Completion (Cambria University Series Book 3)

by Sadie T. Williams

  Holy fucking shit! That hurts like hell. I immediately lift my left hand to my cheek and rub it.

  “Stanzy?” a bitchy voice slithers into my ears.

  “What the fuck?” Mary Lou shrieks. “Jesus fucking Christ, Tori, have you gone mental?”

  Tori. Jessup’s ex-girlfriend just punched me in the face. I guess we’re in a hit first, ask questions later situation. How did she even know it was me?

  “Stay the fuck away from him,” Tori snarls at me.

  “I’m not with him you fucking psycho!” I shout, grabbing the attention of the partygoers nearby.

  Just then Jessup and a huge guy with a man bun and emerald eyes rush into the room.

  I feel my cheek again to check for blood. There’s isn’t any, but it’s warm from where she hit me and probably very red.

  “Hey, for once it’s not me, bro!” the man bun guys says as he swats Jessup’s chest.

  “Fuck off, Blake,” Jessup replies. “What the shit is going on here?”

  “This fucking chick is bat shit crazy! She just came out of nowhere and punched Stanzy in the face.” Staley is seething. “I’m about ready to yank out those extensions, bitch.”

  “Go ahead and try,” Tori laughs at Staley’s threat. “My hair is real, unlike the bottled blonde standing in front of me.”

  “Is talking about hair supposed to be insult?” I hear Stoner whisper to Finn. Finn just shrugs.

  “Tori,” I begin, but the crazy is deep with this one.

  “Do not address me by name,” she snaps.

  “Ok, let’s try again…” I pause, “Fucking psycho cunt. Is that better?”

  A collective oh streams from the crowd that has gathered to watch.

  “Here’s the thing,” Tori interrupts with another crazy laugh, “Rhodes is mine. He’s been mine for the last year. You’re nothing. He’s never even mentioned your name. You. Don’t. Exist.”

  “Oooh,” the crowd hums again.

  “What’s going on here?” a really tall blonde girl busts through the crowd. “Watts, have you gone fucking mad?”

  “Stay out this, Blaire. This is between me and this jersey chasing whore.”

  I shake my head and shove my left hand in her face. “See this?” I show her my engagement ring. “He’s all yours. I’m good here.”

  “Oh fuck that. Whatever gave you that is nothing compared to him and you fucking know it. You’ve probably been diddling your magic bean to images and memories of him for years. Actually,” she says and taps her finger against her lips, “do you picture Rhodes’ perfect cock when you’re fucking that guy?” Tori motion toward my ring.

  Her words undo me. I clench my fist and swing, connecting a solid hit right to her left cheek. She stumbles backwards and shrieks.

  Ow! It hurts just as much to throw a punch as it does to receive one.

  “Feels good, doesn’t it,” Blake says with a wide grin.

  “Ladies, as much as I’m getting hard over this chick fight, this is getting out of hand,” Finn interjects.

  I turn to agree with Finn when I feel sharp pull on the back of my head and suddenly I’m bent over backwards in a half bridge position. Tori has me by my ponytail and is holding on so tight I can’t move my head or stand up. I’m feeling super vulnerable in this position. I can’t stand and if I fall to the floor my hair will rip out of my head.

  “Let me go!” I shout and try to spin my body around so she has to release my hair. But every time I try to turn her grip tightens and I feel it pulling tighter on my scalp.

  “Tori! Let her go!” Blaire shouts at her.

  “This is fucking insane!” Staley yells while Mary Lou covers her eyes. “Jessup, do something.”

  “What do you want me to do?” he slurs and steps forward just as Chipper pushes his way through the circle of spectators.

  “What’s going on here?” Chipper asks. “Love bug, are you okay?”

  “Love bug?” Jessup asks out loud and looks like his about to throw up as he turns his attention toward Chipper. I sort of have the same reaction to hearing that pet name as Jessup scopes him out with full body scan, before turning his attention back to our situation with a frown.

  “Uh, no. Can you do something?” I ask my dipshit of a fiancé who can’t read the situation in front of him. He better just rely on his trust fund and leave running a billion dollar company to someone else. Why is no one just tackling her ass? I’m surrounded by male athletes.

  “Bro, get the kiddie pool out. Let’s have them Jello wrestle it out,” Sims offers as a suggestion.

