With Every Heartbeat

by Linda Kage

  “I don’t want to sit with him,” Caroline huffed, scowling as she jerked to her feet. Hooking her thumb over her shoulder, she motioned to the guy still gaping at us after Ten had yanked his attention out of his book. “He called this poor loser a loser. That’s just wrong.”

  She didn’t seem to realize she’d just done the same thing as she angrily spun away and was the first to march up the aisle so she could sit at the desk next to Ten, where he was already slumped back in his chair with his feet kicked up onto the back of the empty seat in front of him.

  The three of us still remaining on the ground floor shared an amused glance.

  Then Quinn swept out a gallant arm. “Ladies first.”

  Reese grinned at him and patted his arm. “Such a gentleman.” Then she found her shoes under the desk, slipped them on, and started up the steps toward Ten and Caroline.

  Which left just Quinn and me.

  Realizing we were alone, and he wasn’t going to move until I did, I sprang to my feet. “Oh! Uh, thank you.”

  He fell into step just behind me. “I didn’t realize you were talking this class.” When he leaned in so I could hear him, I immediately smelled his spicy scent. “We’ll have to share our schedule to see if we have anything else in common. I know Cora’s taking Early American History with me next hour.”

  I glanced back as I reached the last row. “I have biology next hour.”

  He brightened. “I love biology. It’s one of my favorite subjects.”

  I hated biology. And I think he read that answer clearly from the expression on my face because he only grinned wider. “I took it last year from Professor Gilcrest. I still have all my notes if you want them to help you study.”

  I stopped in my tracks and spun around. “Oh my God, really? That’s amazing. I have biology with Gilcrest.” I began to bounce on my toes, which made him chuckle and in turn made me realize how dorkily giddy I was behaving. “I mean...thank you.” I cleared my throat and smoothed back my hair. “I’d appreciate that.” Beyond mortified, I spun away and hurried the last few feet to the seat next to Reese.

  Quinn took the seat on the other side of me. “Not a problem. I can bring them when I pick up Cora tonight for our date.”

  The mention of my roommate cooled my temperament even more. My face heated with shame. I hadn’t thought of Cora once during the past few seconds as I’d walked up the steps with her boyfriend.

  I was such an awful, awful friend.

  “Thank you,” I repeated, not even daring to look his way, though it was impossible to miss him next to me. His mere presence took up so much room, his aura invaded my personal space.

  “Selfie time,” Reese announced, leaning in toward me so she could aim her camera phone at the both of us. “Quinn, get in here so I can send this to Mason and let him know who I’m sharing a class with.”

  Quinn obediently came in closer until his face was nearly brushing mine. Reese was squished in closer to me on the other side, but she still didn’t feel nearly as close as he did. It only took her half a second to click off a picture. It felt like hours, though, that the warmth from his face radiated into the side of my ear.

  Then Reese’s phone flashed and she jerked away with a bubbly, “Thanks.”

  Quinn shifted away while Reese commanded Caroline and Ten to do the same pose with her as she’d made Quinn and me get into. Caroline paled but agreed, while Ten flipped her off before crossing his arms over his chest and tipping his head back as he closed his eyes.

  “Where’s Noel?” Quinn asked his roommate.

  “Wrong Gamble.” Ten cracked open one eye to spare Caroline an accusative glance. “Guess we didn’t have to take this class after all.”

  “Aww. Were the three of you big, tough football players supposed to share mean, intimidating art class together?” Reese cooed. “That’s so sweet.”

  Ten shot her a glare. “Zip it, shorty.”

  “Shorty?” Reese gasped and set her hand over her heart. “I’ll have you know I’m two inches taller than Eva.”

  “Wow, I’m so impressed. I think I just pissed myself from excitement.”

  “What an ass,” Reese shot back as her phone dinged. She glanced at the screen before sniffing. “Hmph. Mason said he was sorry I have to share a class with you.”

