by Nicole Dykes
“Sorry about the mess.”
I laugh, “It takes a while to get settled.”
She sits down on her bed, letting her long, toned legs swing in front of her. “Are you and Cam settled in your house?”
“Not yet, but Cam’s a pig.”
She nods her head like that’s not surprising and I laugh before my eyes move from Cassie to a liquor bottle on the desk by her bed. “Have you been drinking?”
She looks guilty as hell and maybe slightly embarrassed. “Oh that? I just took a sip.”
Something tells me she’s lying, but it’s really none of my business. That explains her flushed cheeks. “Alright.”
She looks over at me nervously, “Can you please not tell Luke?”
I wasn’t planning on it. “You don’t need an intervention, do you?” I say mostly joking.
She laughs, rolling her eyes. “No, I promise. It’s not a problem.”
Truth be told I should get my ass out of here. A minor drinking alcohol around me could get me in a shitload of trouble, but it’s Cassie. “Alright. So, the TV…”
She jumps up from the bed, “Right. It’s huge and I can’t get it out of the box myself. My roommate, Dani, is hanging out with some girls from class or I would just ask her to help me.”
We both walk over to the large flat screen, opening the box and I ask, “You didn’t want to go?”
“I wasn’t feeling very social.”
I nod my head, “It’ll get easier, I promise.” She gives me a weak smile and I nod to the left side of the TV. “Okay, you grab that side, I’ll get this one. I’m assuming that’s the TV stand?” I point to the wooden shelf next to the TV.
She nods and we both pull the TV out of the box and place it on top of the stand. I laugh, it really does take over the tiny room.
She observes the TV. “Thank you.”
“You want me to help you set it up?”
She nods her head eagerly, “Yes, please. I’m a total ditz when it comes to technology.”
I doubt that, but I plug the cable into the back go through the setup process on the TV while Cassie goes back to sitting on her bed. When it’s all set up I hand her the remote, “You need anything else?”
She leans back against the wall, looking unsure. “Will you stay for a bit? Test out the new TV?”
I don’t know if this is appropriate. She’s Luke’s little sister, a freshman in college and to be alone with her in her dorm room seems wrong. She bites her lip nervously. Damn, does she mean for that to be sexy? Jesus, I should go. I feel like an asshole ogling her. I can’t tell her no though. “Sure.”
She pats the bed next to her, but I as politely as I can, pull the desk chair out and sit there as she flips through the channels. “So, how were classes today?”
“You’re like the sixth person to ask me that today.”
I chuckle, leaning back in the wooden chair, “Yeah, you have a big family.”
“I have a nosey family.” She counters.
“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to get in your business.”
She shakes her head and moves her body so she’s on the edge of the bed, really close to me. “I didn’t mean you. Classes were good. Except Algebra. I hate math.”
I grin, “Well, lucky for you, I love math. I’m actually pretty good at it so just give me a call if you need help.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Offer to help me. I know Luke is your good friend and you are loyal to him. I also know that you just see me as his little sister that needs a lot of help, but I’m not your responsibility.”
I’m not sure what to say. She is Luke’s little sister, but that’s not the only reason I offered to help her out. “I don’t just see you as his sister. You’re my friend too and as my friend if you need help, call me.”
She smiles at that. “Okay.”
She’s close to me. Too close. I stand up, “I should go.”
She looks up at me, startled by my abrupt declaration, “Already? It’s kind of early.”
“Well I have a team meeting at seven and then I have to get some reading done for my class tomorrow before heading to bed. I have to be up at five-thirty.”
“Damn! Why so early?”
I laugh as she hops off her bed to stand next to me, “Early practice. Gotta get ready for the season opener.”
She nods her head, “Okay. Thank you for your help today.”
I smile at her, “No problem. I’ll see ya around.”
I leave and jog to mine and Cam’s house. I’m not sure why I felt the need to haul ass, but there’s just something about Cassie. I’m not sure I should be alone with her. I run up the porch, open the door and walk inside.
Cam’s on the couch with a text book in his hand. That’s strange. “Are you actually studying?”
“I can read, asshole.” I just grin and go into the kitchen grabbing a bottled water and chugging it before he says, “So how was helping the littlest Monroe?”
I know what he’s implying. Cam in always implying something dealing with sex. “I set up her TV and left.”
He looks at the clock on the TV and then back at me, “Come on, man you can tell me. Cassie is fucking hot!”
I sit down in the chair in the living room. “No. She’s Luke’s younger sister. I helped her with the TV and that’s it.”
He smirks, “Whatever, Hunt. You can’t even deny how hot she is. I mean she was cute when we first met her…”
“You mean when she was sixteen and in high school.” I interrupt.
“Technically she was seventeen at the time, she has an early birthday like both of us.” My birthday is September second, his is the first.
I look across the room at him, my eyes narrowed, “How do you know her birthday?”
He shrugs casually, “Facebook. Anyway, she was cute then, but now damn! She’s fucking gorgeous. I mean did you see those shorts she had on the other day. I needed a cold shower after seeing that shit.”