  “Are you fucking with me, Sims?” Blake says. “Ladies, let’s calm down. Fighting is not the answer.”

  “Tori, just let her go. She’s engaged for fuck’s sake,” Jessup pleads and motions toward me. “And we’re not together,” he emphasizes as he motions between himself and Tori. Well at least he managed to formulate a sentence in his current state of inebriation.

  “Miss, you’re holding the hair of my fiancée. What can I offer you to release her? Fifty thousand?” Chipper pipes up again and Rhodes shoots him a side-eyed glare. Is he fucking kidding me right now? He’s trying to buy me?

  “No one’s talking to you, you popped collar twit,” Tori snaps at Chipper. The response almost make me chuckle before I realize my popped collar twit of a fiancé isn’t doing shit to help me. What a pansy. “Take your fifty k and shove it up your ass.”

  Tori turns to Jessup, “We should be together! We were fucking dynamite, Rhodesy.”

  “Can you please put your crazy away for a fucking minute and realize what you’re doing?” Blaire asks her. “You’re going to hate yourself for this tomorrow, Watts, so just stop now.”

  Blaire seems level headed and smart. All I can do in this position is hope Tori listens to her because no one else seems to have a fucking clue what to do with Tori right now.

  “No, this is her fault!” Tori shouts and yanks my head further backwards. “Rhodes and I were perfect. We were so good. The fucking orgasms. Ugh,” she moans as if she’s remembering their time together. The thought makes me nauseous and I feel the vomit rise in my throat. The thought of him being intimate with this crazy train is a hard pill to swallow. “Rhodesy and I were… were fucking amazing together! Those muscles. Those hands. My God, his dick. But this is the love of his life who I’ll never measure up to. Do you know what that feels like?”

  Ok, now she’s just embarrassing herself and I almost feel bad for her. If she weren’t a fucking lunatic clutching my ponytail that is.

  “Watts, seriously, stop. You think this is the best way to get him back? You’re embarrassing yourself.” Blaire tries again echoing my thoughts. “You broke up with him before this chick even came to campus. Let it go now.”

  “No!” Tori shouts again. “She had him first. She’s got what I want and he’s never looked at me the way he looked at her tonight. You didn’t see it, Blaire!”

  What the fuck is she talking about? Jessup looked at me in complete shock, that’s all.

  “That’s, umm..,” Jessup tries, but fails to come up with the right words. “Well, it’s true I guess.”

  Not helpful. “Just toss her the matches to light this dumpster on fire, Jess,” I tell him and Blake starts laughing beside him.

  “Bro, get your chick under control,” Chipper says to Jessup. Jess turns and if looks could kill Chipper would be dust.

  “I fucking knew it! You prefer this ditzy, pop princess to me? I’m too much of a tomboy for you?”

  Pop princess? Ditzy? I’m going to be a fucking doctor! I want to shout that, but being in this position I feel it best if I keep my mouth shut.

  “No, she’s a volleyball player. She used to play football with me,” Jessup offers. Why does he feel the need to bring that up now? He can’t even formulate a thought that makes sense he’s so drunk. I’d shake my head if I could, but I’m starting to get sore from being bent over backwards. Sober Jessup would come to my rescue. This guy? I don’t even w
ho he is.

  “Just stop, Rhodes. I don’t want to hear about your past with her,” Tori says and her voice cracks

  “You cheated on me for fuck’s sake!” Jessup shouts, finally finding his voice and his balls, and the crowd gasps. “Oh, shut up,” he says as he looks around, “it’s not like ya’ll didn’t know already.”

  Now he’s pissed.

  “None of them were as good as you! I’ve been chasing that high ever since you. I can’t find it and I’m craving you, Rhodesy. I need you.”

  At this point my back and neck are starting to spasm because of the weird position I’m in, but Tori still has a death grip on my ponytail.

  “Can you please let go of my hair? I’m not here for Jess. I swear,” I try pleading, but between Jessup’s frown and Tori’s hysterical cackling, I know it’s not going to work.

  “Jess? What the fuck? You have a nickname for him?”

  “I’ve known him since we were little. It’s nothing,” I offer.

  She shifts her focus from my ponytail to Jessup.

  “It’s the blond hair, isn’t it? You prefer this bleached out, washed up piece of trash over me?”