  Sitting up, Ten leaned across Caroline’s desk to point at Reese. “Well, you can tell Lowe to kiss my—”

  “Excuse me.” Caroline set her hand on his forehead and shoved him back before framing her desktop with her arms. “This is my desk. My space. Get back.”

  He shot her an irritated scowl before falling back into his seat and rubbing his hand over his face. “This is going to be one long-ass semester.”

  I didn’t mean to, but I glanced at Quinn. We shared a look where we both lifted our eyebrows as if to say this was actually going to be an entertaining semester.

  “You guys sure are quiet over here,” Reese said, making us jump and tear our gazes away from each other.

  Quinn cleared his throat. “Sorry,” he said just as the teacher arrived and started class.

  Ten went back to closing his eyes and folding his arms over his chest as he rested his head back, while Quinn, Caroline, and I pulled out notebooks for note-taking. Reese, however, tugged a stack of wedding magazines from her bag and began to flip through them, the glint from her engagement ring reflecting light into my face every time she turned a page.

  And so began my first college class.

  Blood pumped fanatically through my veins as I a dodged a linebacker and hurdled a fellow teammate who’d wiped out in front of me. Tucking the pigskin more snugly against my ribs, I sprinted up the field, free of the entire defensive line. Feet pounding behind me told me there were more on my heels, though. With fifteen yards left to go before making a touchdown, I bowed my head and plowed forward.

  The cheering of my practice scrimmage team told me when I’d crossed into the end zone. A piercing whistle split the air.

  “Good job, Hamilton,” the coach’s voice boomed, only to start yelling at the defense for letting me slip through.

  Sweat clouded my vision as a hand pounded me on the back. “God damn, Ham. You’re in rare form. What’d you eat for breakfast? Or should I say...who? I’m thinking it can’t be the same nasty Cora you have every day.”

  I ripped my chinstrap open and pulled my helmet off to glare at Ten. “Not funny. That’s my girlfriend you’re disrespecting.”

  He lifted both hands as if to surrender, but his grin was still as cocky as ever. “I’m just saying, man...you have a lot more energy than usual.”

  “Whatever.” Turning away, I jogged back toward Noel where he was having the team huddle up for another play.

  Hot August sun poured down on us, making my heavy pads wet from my own sweat and sticky with every movement. I did feel more energized than usual, though it had nothing to do with what my irritating roommate was suggesting.

  The idea still made me uncomfortable, though. I hated how he’d just put the image of Zoey into my head. Mere months ago, I didn’t even know what it meant to eat out a girl, and now...I knew how it tasted. I didn’t want to start wondering what another flavor would be like. I liked the flavor I had. I was faithful to my taste buds. Dr. Pepper was my drink. Strawberry was my ice cream. Pepperoni was my pizza. And Cora was my girl. What was Ten trying to accomplish by tempting me toward something else?

  I didn’t appreciate it.

  “Change of plans,” Coach called. “First stringers take four laps and hit the showers. Everyone else line up for a couple more plays.”

  Ready for a hard run to help jog off the sudden tension I was feeling, I took off toward the track circling the field. A lap later, I found myself running alongside Ten and Noel. Needing to exhaust more energy today than usual, I wondered if Noel would be able to stay a couple minutes longer with me after we ran. Coach had told me that if Noel kept working with me one-on-one to be a quarterback, I might even take over the s
pot of the second-string quarterback. That was the position I really wanted, so it’d be a double bonus if I asked Noel for a few tips before we finished for the day.

  In my opinion, he was a better coach than Coach. He was more patient and could pick out a person’s strengths and weaknesses. He knew exactly what kind of things I needed to work on the most to improve. The guy really was my mentor; I looked up to him more than about anyone I knew.

  Case in point: when he’d realized his younger brothers and sister Caroline were being neglected by their mother, he’d driven hundreds of miles down to where they lived and gathered all three of them up, then brought them back to Ellamore to live with him. That was exactly the kind of family devotion to earn my respect. Made me wish I’d had a big brother when I was growing up.

