I was bombarded as soon as I stepped into the frat house. I guess it’d been a while since I’d been out partying. Fellow football players slapped me on the back and stopped me for a chat. Girls slid me sidelong glances. And people kept refilling my cup as soon as it was close to being empty.
It was all so very typical, and yet now it felt off. Nothing here had changed, but I felt as if I had. I yearned for a quiet, peaceful evening at Aspen’s, watching a movie on her couch or experimenting on different takeout foods in the kitchen.
We’d cooked together. We’d showered together. We’d eaten and slept together. Worked on homework together—her grading, me writing. It was all so very domestic and maybe even boring, but I’d never been bored with her. And I’d always wanted to go back for more. And right now, in this crowded, music-thumping, party-blasting house, I just wanted to head to her place.
“Hey, Noel, baby.” Warm feminine fingers crept up my arm, making me jerk away and spin toward the redhead grinning at me.
Tianna’s friend. Marci, if I remembered correctly. “Hey,” I called over the noise, tipping my head to greet her in a vague kind of way.
She reached up on tiptoes and leaned in to talk into my ear. “Ready to cash in on the rain check?”
The threesome. Shit, I’d totally forgotten about that. As I glanced around, I spotted Tianna closing in on us. She waved, and my stomach swirled with unease.
Feeling cornered but wanting to let the girl down gently, I smiled at I shook my head. “Bad night.”
Biting her lip, she wrapped her arms around my bicep. “Tomorrow then? Please.”
Great. She wasn’t going to give up, was she? I winced. “Look, I appreciate the offer but...”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Who is she?” she asked, no longer smiling, and actually looking as if she was ready to cut a bitch.
Alarm raced up my spine, but I kept playing it cool. Clueless. I wrinkled my eyebrows. “Who’s who?”
“The new girl you’re fucking? I haven’t seen you with anyone around campus.”
“Marci,” I gritted out, growing annoyed with this conversation. “I didn’t want to be an asshole and say this, but I’m just not interested in you.”
She snorted. “Not interested?” Backing up, she splayed out her hands to encompass her body. “In this?”
Meh. I actually preferred Aspen’s look more. But I couldn’t say that. I could, however, put a dent in Marci’s inflated ego.
“Look, Tianna told me how obsessed you are about me. And I’m not looking for anything like that. I don’t do relationships, or clinging women, or sobbing midnight phone calls, begging me to give you another chance. And you have exactly that kind of drama written all over you.”
When her mouth fell open, I realized I’d probably gone a little overboard. I sent her another apologetic wince and friendly pat on the shoulder. Then I turned and got out of there as quickly as possible without looking as if I was bolting. She didn’t follow, but I had a feeling I hadn’t heard the last from her. I’d never been into cutting down a woman like that before, so whatever she did to me in response, I’d probably deserve.
I faced a whole new set of problems when I entered the next room, though. Less crowded, it had a couple couches sitting around a coffee table and facing a television. And my roommate was in the center of the action, drinking from a funnel and looking completely lit.
“Ow!” he shouted when he saw me. Jumping onto the coffee table, he pretended to strum a guitar like a rocker. “I got it bad. Got it bad. Got it bad. I’m hot for teacher.” Then he fisted his hands and pumped his hips, dry humping the air as he continued to sing the golden oldie Van Halen song.
I shook my head and sighed. “I’m gonna kill him. I am seriously going to kill him.”
“Hey, Gamble.” He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled. “Sing it with me. Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad—”
“You’re fucking drunk,” I shouted back.
“No, really? How’d you guess? Hey, does she like to play naughty schoolgirl? That way, you could be her professor every once in a while.”
Quinn appeared next to me, holding a red plastic cup as he peered up at Ten. “What’s he talking about?”
“I have no idea.” I couldn’t stop glaring at my roommate, thinking up the quickest way to silence him.
Death.
Yes, it’d have to be death.