“You always need a cold shower. You should live in there.” She is beautiful though, anyone would notice that. It pisses me off that Cam notices. He’s one of my best friends, but hearing him talk about Cassie like this is making me want to punch him.
He laughs about that and then moves on saying, “Okay, don’t get pissed.”
Shit. “I hate when you start sentences that way.”
“It’s nothing bad man. We are just hosting our first party this Friday.”
I stand up to throw the empty water bottle away. “No we aren’t.”
He stands up, “Yes we are. It’s not going to be a big party. Don’t worry. We have to celebrate our twenty first birthdays man and I know you won’t let me drag your ass to a bar.”
His birthday is Thursday, mine is on Friday. “Who did you invite?”
“Just the football team.” I glare at him and he quickly adds, “Not the whole team. Upperclassmen so they are mostly over the legal age. And their girls.”
“Only the seniors are currently twenty-one. We are literally the only two Juniors who will be old enough to drink by Friday. If they invite people and then those people invite people before we know it our house will be full of minors drinking. If the cops get called, we’re fucked.”
He scoffs at that, “Come on, no one is going to call the cops on us and if they do, the cops around here are lenient on football players. We all know that. We have to loosen you up this year man. It’s my main goal.”
I don’t want loosen up. I want to play football and get my degree. That’s it.
Unfortunately, my best friend wants to make this as hard as possible for me.
Chapter 7
Cassie
I’m lying on my bed with my face down in my pillow when Dani finally comes home that evening. She walks in and looks at me and then at the bottle of schnapps on the desk. I may have had a little more after Hunter left.
He couldn’t wait to get out of here.
“J
esus. How much did you drink, Cass?”
I groan and peek over at her before burying my face back in the pillow, “There’s still plenty left.”
Over half the bottle is left and I’m not sloppy drunk or anything. I feel her weight on the bed. “Is this still over that douchebag?”
I sit up, pulling the pillow onto my lap and holding it like a stuffed animal, “Kind of, but I did something stupid.”
Her face shows her nervousness, “Oh shit. Did you drunk dial him? I knew I should have taken your phone!”
“No. Worse. I sent a text to Hunter and asked him to come over.”
She looks relieved and then gets excited, “Hunter? As in Hunter Thompson, the football god.”
“I don’t know any other Hunters.”
“Well, did he come over?”
I nod my head and she looks almost giddy, “Holy shit. Did you have sex with him? How was it? It had to have been hot! I mean he’s an athlete, he’s gotta have some serious moves.”
I shake my head emphatically, “No. Geez. I asked him to come over and help with the TV.” I point to the TV that is now out of the box and on the shelf, we bought.
She turns back to me, “Oh. Boring.”
I laugh, “I know, it was totally lame. And then I asked him to stay with me for a bit and totally embarrassed myself.”
“Oh no, what did you do?” She asks cautiously.
“Nothing. I mean not really. I had a few sips of schnapps, which he totally called me out on.” That was embarrassing, I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m an alcoholic. “And then, I just kind of… tried to get him to sit on the bed next to me.”
She laughs, “Did he?”
I shake my head, “No, he looked almost horrified at your ‘bite your bottom lip and pout’ trick and grabbed the desk chair.”
She laughs, “So you tried to seduce him?”
I roll my eyes, “No, I was just upset about Brent and your damn schnapps didn’t help. I wasn’t going to sleep with him or anything. I mean, he’s Luke’s friend.”
“He’s Luke’s fucking hot friend.”
“Well it doesn’t matter because he seriously could not wait to get out of here.”
She’s thinking and then shrugs, casually, “Maybe he’s gay.”
I lay back on my bed, covering my face with my pillow. “He’s not gay just because he’s not interested in me.”
“No really. I mean think about it. He’s Hunter Fucking Thompson. He could have any girl he wants, especially on this campus.”
I drop my arms and the pillow from my face, “What’s your point?”
“My point is, no one ever sees him with a girl. Like ever. He’s always with a pack of guys.”
“So, maybe he’s a private person.”
“But think about it, if he did screw around with girls, there would be stories. I mean if you fucked Hunter Thompson, you would tell someone about it. That’s not shit you keep quiet.”
“Well, same would go for dudes. If he was sleeping with them.”
She shakes her head, “No, because this is a fairly conservative college. Maybe he’s on the downlow.”
“He’s not. He’s just a really good guy who doesn’t sleep with every girl that jumps him.” And I’m sure there are plenty.
She stands up to go over to her side of the room, “Whatever. I’m sticking with he’s gay until proven otherwise. I mean I haven’t seen him in person much, but the guy is plastered all over campus on those football posters. He looks like a fucking Abercrombie model. It all adds up. It’s always the super hot ones.”
I laugh at her logic. Hunter really could be a model for them. He’s got that All American look down and as far as I know he doesn’t even have tattoos. “I’m just going to go to sleep and everything will be fine tomorrow.”
She nods her head, “Sure it will. I’m sure you are exaggerating it in your head anyway and it wasn’t that bad.”
This time I hope she’s right.
After my morning class on Friday, I walk out of Calvin Hall and hear my name behind me. “Cassie, wait up.” That’s Hunter. I turn around and see him jogging up to me. He’s wearing jeans, a plain t-shirt, and K-state baseball cap that’s pulled down so I can barely see his eyes, “Hey, I thought that was you. Just get out of class?”