  Just then Jessup shouts, “Tori, no!”

  My head jerks slightly and there is a sharp pull on my hair.

  The whole crowd gasps loudly and a murmur runs through it.

  “There you go, Jess,” Tori sneers, throwing my cut-off ponytail at Jessup and before shoving me away from her. The crowd that gathered to watch parts at she storms away.

  Holy fucking shit. She cut my hair off. This didn’t just happen. It didn’t happen. Nope. This isn’t real. I stare at the ground where my blond hair is sitting, partially still wrapped in my hair tie. Fuck!

  I grab the back of my head. No, no, no.

  “Oh my God!” I shriek.

  “It’s okay, Stanz. It’s fine. We can go get it cut tomorrow. Clean it up. You’ll look super cute with short hair,” Mary Lou says as tears pool in her eyes.

  “I’m going to kill that bitch,” Staley says and begins searching the room for Tori.

  “Pump the brakes, Sisterzilla,” Blake holds her by the arm.

  “Get off me!” Staley yells in his face. Blake tenses, but then appears to calm himself when a petite girl with long, dark hair wraps a hand around his forearm.

  “What’s going?” she asks, staring up at Blake with the biggest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.

  “Nothing, Maisy. Just some girl drama.”

  “Is that hair?” Maisy asks, scrunching her nose.

  We all stare at my ponytail lying on the sticky wood floor. Chipper is still just standing there, of no use. He’s not a knight in shining armor, he’s nothing but a party favor, a part of the crowd that stood by and watched as I was violated by a psychotic ex-girlfriend.

  “She’s gone,” Finn tells us. “She bolted as soon as she released Stanzy.”

  I look at Jessup who is still staring at my clump of hair sitting at his feet. A tear escapes and rolls down my cheek. They will not see you cry.

  “Happy now?”

  “What?”

  “Is this what you wanted? Make me cry. It wasn’t enough to break my heart four years ago, but you just had to add to my misery? You were never that guy growing up. The Jess I grew up with is dead. Dead and gone,” I tell him as I try to fight back the sting in my eyes, but another tear falls.

  “Stanz, no. I didn’t know you were even going to be here. Tori and I are long over. FUCK!” he shouts and rakes his hands down his face. “I have no idea what just happened,” he says, calming himself, and reaches to brush the tear off my cheek.

  “Do. Not. Touch. Me,” I seethe. “You lost that right when you left me.”

  “Get away from fiancée,” Chipper says to Jessup.

  Oh, now he wants to jump in. Fuck that.

  “Get off me,” I seethe at him. “You didn’t protect me. You stood by and let it happen. Get out of my way.”

  “Stanzy, let’s just go,” Mary Lou says and puts an arm around my shoulders. She’s right. I need to get out of here before I can’t hold the rest of my tears back.

  “You ladies need a ride?” Johnny Logan asks. “I don’t know what the fuck happened here exactly, but I can drive you home. I’ve only had one beer. I’m good to drive.”

  “That’d be great, Logs,” Mary Lou tells him. “Thank you.”

  We rode here with Chipper, but fuck if I’m going anywhere with him. Jessup wasn’t exactly helpful, but at least he spoke up, Chipper tried to bribe his way out of this. Chipper’s supposed to be the man who loves, honors, and protects me for as long as we both shall live. Not a chance.

  “Here,” Logan says and hands me the baseball cap he was wearing backwards. “You’ll look adorable in this and it will help hide your hair for now.”

  “Not that it looks bad or anything,” he’s quick to add.

  “Thanks, Logan.”

  He’s a nice guy. We’ve hung out with him a few times when we were visiting Mary Lou. Southern gentleman and very handsome. Tall, long and lean, and I’m guessing he fills out those baseball pants quite nicely. Staley sampled him when we were here last year and she said he’s the best she ever had. That isn’t the sort of compliment she throws around lightly.

  Jessup cringes.

  I slip the hat on, the right way, and I look up at Logan from under the brim. I practically sniffle at his kind gesture.

  Jessup is still standing there, watching my interaction with Logan, a deep frown on his lips and his eyebrows in a deep furrow.

  Chipper looks just as stunned.

  “What?”

  They both just stand there.

