Playing Games: A College Bully Romance

by Candace Wondrak

  “Now,” the professor spoke, a middle-aged man who looked like he’d started to bald once he turned eighteen, spoke, pushing his glasses further up his nose, “if you’ll turn to page two in your workbooks, you’ll find a short quiz—” The class erupted in sighs, because it was the first day, and who the hell wanted to take a quiz on day one, but he went on, “It’s an easy one, and there are no wrong answers. You’ll all get one hundred percent, as long as you turn it in before you leave. You’ll be taking the same test at the end of the semester—just a bit longer, to compare what you’ve learned.”

  The class flipped to the second page in their workbooks, and I watched Kelsey’s fingers run along her pen as she read the first question. Her nails were free of polish, and her face held no makeup, other than the gloss on her lips.

  I had the strangest thought then, a thought I didn’t expect to have: did that gloss have a taste? Would her lips taste like strawberries or some other fruit?

  Not something I should be thinking about while in class, because it might lead my mind to think of other, more intimate things next.

  We weren’t allowed to talk while taking the practice quiz, and after we were done with it, we had to tear it out of the workbook from its perforated edges and hand it in. It was the only time this entire semester the professor said he’d let us out early, which caused quite a few more groans in the classroom.

  Out of the corner of my eyes, I watched Kelsey whip through the quiz. I had no idea if she really knew the answers, if questions of biology and genetics and life itself came easy to her, or she just wanted to get out of here. Probably the latter, since the professor had said as long as we turned it in with every question answered we’d get a hundred percent on it.

  For whatever reason, I didn’t want her to run off. I wanted to talk to her more, so I started circling random answers on the multiple-choice part and jotting down quick, mostly nonsensical answers to the open-ended questions. Kelsey got up to turn hers in, and I was but a minute behind her, grabbing my bag from the table before jogging out into the hall after her.

  The science labs were held in their own buildings, no lecture halls at all around. Just small classrooms with different science equipment. It reminded me of high school, of the science classes I had to take then. Seemed fucking stupid now, having to take biology yet again. Why the hell did we have to take it in high school when we’d have to play repeat in college?

  Kelsey had made it down the hall, about to head to the stairwell on the north side of the building. I caught up with her, saying, “You know, if you’re bored, you could come to the quad with me.”

  I didn’t know why I wanted to spend more time with her, but I did. I did, and I didn’t know how that made me feel.

  Kelsey stopped, turning to face me. We stood less than two feet apart, and I was able to see the way her lips parted slightly. “And why would I want to do that?” she asked, cocking her head, giving me an attitude. That attitude seemed to be a permanent state for her—maybe that’s what I liked about her.

  She wasn’t meek and quiet. She didn’t laugh or smile. She said what was on her mind, and she wasn’t ashamed of being a jerk.

  “Why not?” I said, shrugging. “Unless you have another class to go to.”

  “You know, I don’t actually, but it’s bad enough I have to be your partner for the rest of the semester,” she spoke plainly, giving me an unimpressed look. Her cheeks were a little flushed though, so I knew she had to be attracted to me. It wasn’t so crazy, so out of the ordinary. I knew I had a face that girls liked, a body they loved.

  The thing that got me, the part of me that set me back, was my insides. On paper, I was great, but when you got to know me, that’s when things got messy and complicated. I didn’t want to label myself as a bad boy, the annoying stereotypical jerk who did and said whatever he wanted when he wanted, but…eh, it was as good a description as any.

  It was the only way to adequately describe what happened last year.

  “Why would I want to spend more time with you than I have to?” Kelsey asked, blinking those wide, brown eyes at me. Big eyes set in her face, they made her look more innocent than she was. A girl with an attitude like her, I knew she couldn’t be innocent.

  Maybe that’s what I liked about her. Her bluntness, her feistiness, and her lack of innocence.

  If I was a bad boy, wouldn’t a bad girl suit me better than some innocent virgin?