I nod my head, stupidly. God he looks good. “Yeah. You?”
“Yeah, last one today. What about you?”
“I have one more, but not for two hours.”
“You wanna grab lunch with me?”
Seriously? He wants to eat with me? “Um, lunch?”
He grins, “Yeah, unless you have plans. I was just going to the union before heading to the gym.”
“Sure.” I finally spit out.
He smiles at me again and then we walk to the student union together. After we both get our food, we find a table and I sit across from him. “So how was class today?” He asks.
“Algebra. Not kicking my ass too much yet, but it will.”
“Well just call me when it does.”
“Do you even have time for tutoring?”
He looks over at me, questioning, “What do you mean?”
“I know you’re a busy guy. Either with class, team meetings, practices and if you aren’t doing one of those things, you’re at the gym. Right?”
He finished the bite of hamburger he took, “Yeah, pretty much. I hate being bored though and I have some downtime, occasionally. If you need help, let me know.”
He seems adamant about that. “Okay, thank you.”
Hunter looks at his phone and then bites out, “Fucking Cam.”
My eyes widen and he laughs, “What?”
“You said ‘fuck’, I didn’t expect that.”
He puts his phone back down on the table, “Why?”
“Well, I mean they call you choir boy. I just assumed it was because you don’t curse, or drink, or lie, or you know, do anything…naughty.”
He lets out a laugh at that, “Naughty?”
Shit. I swear I can’t control my mouth around him. I try to shake it off and stand firm, “Yeah. Naughty.”
He rolls his eyes, but smiles, “Your brother and Cam call me choir boy. I definitely don’t refer to myself that way. They call me that because…” He stops and then says, “Actually, I’m not going into that. I do curse, a lot actually. I drink occasionally, but rarely get drunk. And no, I never lie.”
He didn’t mention naughty. And why the hell do they call him choir boy?
Chapter 8
Cassie
When I get home from class that day, Dani is waiting for me inside our room. She bolts off her bed when I walk through the door, “Fuck, Cass! Where the hell have you been?”
She looks happy or her reaction would have scared the shit out of me. “I went to the library to study after my last class. It’s only five.”
She nods, “Exactly. It’s five! I have to tell you the good news.”
I place my book bag on the bed and turn to her cautiously, “What good news?”
“We have personally been invited to a house party tonight!”
I sit down, “A house party? Are you crazy? I’m not going tonight.”
She flops down on her bed, “Yes, you are. I love you, but this mopey Cassie is driving me insane. This isn’t you.”
I admit, I’ve even started annoying myself since I found out that Brent is in a relationship. I just can’t believe him. If he’s just a player who doesn’t want to be tied down I guess I can understand that. The fact that he can be in a relationship, but just not with me, is a real slap in the face. “I’m sorry. I’m trying to get over it.”
“Well this will help. Trust me.”
Oh, shit. Dani logic is coming and she’s really good at talking me into things. Just like I am with her. “Dani, a house party? Do you even know the people throwing it?”
She sits up on the bed, “Not exactly, but we were invited by one of their friends.”
I fold my arms across my
chest, “Uh huh, and who is that?”
“A guy in my English class. We have sat together since day one.”
“Which was this Monday!”
She brushes that off, “I like him, Cassie. He’s hot and I’m looking forward to hanging out with him tonight.”
“So this is the start of your banging every guy on campus, plan?”
She giggles, “Yep. He’s a good guy.”
“They are all good guys, until they come.”
She laughs loudly at that, “Nice one.”
We laugh together and then I shake my head, “I can’t go. I just need some time to figure out what I want. You may want to do that by free sexual expression and I support you. I think I need to stay away from the opposite sex for a little bit.”
She appears to actually be thinking about what I said and then shakes her head, “No. You need to get out of this room and be around people. Please, Cassie. Don’t make me go by myself.”
Jax telling me to use the buddy system flashes into my mind. Shit. I can’t let her go there alone. Maybe she’s right and I do need to get out a little. “Alright, I’ll go for a little bit.”
She jumps up and pulls me into a hug, squealing with excitement. “Yay! Thank you, Cass. We are going to have so much fun! Now we have to find something to wear.”
“We have time before it starts I’m sure.”
“Only four hours! We have to figure this shit out. This isn’t high school, it’s college.”
After hours of rummaging through our closets, going back and forth about going casual or dressing up, and doing our hair and makeup, we finally walk off campus to the rows of houses. I managed to keep casual in a pair of tight, ripped skinny jeans and a K-State tank top with my hair down. Dani kept it fairly casual too. She’s wearing a short jean skirt and concert tank from this summer.
I did let her do my makeup though and feel a little ridiculous. She said she wanted to ‘play up’ my hazel eyes with a dark, smoky eye. She painted my lips red with dark lip gloss and even put a tint of blush on my cheeks.
Whatever. It’s not like I know anyone at this party anyway.
“Okay so which street is it on?”
She looks around, “Fuck. Hold on, I have it in a text.” She checks her phone and then says, “Vattier.”
