by Eden O'Neill
But judging by LJ’s sex and party den, I found that hard to believe. Sinclair and I both traveled in a bit higher circles, ones with class and not all this.
All LJ did was chuckle upon being presented with his past. He cuffed his thick arms. “I guess so.”
At this point, I thought the guys would start clubbing each other with the looks exchanged, but by then, Niko had stood and appeared at LJ’s side. He rested an arm on his shoulder. “They came over tonight talking about the noise. I invited them in to apologize. They said they’re our new neighbors. At least, she is. I got kind of confused at the whole stripper thing when that happened.”
Obviously, but he ran with it. A tried and true guy, and sneering, I hugged my wet fleece.
LJ nodded at what Niko said with a smile. “Wish you’d told us sooner…”
“Billie,” I cut, but he grinned.
“Billie. Could have avoided some confusion there,” he said to me despite the fact I totally had told him. His smile hiked. “Apologies to you and double about the noise. My roommate and I had no idea you’d already moved in. We would have thought about that.”
“Would you have?” I eyed him, my mouth still burning annoyingly from his kiss. I hated it and even more so at the jump in my throat when he canceled all the space between us.
He peered down at me with that stupid grin. “Of course. I’m nothing if not mindful. You gotta give respect to get it.”
“And I agree.” Sinclair put space between us both. He squeezed my arm. “And now that everybody knows who everybody is, there’s no problems here.”
He’d said that like it was some kind of negotiation, like he was in the boardroom dealing with clients and not my boyfriend standing across from a complete and utter asshole.
LJ wet his lips in response but, in the end, nodded. “No problems from me.”
Rubbing my arm, Sinclair looked at me. “You ready to go?”
More than, hugging into my boyfriend as he guided me toward the door.
“Sorry for the misunderstanding, new neighbor,” LJ said behind my back, a noticeable lightness dancing in his voice. “And welcome to the neighborhood.”
Chapter Three
Billie
I basically shot out of Starbucks like a horse out of the starting gate, running late that morning and lacking sleep. I’d finally fallen into it around three-ish, but still woke up pissed and cranky. Sinclair had gratefully had an early morning meeting so we hadn’t had to juggle over shower time and working our way around my room. I hadn’t much to say to him at all that morning anyway, more than annoyed by how quite a few things were handled last night.
Visions of my cocky, arrogant as hell neighbor swarmed my brain, but I had no time to think about it since I had to get my professor coffee. He’d assigned me the task that morning via email, and though I hadn’t worked with him before, only my second semester as a teaching assistant, I had a feeling I was in for the workload of my life. His syllabus was jam-packed, and though I was one of three TAs for his film class, it was a sizable class. Almost one hundred. Combined with how many students I had in my individual recitation class, I’d be grading a lot of course work. That would be in addition to anything Professor Douglas wanted his TAs to do—coffee runs included. His other TAs, Davey and Griffin, sent me their orders too on our group email since today’s coffee run was my day, so I juggled about three coffees outside of my own. I peeled into campus about fifteen minutes prior to the start of Professor Douglas’ class, and groaning, I got the coffees, my bag, and purse before closing my SUV with my hip.
Shuffling onto campus, I balanced the drink orders and my stuff, trying not to slip and slide on the salted paths. I wore a skirt today with my UGG boots, my red hair pinned up, and a nice sweater on under my wool coat, and I wasn’t trying to flash anyone on the slippery walks.
Woodcreek University itself was a moderately sized campus, and it was my first year here as a graduate student. I’d done undergrad on the coast, which was pretty much a party school, and about twice the size. I’d blended in there and hadn’t really enjoyed the whole getting lost amongst the numbers thing, hence my choice to go to the Midwestern Ivy League today. The school also happened to be closer to my mom, which wasn’t a bad thing. I’d decided to be around for her more considering my parents’ divorce, and she’d been overjoyed when I decided to come home.
I slid into Gretchen Hall with the coffees, cursing under my breath that the halls were quieter than they should be. I knew I was running late, but still had a couple minutes considering what my car’s dash said. Even still, I was a teaching assistant and was supposed to be early to class, not on time like the students.
I forced the door open with my hip, the auditorium wide and filled with students. They were all talking amongst themselves, and since there were so many, no one noticed when I came in.
At least no one that mattered.
Professor Douglas was off to the side of the podium with the other TAs. I’d met Davey and Griffin for coffee over holiday break. We thought it best we meet each other before term started, the pair friendly enough but the typical uppity film students if I’d ever seen them. Most would go on to teach like myself, film always a huge thing in my life. I had busy parents, and I loved wrapping myself up in a good comedy or romance. It was just my thing, always had been, so when I’d decided to go to school to become a professor, the first thing I’d decided to do was head for the film track. Again, it was just my thing.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, despite the room being full of chatty undergrads. I handed Griffin his coffee, black, and Davey her iced mocha latte. I found this choice odd considering how cold it was outside, but hey, to each their own. Quickly, I handed Professor Douglas his espresso, and though he’d taken it, he frowned at me.
