CHAPTER NINE
December
Crosby
I lay on my bed with an ice pack on my shoulder and a heating pad on my ribs, trying to ignore the bass reverberating in the room beneath mine. I had a test in economics the following day I hadn’t studied for. But shutting out all the noise rattling around in my head was easier said than done.
Someone pounding on my door pulled me from my thoughts. I wasn’t expecting anyone, so I ignored it. But the pounding persisted. I shoved the ice and heating pad away and rolled off my bed. I trudged to the door and yanked it open. “What?”
Sabrina stood outside my door. Her eyes shot to the number on the door then back to me. “Where’s Jeremy?”
“Jeremy?”
“Yeah, he texted and said he’d be here.”
My head dropped back and my shoulders shook with cold laughter. That son of a bitch.
“What’s so funny?”
“This is the last place he’d be.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Then why’d he send me here?”
I shrugged. “The guy’s a prick. Who knows why he does anything he does.”
Her lips twisted, and my eyes were immediately drawn to them.
I hadn’t realized how luscious they were. How nice they’d likely taste. What the hell was wrong with me? My eyes snapped up. “He probably wanted me to see that not only had he gotten you seats for our game, but he also scored another date.”
“First of all, he didn’t get me tickets. And why would he care if you knew he scored another date?”
“Because he’s a prick.”
She rolled her eyes. “Where’s he live?”
“Beats the hell outta me. I’m not the one visiting him for a romp in the sack.”
Her eyes widened.
Watching the irritation play out across her face tightened my balls.
“We were going to study, asshole.”
I held up my hands in surrender. “Didn’t mean to suggest you were that type of girl.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Of course you did. You do it every time we’re within a fifty-foot radius.”
“Someone’s been hanging on my every word.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she kicked me in the balls. I definitely deserved it. “It’s hard to miss your words when you’re insulting me and calling me a slut at every turn.”
“The word slut never came out of my mouth.”
She growled low in her throat, and turned to walk away.
I reached out and grabbed her arm.
She spun back around, anger brimming in her eyes before she glared at my hand wrapped around her wrist. “Let go of me.”
“I...” I dropped her wrist, realizing how desperate I looked. What the fuck did I care if I hurt her? Hurting people I could do. I could control.
“You what? Wanted to add assault to your growing list of infractions against me?”
“Infractions?” I scoffed. “What are you studying to be a lawyer or something?”
“Maybe.”
I could definitely see that. The fire in her eyes. The determination in her steps. The seriousness in her tone.
“Finlay told me about the jock strap incident. Why are you still letting those assholes get away with treating you the way they are?”
I could feel every muscle in my body tense up. Why the hell did she care? “It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it matters,” she said.
“You know what I can’t understand?” I crossed my arms, irritated by her inquisition. “You call them assholes, but you’re here to meet one of them.”
Her jaw ticked. “You know what I can’t understand? I can’t understand why you’re so hot and cold all the time. Why you came to campus in the middle of the semester. And why you’re letting people do horrible things to you and you won’t rat them out.”
“That it?”
“I’m sure I could think of more if you gave me another minute.”
I dug my hands into the pockets of my basketball shorts. What did she want to hear? The truth? Well, the truth sucked. And regardless of what I told her, it changed nothing. She was there to see captain asshole. “Well, I don’t want to hold you up. I can totally see why you’d want to hang out with the prick now.”
Her entire face reddened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I looked her up and down, the same way she had me on the night we met. The thought of her and Jeremy left a rancid taste in my mouth and the only thing I wanted to do was push her away. “Attitude and desperation. Total puck bunny material.”
Her eyes flared before she spun away from me.
“Hey,” I called once she’d taken a few steps.
She whirled back around with daggers in her eyes. “What?”
I grabbed Finlay’s blanket from the chair by my door and tossed it to her. “Give this back to Finlay.”
She shot me the look of death before storming away with the blanket clenched in her hands.
This time I let her go.
Sabrina
I rounded the corner, stopping to inhale a much-needed breath. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Why had I allowed myself to feel sorry for him on Thanksgiving? Why had I allowed myself to feel sorry for him at the game? Why had I let him get to me?
Ughhhhh.
I banged the back of my head against the wall, hoping to knock some sense into myself. Why had Jeremy sent me to Crosby’s room? Was it a pissing contest between the two of them? Had I been a pawn?
Crosby’s words from the rink played through my mind. ‘Why hasn’t he asked you out before now?’ Was I just another way to get to Crosby? But why? We barely even knew each other?
My phone pinged in my messenger bag. I dug inside and pulled it out. Speak of the devil.
Everything OK? Jeremy’s text read.
Seriously? You sent me to the wrong room.
Shit. I did? I’m in 129.
If this was a game, two could play it. No worries. You sent me to Crosby’s room. Turns out he’s not so bad.
The three dots appeared and I suddenly couldn’t wait to see how he’d respond. So, when will you be here?
Gahhh. Asshole.
Sorry. We decided to hang out. I shoved my phone into my messenger bag and took off for home.
“Guys suck,” I said to Finlay as I plopped down onto my bed a few minutes later.
She glanced up from her bed where her nose was buried in her notebook. “I take it studying didn’t go so well?”
“It didn’t go anywhere. He sent me to Crosby’s room.”
Her eyes narrowed as I tossed her blanket to her. “Why?”
I fell back onto my bed and draped my arm across my eyes. “It’s like he’s playing some game with Crosby and I somehow got caught in the middle.”
“What a jerk.” There was a long pause before Finlay spoke again. “So, Crosby?”
“Stop.” I was in no mood for her pro-Crosby campaign.
“Just saying. You went to his room.”
“Not by choice.”
“But don’t you think it’s the least bit interesting that you two keep running into each other?”
I removed my arm from my eyes and cut a glance her way. “Nothing about us running into each other is interesting. Exhausting, maybe. But definitely not interesting.”
“He needs friends, Sabrina.”
“Well, he has a shitty way of going about it.”