  “Come on.” Logan wraps his arm around me and we snake our way through the party. Leaving my first love, my fiancé, and my ponytail behind.

  Chapter 21: Rhodes

  I peel my eyes open and the sun is peeking through my windows. It smells like vomit in here and I slept for shit. Every time I shut my eyes all I saw was Stanzy’s face and the look of horror when Tori cut her hair off. I don’t even know where Tori got a pair of fucking scissors, but she did and that really happened no matter how hard I try to convince myself otherwise.

  Fuck, my head. I rub my temples.

  My hangover is pounding in my eyes, ears, and skull. After Stanzy left with Logan I drank myself further into oblivion. I don’t even know how many shots we consumed, but I do remember Blake dragging my drunk ass to his truck mumbling something about karma.

  I peel myself out of bed, noticing the trash can with puke in it. At least I didn’t yak in my bed. Padding down the hallway toward the kitchen, I need to get a drink before anyone wakes up. I need my hangover remedy. Vodka mixed with Gatorade.

  I round the corner and Blake is standing there, bowl of Fruit Loops held up to his chin, and he’s shoveling the cereal into his mouth.

  “Morning,” he says through a mouthful.

  I just nod. Shit. He wasn’t supposed to be awake yet.

  “You look like shit. I thought you were immune to hangovers.”

  “Give me ten and I’ll be right as rain. Toss me that red Gatorade in fridge, will ya?” I ask, taking a seat on a stool at the breakfast bar.

  Blake opens the refrigerator and frowns. “Which one? There’s like a million in here.”

  “The red one in the door that says Jessup Juice on it.”

  “Why do you label your Gatorade?” So people don’t find out I’ve drinking my life away.

  He tosses me my bottle. I pound half and set the bottle in front of me.

  “I don’t want people touching my stuff.”

  “I bought it for you,” he says.

  “And I’ll pay you back. $10k remember?”

  “Yeah right. Fruit Loops?” Blake asks.

  I shake my head and take another drink. “You were just bitching about buying my Gatorade. Now you want me to eat your Fruit Loops? Pass.”

  Blake laughs and shovels another bite into his mouth. Dripping milk down his
chin and back into his bowl.

  “You good?” he finally asks after a minute.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “You never want to talk about it, but bro, I’m not having it anymore. You don’t want to tell Bateman and Jax, fine. Don’t. But this is me and you’ve been there for me more times than I care to admit and I wouldn’t be with Maisy right now, shit, I’d probably be dead, if it weren’t for you. So fucking talk to me.”

  He’s right. Blake was going down a dark road before he got Maisy, but Maisy isn’t Stanzy. Blake hasn’t had years of history with a girl like I have. It’s different.

  Just before I can tell him “thanks, but no thanks,” he grabs my Gatorade and takes a long swig.

  Shit. You’re fucked now, Rhodes.

  He immediately spits it out in the sink and coughs.

  “Not a fan of Tito’s and Gatorade, huh?” I try to joke.

  “Rhodes, seriously? That’s what Jessup Juice is?”

  I shrug.

  “All these years I thought it was some healthy drink with kale or some healthy shit in it. You’ve been drinking vodka all day long? How long have you been boozing this hard?”

  Oh, you mean how long have I been a functioning alcoholic? Well, let’s see. Since I left Peachberry Park and the only girl I ever loved. I haven’t wanted to be sober since the night I got shitfaced with Rollie and dumped Stanzy via text message.

  The thought makes my stomach turn, but I push it down.

  “Tell me, now.” Blake growls at me. He’s angry, but he’s been working on keeping his anger in check. Prior to Maisy he would have ripped my head off for doing this. “Did you drink like this during the season? All the booze we had to keep restocking because we thought our parties were getting out of hand? That was you, wasn’t it?”

  I nod. “It’s been going on for a while.” That’s all I manage to say. I don’t talk about myself, it’s awkward and I don’t like being judged unless I’m on the football field.

  “Fuck, man, how are you alive or functioning?”

  “I don’t know. Just am. Runs in my family I guess.”

  Blake stares at me, waiting for a better answer I suppose.

  “My dad, or the guy who I thought was my dad, is an abusive alcoholic. My brothers could probably all be considered alcoholics too, I guess.” Now that I think about it, most their relationships have been ruined because of drinking, not just the infidelity.