  Hell. Or maybe it was something more cliched than that. Maybe it was because she wanted nothing to do with me that I wanted to keep trying. The challenge of the chase. I’d never fallen prey to it before, mostly because I knew that no matter what happened in this place, it’d all be in my rearview mirror once I got out of here. I didn’t plan on looking back. I wasn’t here to make friends or get girlfriends.

  That’s what I told myself, anyway. Stupid, considering who I was friends with.

  Friends. I used that word loosely.

  “I’m really not that bad,” I said, speaking as a few other students exited the bio lab room and headed our way. Two girls, giggling to each other as they passed us. I glanced at them, mostly waiting for them to pass us, but Kelsey saw my wandering eye and must’ve thought something else.

  “Uh-huh. Why don’t you go be not that bad somewhere else, then,” she suggested, saying nothing more as she spun on her heel and stormed off.

  I watched her go. I’d learn soon enough that watching her go was one of my favorite pastimes.

  Chapter Seven – Kelsey

  That guy, I really didn’t know what to make of him. Levi. Ugh. First off, that was a stupid fucking name. If I ever had a kid and wanted to name him Levi, I gave anyone and everyone permission to slap some sense into me. Why couldn’t his parents go with a name like…Bob or Kyle or something?

  You know, something boring. A name that was the opposite of special. Levi was…Levi was the kind of name you remembered. Unfortunately for me, Levi also had the kind of face that you could never forget.

  I’d be lying if I said he was handsome. Handsome was a way to describe an older man, someone who was mature and refined, someone who wore suits or something. Levi? Levi wasn’t handsome. He was drop-dead fucking gorgeous, sexy as sin and hot enough to cook meat on. Very lick-able, I bet. All muscly and shit. He had the kind of body I could easily imagine laying under—or riding.

  Oh, damn. Either way, it’d be fucking hot.

  I felt myself warm in my lower gut, and my thighs clenched of their own accord as I hurried away from the science building.

  No. Levi and I could never happen anyways. Not even a quick fling, not even a fast hookup. He was my lab partner now, the bastard, so I’d have to see him every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour and a half for the next few months.

  So not looking forward to that. Not at all.

  Plus, you know, he was friends with that dickbag Dean, and anyone who was friends with that douchebag was not the kind of person I wanted to associate myself with. I mean, how would Mel feel if I started seeing Levi? No, no, it was sisters over misters.

  During my walk back to the dorm, I replayed Levi’s words. Did he really want to spend more time with me, or was he just being stupid? My money was on stupid, not like I had money to bet. I had no money at all, which meant I had to be careful around here. No exorbitant spending on the meal card. That bitch had to last me all semester.

  When I got back to the dorm room, Mel wasn’t back from her classes yet. I dropped my bag on my desk and heaved a sigh, face-planting on my pillow. I shouldn’t be so torn about that guy, considering that was only our second encounter. I shouldn’t let his pretty face dominate my mind.

  Dominate. That was…that was a word that held a lot of different connotations. It was a word I probably shouldn’t be thinking of. Dominate.

  I rolled onto my back, staring at the white ceiling above me, my mind thinking of its own accord: I wouldn’t mind letting Levi dominate me. If things were different, if he wasn’t friends with De
an, if Mel didn’t have such a horrible history with Dean, maybe I could.

  But I couldn’t. Guys would come and go, and maybe after this semester I’d never see his face again. Mel, on the other hand, would be my roommate for this semester and next semester, and I was due to spend a hell of a lot more time with her than him. I owed my loyalty to her, not him. He could go fuck off. I would stick to my roommate’s side, not that there were sides in this. This wasn’t some war or anything. It was just…life.

  This was life, and it was ridiculously complicated—and only week one.

  How much more complicated would my life get as the weeks wore on? It was a question I lost myself to, even after Mel returned.

  “I literally already have a paper due in two weeks,” Mel muttered, plopping herself at her desk and fishing out her laptop from her backpack. “I can’t believe it.” She seemed like the kind of girl who never procrastinated, who always did things right away. We were opposites.

  Maybe she’d rub off on me. Or maybe not.