  But as the three of us jogged side by side, I noticed Noel was particularly quiet today. Usually, he and Ten carried on the conversation while we finished our end-of-practice laps. But Ten was the only one talking, describing this girl he was pursuing in his history class, and Noel wasn’t responding at all. I usually only listened, so Ten wasn’t too concerned about my lack of input, but he finally did scowl at Noel.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you today?” He nudged his elbow into Noel’s forearm.

  “Hmm?” Noel ripped his gaze away from the baseball diamond not far from our practice field. “You know, if you guys won’t tell me which baseball player had that picture of Aspen on his phone, I can find out other ways.”

  Ten groaned. “Jesus, man. Can’t you just let that drop? I told you we took care of it.”

  Noel shot him a glare. “Would you be able to let something like that go? He was spreading around indecent pictures of my woman. Damn it.” He stopped running and ran his hands through his hair as he continued to stare daggers across the football field to where the baseball players were also having an afternoon practice. “It was one of those fuckers...right...over...there.”

  Eyes hardening with intent, he began to stride that way when Ten caught his arm. “Whoa, man. We haven’t finished our laps yet.”

  “Screw the laps. I need to kill that bastard. I need him dead. Right now.”

  “No, you need to screw your fucking head on right. It won’t do your woman any good to expose yourself, which would, in effect, expose her. Now keep running.”

  Noel gritted his teeth, shook his head as if to fight off his rage and then started running again. Ten and I fell into step on either side of him.

  “I wonder if the fucker got the picture from Marci Bennett.” I knew Marci was the girl who’d taken the picture of Noel and Aspen together. She’d gotten Aspen fired...because she’d wanted Noel for herself. “What if she’s spreading them around to everyone? What if—”

  “She’s not,” Ten assured him.

  Noel and I glanced at him together. “How do you know?”

  He snickered. “Because the picture on that phone was a fuzzy shot of what the Coach posted on the board in the locker room. And besides, I deleted all the pictures off Marci’s phone...when she was putting her clothes back on.”

  My mouth fell open because that was the first I’d heard of this.

  “You fucked her?” Noel exploded. “The bitch who ruined Aspen’s career? What the hell, man?”

  “Hey, I needed a reason to get access to her phone. And I’ve learned they’re more willing to let you take naked pictures of them after you screw a dazed smile onto their face.” He shrugged. “Actually, the me-photographing-her-nude thing was her idea, but hey...she was handing me her phone, so who was I to say no?”

  When both Noel and I continued to stare at him as if he was insane, he lifted his hands. “What? I did it for you, man.”

  “You keep any of those naked pictures of her?” Noel finally asked.

  Ten choked out an incredulous sound. “Really? You want to see her titties after what she did to your woman?”

  “No, asswipe. I want to use them as leverage in case she had any more of me and Aspen that you didn’t get off her phone.”

  “Oh. Well, I’m pretty sure I got them all. She was pissed as fuck when she realized what I did.” Ten shrugged. “And anyways, I’m already one step ahead of you. I forwarded the least flattering ones of her to myself and I’m already using them to keep her quiet.”

  “Damn, man,” Noel murmured as we finished up our mile run. “Thank you.”

  I was a little impressed that Ten had gone to so much work for Noel, too. He had his annoying moments, and a lot of them, but he could always be counted on in the friend department. Which made me feel kind of crappy.

  I hadn’t done anything on that level to help Noel. In fact, now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure if I’d done anything for him at all.

  The whole idea still had me bummed when I went to pick Cora up later that evening. It was my one night this week I had off work to be with her, and of course there was a frat party she wanted to attend. So I planned on having a miserable evening, watching her drink and dance with her friends while I listened to all the jocks around me brag about how amazing they were. I wouldn’t even have Ten there to keep me any company because he had to work, and Noel had stopped attending parties when he’d hooked up with Aspen and taken in his younger siblings. None of the other guys I worked with had ever done the frat-party thing. So yeah, I planned on being bored and abandoned most of the evening.