“I don’t have to tell you you’re late,” he said, clearly going over things with the others. Hands in his pockets, he towered over them while they held stacks of syllabi. A buzz in his pocket, and he pulled out his cell phone, scratching his neck with a finger as he read the front. “In any case, I just missed an important phone call. I’m going to go take it quickly, and while I’m gone, I need you three to hand out the syllabi. Let the students know I’ll return shortly.”
He was away with a huff after that, so very dramatic like film and movie buffs could be. I dealt with a lot of them in undergrad, my same major then.
Davey and Griffin both handed me some of their stack once I discarded my coat and personal items, and after Davey let the class know we were coming around, I informed them Professor Douglas would be back in a few moments. I didn’t use the mic though it was set up, and considering how all the students dove into the syllabus the moment they were handed it, I figured they all knew what was up. I was fairly good at projecting, and I took the back of the class while Davey stayed up front and Griffin took one of the sides. We figured we’d meet up in the middle eventually.
Right away, the class silenced, serious since this was college and an Ivy League at that. Woodcreek University was one of the best in the state and people got their money’s worth for that tuition. Myself and the other TAs didn’t have to do much in regards to keeping people silent. The students got right into reading over everything, but some whispering in the back where I was did get my attention. Everyone else was focused in on their task, but I was paying attention to very soft but clear moans coming from the back of the room. There was a girl up there with bright pink hair, a guy basically on top of her, and she had a hand basically between his legs. She rubbed on his junk, the girl doing the moaning as he kissed on her neck. I couldn’t see the guy much since he had his face buried in her neck, and everyone else around either seemed to just be trying to ignore them or didn’t care.
Enraged, I stalked the last several feet up the steps to the, err, um, couple, and tapping my foot, I crossed my arms. “Excuse me?”
“You’re excused.” The guy hadn’t missed a beat as he folded long fingers around the girl’s neck, and
it’d been the ring to give me pause, that chrome ring with some type of animal forged into the metal.
It’d been that same ring to touch my flesh, burn across my cheek and body as he kissed me just last night. He’d made me submit to him just like this girl, and upon clearing my throat loudly, the blond asshole with a smart mouth and the body of a Grecian god finally peeled away from his latest conquest to look up at me.
He looked like he’d basically just got done fucking, his tight, baby tee disheveled and revealing a sliver of his golden abs. This girl had gotten her work in all right, his spools of honey blond locks all over the place and making an entirely too good-looking guy look even more good-looking. The worst part was he knew it, lounging his big body back in his stadium seat to see what all the hubbub was about. The moment he saw me, those golden eyebrows twitched up, and the second that arrogant smile of his returned, I knew he definitely remembered me. His grin angled right. “You’re… erm, um, Billie, right?”
He pointed a finger and everything, a real Einstein here, as he managed to recall my name through the fog of weed and sex I was sure he’d partaken in after I left. I had to say I was impressed, but at the present way too pissed off to give him props. He took me in from my boots to my short skirt, wearing black tights this time since it was cold. I wore a sweater set today, trying to be professional on my first day, but the way he looked at me, one would have thought I’d all out dressed for the club.
Appraising my entire body, he lounged back even deeper in his chair and stamped out those big legs like he actually was about to get a show, and I couldn’t believe this asshole.
“Right,” I cut, my tone more than gritted. Again, everyone around was paying attention to their own little piece of the classroom, and if someone did look, they made sure to cut right back to their syllabus in front of them. I mean, that was good, I guessed, but kind of weird. I shrugged. “And you and your, um, friend…”
“Cherry,” he said, making her giggle. She pulled a manicured finger down his chest and I thought for a moment there he might have actually hired a stripper to come make out with him in his class today. He dropped a thick arm across her shoulders. “I take it you’re a TA.”
So he noticed the stack of syllabi in my hands, a real genius this one. “Correct and it’s neither the time nor place for you both to be doing that. This is a classroom. Not a brothel.”
My back straight, I felt a little empowered telling this guy off. Especially considering how he’d embarrassed me and Sinclair last night. My boyfriend wasn’t one to just be put in his place, and for whatever reason, he let this asswipe talk to both of us the way he had, even after LJ had kissed me. The whole thing was terrible, and even worse once I recalled what Sinclair did say to me before finally going to bed last night.
“Stay away from that guy if you know what’s good for you,” he’d said, not offering much more after that. He’d shaken his head. “He’s trouble, and believe me, you don’t want any more of that. I mean, considering all that with your dad.”
He’d been right, of course. My dad completely betraying my mom and me and making our whole family basically a laughing stock amongst our friends. People didn’t get divorced in our circles, and if they did, everyone knew and talked about it. People were well aware of the Coventrys and their dirty laundry.
Again, Sinclair hadn’t offered many more words after that and the thing with LJ I was going to let go. I figured he was a problem nothing but some good earplugs couldn’t correct, but if he was in this class, I figured better to nip this disrespect right in the bud.
He didn’t say anything after what I said, eerily silent with his arm around his girl, but I figured he’d gotten the point since he had ears and appeared to have more than two brain cells. I tossed two syllabi his way, one for him and one for his friend on their lap desks. I turned but shifted back following a throat clear.