  I didn’t tell Mel about my bio partner. I didn’t want to. I knew she’d probably tell me to ask the professor to switch. Or, hell, maybe she wouldn’t, and she’d simply quiet and close herself off from me. That was something I didn’t want, so keeping Levi a secret felt like it was the right call.

  Mel remained quiet as she started researching her paper. I fiddled on my phone. This became our routine as the days wore on, even as classes started to get harder. Pop quizzes popped up, class papers assigned and—ugh—even a few dreaded group projects.

  Yeah. Fuck those group projects. Fuck those group projects hard. Not only was I a procrastinator, but when I was tossed in random groups to make class presentations and shit, I always ended up with groups that didn’t want to do any work at all. I always had to do everything, and because I was a procrastinator, I waited until the last possible minute to do everything, which meant stressing myself out even more.

  Of course, I knew to fix that would be to not procrastinate. Easier said than done. It was an ingrained habit by now, honed by years and years of procrastinating all through elementary and middle school, leading up to high school when I literally did ninety percent of my homework in homeroom as fast as I could.

  Hey, it worked, didn’t it? I’d gotten into SCC. Granted, almost anyone who applied to SCC got in, but that was beside the point.

  I texted Ash when I could, called her when Mel wasn’t in the room. For whatever reason, it felt weird to talk to my best friend while my roommate was in the room. She’d finally moved into Hillcrest and met her roommate, and judging from the noises she made when I asked if he was cute, he was definitely cute.

  Cute and rich? Cha-ching. I’d tell that bitch to nail him down, or one of those Hillcrest boys, but I knew Ash wasn’t like that. Getting a sugar daddy wasn’t on her list of things to do. Me? I might settle for one, if I couldn’t make it on my own. A last resort type of thing.

  My bio labs were…full of one particularly annoying guy trying to talk to me. I did my best to ignore him, but damn, it was hard. It was probably the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. What I really wanted to do, what I really, really wanted to do, was jump his bones, make him as hot and bothered as his low, rough voice made me.

  And that face, God, that face was the face of an angel. Or maybe a demon. A tempting demon. What were those demons that tempted you with sex? Or the ones that made you horny? Whatever. You knew what I meant. That, whatever it was, was Levi.

  Or Blue, as I liked to call him.

  I outright refused to use his name anytime I had to talk to him. No Levi, only Blue. It was impossible not to get lost in the clear, crispness of his gaze, the deep blue color that reminded me of the tropical waters in the Caribbean. They were a pair of blue eyes like no other, and maybe that’s why I found myself thinking about him more than I should, even when I wasn’t sitting beside him in bio.

  As the days went on, I slowly became used to Mel’s routine. Her waking up early, dragging herself out of bed, leaving without saying a word. I asked for her help to stay on track with all of my classes and assignments, and she took the job seriously. She was a planner through and through, and having her there helped me to keep on it. Mostly.

  I focused on Mel, knowing that I couldn’t always talk to Ash. This was my life, and for the first time in—well, forever—I had to live it on my own. I had to be my own person, no longer the duo that was Kelsey and Ash.

  We’d be together again, sometime during the holidays, but right now, I had to live my life. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a bad life. Despite all the work some of my classes were making me do, I still found myself laughing and having a good time.

  We were two weeks into the semester when things really got interesting.

  Chapter Eight – Kelsey

  It was stupid. I was stupid for going there, but I went anyways. On the edge of campus, near the rec, there was a huge concrete slab that was used for basketball. Hoops hung on either side of it, and most times of the day, there were at least one or two games going.

  It was late on a Thursday—okay, late according to Mel, who was in bed by nine at the latest—when I found myself there. Subconsciously, I didn’t want to go back to my room. I’d gotten a sandwich from the union, had it stuffed in my backpack, and I was hungry. It was dinner time. Usually I went back to the room to eat, but Levi was particularly aggressive today in his invitation.

  He wanted me to watch him play. The bastard probably just wanted me to see him shirtless, and I found myself curious, too. What did Levi look like underneath all those clothes? It wasn’t that wrong of me to wonder. Now, Dean—that would’ve been crossing the line.