  When I arrived at Cora’s apartment, I was already antsy and uncomfortable about spending an evening surrounded by...people. But then Zoey opened the door for me, and my anxiety level went through the roof.

  She had her hair up in another perky ponytail, and she was wearing glasses. She looked freaking adorable in glasses.

  I swallowed, unable to say a single thing.

  Then she smiled, and suddenly, I couldn’t blink either.

  “Hi.” She sounded so happy to see me, my chest expanded with pressure. It felt as if someone was blowing up a balloon inside my ribcage. “Come on in. Cora’s in her room....” She paused and cocked her ear as if she wanted me to finish the sentence.

  A grin broke across my lips. “Changing?” I guessed.

  “Exactly.” Leaving the door open for me to make myself at home, Zoey turned away. As she did, her ponytail breezed past me, stirring up that mysterious smell. I started to step over the threshold when it hit me that the smell came from her hair.

  “What kind of shampoo do you use?” I blurted out the question before my brain could tell me not to.

  Zoey stopped walking and turned back slowly. “I’m sorry?”

  Oh, crap. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, letting me know good and well she realized I’d been smelling her.

  I gulped, and motioned wildly with my hand to her ponytail. All the while, my face kept getting hotter and hotter. “I... you...when your hair whooshed past as you turned away...I didn’t mean to—sorry.”

  She must’ve realized I wasn’t trying to make a pass at her or anything because her shoulders relaxed and her lips loosened into a smile. “Oh, well, it’s, um...wild cherry and jewel orchid, or something like that. I can’t really remember. It’s supposed to be for curlier hair...” Plucking at her ponytail to show me just how curly her hair wasn’t, she shrugged with a rueful grin. “But it’s my favorite scent, so I use it anyway.”

  “I don’t blame you. I love that smell.” I realized what I’d just said the moment the words left my lips. “I mean...” Mortified, I gaped at her with no idea how I was going to talk my way out of this faux pas, when a commotion on the television caught my attention.

  “Are you watching Pysch?” I shut the door behind me and wandered into the living room, remembering the episode she currently had on.

  “Yeah. You have me officially addicted. I started watching it last night when Cora was out and almost finished the entire first season in one sitting.”

  I began to smile until it struck me what else she’d said.

  Cora had been out last night? She hadn’t told me she was goi
ng anywhere. I knew she probably didn’t sit at home alone on the nights I worked, but...

  I shook my head. My girlfriend certainly didn’t have to tell me every little move she made. Besides, I hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to her since then. She’d probably tell me all about what she’d done as I drove us to the frat party tonight.

  “It’s helping me gag my way through my homework,” Zoey was saying as she settled onto a bare spot of couch that was covered in open textbooks. Sending me a brief accusing glance, she added, “You forgot to warn me how tough Gilcrest was. I mean...” She held up a stapled stack of papers and shook it at me. “This syllabus is insane.”

  “You’re studying biology?”

  Oh, man. Soaking in bio and watching Psych? I wondered if I could talk her into trading places with me for the evening.

  “Yes. So I’m really hoping you were serious about those notes you were offering to share.”

  With a chuckle, I reached back and pulled out the sheets I’d rolled into a tube and shoved into my back pocket. Waving them at her, I stepped in to hand them over. “I was.”

  “Oh, thank God. You’re amazing.” She snagged them from my outstretched hand. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She hugged the roll to her cheek and then kissed it.

  My skin heated as I watched her press her lips to the paper I’d just had in my back pocket. She seemed to realize the intimacy of the moment a second later, because she froze, then glanced at me with a guilty cringe before she blushed and slowly moved my notes away from her mouth.

  “Sorry. That was...really weird, wasn’t it?”

  Actually, it made me feel better for all the mortifying things I’d done and said since she’d opened the door. I sniffed and waved an unconcerned hand. “Not at all. I kiss my homework all the time.”

  When she laughed, I felt...I don’t know, but it was one of those really good feelings, like you’re floating off the ground because you’re so happy.

  Unable to stay back, I drifted closer. “What’s Gilcrest making you learn first?”