I needed more numbing.
3
CRUZ
The party was still raging when I got back. I snuck in through a side door, but as soon as I cleared the doorway, Adam Labrowski was there. Our captain, and also on first line with me. His arm went around my shoulders. “Hey, man. Where’d you head off to?” He looked around me. “You didn’t bring any food back with you.”
“Styles. What’s up, man? Awesome game tonight.” Gavin Miller, who was not on the team with us, or even someone who lived in the house, held up a fist. He was from a frat on campus, and enjoyed partying with us. A lot.
“Hey, man.” I met his fist with mine, and said to Labrowski, “Is that a standard thing now? Every time we leave the house, we come back with food?”
He cracked a grin, his arm falling from my shoulders. “Nah, but that’d be awesome if we did that.”
AJ waved from the table where they were playing beer pong.
I gave him a nod back. “We could convince Atwater.”
Labrowski snorted. “Dude. We should.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Keys came over, another player and the third member of our line. A bunch of girls were with him.
Labrowski told him, and Keys was all for it.
“Hi, Cruz.” One of the girls switched from Keys’s arm to mine. “I was in bio last year with you.”
“My bad.” Miller held out a hand towards her. “This is Bianca. She hangs out a lot at the house with my brothers.”
Bianca smiled. “I went to high school with a couple of his frat brothers, so I know them that way. I was looking for you earlier. Where were you?”
Bianca was a pretty girl. A very pretty girl. Wavy brown hair. Big hazel eyes. Pouty lips, and normally, I’d be interested. Or somewhat interested because it was obvious Bianca was a girl down for a quick ride and nothing after that. Or that’s what a lot of them said, but I knew the game. A lot of them lied, which is why I appreciated what I had with Daniels. Unlike other girls, she meant what she said. We started hooking up last semester, and it’d been going well. Smooth. We hooked up a few times a week, and I was either out or she was right afterwards. Today had been a little different, but I knew Daniels by now. I’d not hear from her till next week. Our arrangement was that we screwed each other, not others, and because of that, I gave Bianca a smile, and pulled my arm out from her hold.
Keys and Labrowski were smirking because they knew my deal with Daniels. Miller didn’t, and his mouth was almost falling open as he was clutching his beer to his chest.
“I had to give a friend a ride home.” I nodded towards Keys. “You been keeping my man company tonight?”
“Oh.” But she blinked, and I gave the girl props. She rebounded fast, latching onto Keys’s arm. He lifted it, putting his arm around her shoulders, and she sunk into his side. “Marcus has been great.”
Her friend added, sultry and her own pouting lips pushed out, “But we’re glad you’re back.”
Labrowski grunted. “Without food, I might add.”
I laughed, feeling my phone buzzing in my pocket. “Get over it.” I saw the screen and yeah, the party was over for me. “I gotta take this. See you guys.”
Winding through the party, giving hellos back to people, it took a little bit before I hit the stairs and got to my room. Once there, the phone had stopped ringing, but it was my mom. I called as soon as I got through my door.
“Mom.”
“Titi was hoping to stay up to talk to you, but she zonked out a bit ago.” And as her usual self, she was cheerful on her end, which I gave my mom credit because she easily could’ve not been. She had three children. One was in college, and liked to get beat up in hockey games twice a week. Another was buried. And her third was, well… my little sister would never not be a little girl for the rest of her life.
I grinned, faintly. “How’s she doing?”
“Good. Her new worker is working out great. She brings magazines with her, and on her break, they go through them together.”
“Are you serious?”
My mom laughed, but there was a twinge of exhaustion in her tone. “They cut out pictures from the magazines and put them on this canvas. It’s called a fashion board. I’ve never seen your sister light up the way she does with this new girl. It’s…” She sniffled, her voice coming out a little shaky. “She smiles as much with her as she does during your hockey games.”
“Give that girl a raise.”
An abrupt laugh came from my mom. “The agency pays her, but I know what you mean. I tell you, if they take her off your sister and put someone else with her, I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I’m hiring her personally. Bank loan or something.”
“We’ll figure it out, Mom.”
“Oh, gosh.” She chuckled, but there was a sniffle too. “I called to talk about you, not about my problems. I watched your game. You did great. Titi boasts about you to Dawn, that’s the new girl’s name. They watch your games together when they’re doing the fashion boards. I think Dawn’s got a little crush on you.”
“She’s never met me.”
“Like that matters to some of these girls. Titi raves about you, and the girl has eyes. She sees how handsome you are.”
“Mom.”
“I get to tease you. That’s my job as your mama.”
“I know.” I sighed, missing her. Missing Titi.
“Am I hearing music in the background? Are the boys having a party?”
I stretched out on the bed, yawning. “We don’t have a game tomorrow so the guys are celebrating.”
“And you took a call from your mother.” She was back to teasing.
“I gotta make sure Titi is handling you okay.”
She chuckled, but I could hear her own tiredness. She managed the local grocery store, and there were staffing problems lately so my mom ended up doing her job and theirs. Plus taking care of Titi, and being on our own, she’d be passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow.
“You can go, Mom.”
“You just want to go and keep partying. I know my son.”
Some of my grin faded. “Yeah. You know me.” But we were both not talking about the obvious, how she was probably dead on her feet. “Love you, Mom.”
“Love you too,” she said softly. “I wanted to hear your voice, tell you what a great game you had tonight.”
“Thank you. Give Titi a hug and kiss for me.”
“You know it.”
4
MARA
“What’s up, Daniels?” Gavin Miller dropped into the seat next to me.
New semester meant new classes, and we were in an auditorium for our anthropology class. He dropped his bag at his feet, turned to me, and threw his arm around the back of my seat.
In my head, Gavin was Grant West’s version of someone I knew from my hometown.
Both came from wealthy families. Both in fraternities where they were legacies. Both square muscular bodies. The difference between them was that Zeke had blond hair, the guy from my hometown, while Gavin had dark hair, and well, their names obviously.