“You gonna pick that up?” LJ asked, removing his arm from his Cherry. Blue eyes shifted down and I noticed the syllabi I placed on his desk was now on the carpeted floor.
My eyes narrowed. “You dropped that.”
“I didn’t.” And then he lifted a hand. “And I got about a dozen witnesses that saw you throw it at me. It fell to the ground…”
And suddenly, we did have witnesses, all suddenly completely aware of LJ, me, and this situation. He had the whole top row looking at us, like a conductor with an orchestra and though I found that unusual I didn’t step down. I shook my head. “You pick it up. You dropped it—”
“Is there a problem here?”
I turned to find Professor Douglas, his hands in his pockets. All students had resumed their attention back to their syllabi. All but LJ and Cherry, of course. Relief that Professor Douglas was here and could put this guy in his place I looked at him. “Professor…”
“She threw your syllabus at me, Professor,” LJ cut in, his blond eyebrows dashing up at me once before facing Professor Douglas. He grinned a little. “Have no idea why. I was just sitting back here.”
The audacity of it all made me want to slap him across his face again. Though I obviously couldn’t this time in our new environment. It wouldn’t be appropriate. My heart charging, I opened my mouth to plead my case. “That’s not exactly true. He…”
“Just pick it up, Ms. Coventry,” Professor Douglas said to me, though he was looking right at LJ. Quickly, the man scratched his neck, making eye contact in my direction. “And do it quickly. I have a class to begin.”
And with that, he was going and stalking back down the steps. I stood there, frozen until a giggle behind made me look. There had been a few there, Cherry and a couple other girls surrounding LJ as they watched me pick up his syllabus and slam it on his desk.
“Thanks, gorgeous,” he said, winking at me before throwing his lengthy wingspan across two girls this time. Not just Cherry. The pair of us were in a stare off, but not long as the professor took the mic, and I was forced to retreat. I got up front, and Professor Douglas proceeded on as if nothing had happened. He spoke as if one of his students wasn’t back there with his mitts all over the girls he hugged between his biceps, and I got to watch as LJ exchanged kisses between both his conquests all period. All the while, he made more than one notice of me. Something I was well aware of…
My sight caught his on me often.
Chapter Four
LJ
I kept an eye up as Niko made his way over to me from across the student union, my hand ready and waiting for the cash when he delivered it. I pocketed it quick, lounging back into the couches. My buddy was gone for a long time, and when I asked him about that, he smirked.
“People aren’t too happy about how much cash they gotta part with these days,” he said, and by people he meant drug dealers.
I’d be the first to say it wasn’t cheap to sell on campus, my campus, and if these dealers wanted any piece of the action at all, they’d keep their mouth shut and keep that money flowing mine and Niko’s way. I was the middleman between them and the product, and though I wasn’t a greedy motherfucker, I took what was mine. I earned it. Niko and I both did as he helped.
I filtered through the cash in my pocket before shrugging and throwing my arms back behind the couch.
“Well, they don’t have much of a choice now, do they?” I had people to pay too, making sure these bright-eyed and promising collegiates had access to all the drugs of their heart’s desires. Nothing came through this campus unless I knew about it, pharmaceuticals like Adderall and the like a hot commodity around here. The forbidden fruit didn’t come without a cost though, and my supplier also got what was theirs. If they were happy, everybody was happy, especially Niko and me since we could set the terms after that.
Things hadn’t always started this way for me. Fuck, I’d arrived on campus a bright-eyed student just like everyone else. Unlike a lot of these Ivy Leaguers, though, I’d been a scholarship kid and hadn’t had daddy’s personal pocketbook to pull from wherever I liked. I was used t
o that shit, though, considering where I came from. I always hung with the rich kids from my small town Maywood Heights but never actually could call any of those spoils my own.
When I came to college, I knew I had to be scrappy, and even though my degree in architecture would help my single-parent household and siblings after I graduated, I needed a way to provide for them while I was in school. I was pretty much my mom and sisters’ everything back in high school. Sometimes working up to three jobs just to help, and the only way I was even okay with going away to school was knowing I had a means to provide while away. That means started as small stuff, promoting parties and shit, but quickly, I found my way in with the real moneymakers. The hustlers and guys and women who knew what they were doing. Through those contacts, I gained access to where I needed to go, and I brought Niko in along the way. We started as roommates freshman year but quickly came up to rise together. He shared a similar story to me, smart but on the bottom of this place.
Needless to say, we didn’t stay there long.
Niko grinned his big-ass teeth, everything about this guy huge. He split out his shirts like my high school buddy Knight with the way he lifted and dropped weights in the gym. He took up like two cushions for my one, and with him hanging out with me, one might mistake him for a flunky. We were partners in this game, though. We rose from those depths together, took over the motherfucking campus, and nothing happened around here without either one of us knowing about it. He tapped my fist, watching me as I pulled out my phone and scrolled my social media.
“Shit, is that Dasha?” Fucker almost fell out of his seat peering over my shoulder, his smile slow. “You sure she’s in high school?”
“Um, yeah,” I grumbled not too excited my friend was perving over my eighteen-year-old sister. Those shorts she wore on her feed were a little short, though, and I might have to shoot a text to her real quick.