  Mel had told me more of the story. She’d dated Dean all throughout the last two years of high school, and during that time she told him she didn’t want to sleep with him. She wanted to save it for marriage. Not something a lot of people did nowadays, but hey, to each their own. I wasn’t here to judge anyone for their choices regarding saving themselves or not.

  Then they started coming to SCC. Mel noticed Dean changing, especially after joining that fraternity. She thought she felt him pulling away, so she did something she instantly regretted: she had sex with him. Of course, it was after they got down and dirty that Mel found out he’d been cheating on her with other girls from SCC, and once she found out she was devastated. Broke up with him, closed herself off.

  Dean was the king of dicks, and I seriously thought about dick-punching him on a daily basis, just for what he did to Mel. There was no excuse for that kind of behavior.

  I ran a hand down my bag’s strap, my eyes scanning the basketball game currently in progress before me. It was shirts against skins, I bet, because about half the guys on the concrete pad were shirtless. Most were nothing too special, but there were a few that drew my eyes.

  You know, the muscled ones.

  One of them, I was pained to realize, was Dean himself. So, okay, the douchebag had a good body. I could see why Mel didn’t want to lose him—he was good-looking, and he was everything she’d ever known, her only boyfriend, until whatever happened after they broke up.

  As I sat on a nearby bench, I quickly averted my eyes away from Dean. He was not one I should be checking out. I grabbed my bag and moved it to my lap, unzipping it to pull out my sandwich. It was right then that I saw him.

  Levi.

  He was on the side of the court, squirting some water into his mouth. The evening sun glistened on his bare torso, revealing an abdomen that was to die for. A chiseled body whose abs were neatly defined, even from far away. Never had six tiny squares on a stomach been more attractive than they were in that moment.

  My fingers slowly worked at unrolling my sub, and my mouth nearly dropped when I watched him dump some of the water from the bottle onto his head. He ran a hand through his dark hair, the water dripping onto his face and his chest and…

  Hoo, boy. This was a bad idea. I shouldn’t have come here.

  I mean, I wasn’t the o
nly girl sitting around, ogling. The other girls on the sidewalk, the few in the grass nearby, were pretending to be busy. I was the only one with my mouth hanging open and no sunglasses to hide my wandering stare.

  How could I not check Levi out? I wanted to lick the water off his body.

  I finally was able to tear my gaze off his sexy self and focus on my sandwich. I took a bite, closing my eyes as I chewed. When I opened them again, I found Levi stood a few feet in front of me, smirking down at me like he was some stereotypical bad boy who knew he made panties wet just by that slight quirk of his lips.

  And, okay, he might’ve made mine wet a little, but come on. I wasn’t going to admit that aloud.

  “I didn’t think you’d come,” Levi mused, his blue eyes twinkling.

  “Well, I had the feeling you’d keep inviting me every time I saw you, so best get it over with,” I spoke with a shrug, taking another bite of my sandwich. If I had food in my mouth, it meant I couldn’t talk. Talking to Levi would only get me in trouble.

  I liked trouble. Oh, I liked trouble a lot, especially when trouble was sex on two legs.

  “Levi,” Dean called out to him from the court. He had the ball in his hand, and he made a what’s going on gesture.

  “Count me out for this one,” Levi said, to which Dean merely scowled. It was like the court and all the guys on it ceased to exist the moment Levi moved to sit beside me, his chest glistening in the evening sun. He must’ve shaved or waxed, or something, because there was not a single hair on that chest. It looked smooth and so very inviting.

  God, I really wanted to touch him.

  Levi’s blue gaze studied me, and I pretended to be suddenly fascinated with my sandwich. “So, what do you think?”

  Since my mouth was full, it took me a while to answer, “What do I think about what?”

  That smirk again. “Me.”

  At that I let my eyes travel downward. Levi wore nothing but athletic shorts, and it was a sight to see, definitely, especially with him being so wet and covered in sweat. What’s worse? He didn’t even smell bad. It was like his body odor didn’t affect me, or he sweat sex appeal. Something.