  voicemails apologizing for the party and asking if we could talk. I also  hadn't seen Wes anywhere on campus or even at the athletic center when I  went to work out with Elle. I was annoyed by the fact that I found  myself looking for him and was then bothered when I didn't see him. I  kept thinking about what he said when he dropped me off but finally  decided that he didn't mean anything more than to let me know how little  he thought of Gabe.





Elle stood up from the table and grabbed her bag blowing me a kiss as  she hurried off to her Biology class. It was only noon and I didn't have  class for another hour so I decided to text Jade and see if she wanted  to meet up for coffee before our psychology class. She responded letting  me know that she was already near the school's coffee shop and that  she'd save us a table.





I looked around the quad as I left the library hoping to avoid seeing  Gabe and was relieved to see that he wasn't anywhere nearby. I got to  the coffee shop a few minutes later and spotted Jade at a corner table,  smiling as she looked at her phone.





I dropped my bag in the seat across from her and went over to the  counter to order an iced coffee. As I was adding sugar to my coffee a  shadow fell across me and I looked up to see Emmy leaning against the  wall with her arms crossed just staring at me. I was surprised to see  that she was wearing a cardigan with ballet flats and a diamond pendant  around her neck. This girl looked so different from the one that was  with Wes last weekend that I wondered if I had mistaken her for someone  else.





She flipped her curly brown hair over a shoulder and leveled me with an icy glare.





"So you're Gabe's new plaything?" she emphasized the last word, venom dripping from each syllable.





"I'm not Gabe's anything, don't worry." I rolled my eyes as she began to smirk, satisfied with my answer.





"Yeah, that makes sense. He always said that he could never get serious  with a girl he couldn't take home to meet his mother." Her smirk turned  into a fake sugary smile, her voice seemingly friendly to anyone who  overheard the conversation.





I mirrored her actions, "hmm, I wonder what his mother thought of you after you slept around behind his back."





Fury flashed in her eyes and she dropped the façade, leaning into my  face. I appeared amused by the confrontation knowing that it would only  get to her more but inside I was fuming. How dare she come up to me and  act like that. I'd never even formally met the bitch!                       
       
           



       





"I heard about what happened after I left the party on Saturday." She  took a step back but her eyes remained glued to mine, unblinking. "Stay  away from Wes. I won't tell you twice."





With that, before I could come up with anything to say back, she turned on her heels and walked out of the coffee shop.





"Was the Emmy that you were just talking to?" Jade questioned when I got back to the table.





"Yes, but I wasn't talking to her so much as she was talking to me." I  gave her a run down on the conversation, or should I say confrontation,  but then wondered if I should've kept it to myself seeing the pure  hatred all over Jade's smooth completion.





"God, I hate the bitch. I can't believe she told you to stay away from  Wes as if she has some claim to him. They've hooked up all of three  times! I swear, if he keeps hanging out with her I will never speak to  him again."





It was odd to see Jade like this. Other than her brief outburst Sunday  morning, I was used to her laidback personality. I wondered why there  was so much hostility between the two girls but I decided that if she  wanted to than Jade would tell me.