My phone vibrated in my front pocket.
Liv’s messages were probably rolling in five at a time.
The ten-block walk was silent beside my sentry. A shudder raced through me, and I tried to push away how badly things could’ve gone tonight.
He tightened his arm around me, his head whipping from side to side to take on anyone.
I squeezed him for the last half block. Holding on kept me from thinking too much, from digging too deep into what could’ve happened, from being too scared.
Back at the house, he led me to my room like I’d forget the way without his arm around me. Not that I was complaining.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” He hovered.
I grabbed a long-sleeve shirt from the pile in the laundry basket by my desk. A quick sniff—clean. For some reason my clothes went from the dryer straight into the basket to be used later, but I folded LJ’s. It was how he liked it, even if he hated doing it himself. At least there was one thing I could do for him.
I jerked my shirt off, leaving me in my camisole and bra.
LJ hissed. A high, ragey hiss.
“Risa.” He turned me and ran his hands, feather light, down my shoulders.
Goosebumps jumped up like the ROTC cadets marching across campus.
“LJ?”
“I should’ve let Keyton kill him. Better yet, I should’ve joined in.” His fingers moved in small, slow circles on my arms.
Dropping my head, I cringed. Four distinct finger patterns wrapped around both arms. “It’s okay.” I held onto the back of his hand.
“It’s not okay.” His words shot from his mouth.
“I didn’t mean what he did was okay. I meant I’m okay. They don’t hurt.”
“Should’ve never happened.”
“We could say that about a lot of things.” I nudged him with my elbow.
“We should call campus security.”
“No, we shouldn’t. Keyton was involved in that fight. From the looks of Chris’s face, they’d ask questions, and I don’t want Keyton getting suspended or kicked off the team because of that asshole.”
“But—”
“I’ll steer clear of Chris and make sure I don’t wander down any dark hallways on my own from now on. I’m fine. Now get out of my room, so I can change.”
The fire in his eyes cranked down a notch from angry inferno to campfire. “Why? We used to change in front of each other all the time.” He dropped his hand, lips twitching.
“When we were nine.” And from our sleepovers last year, I’d probably need an industrial sized fan to cool me off if he dropped his pants right now. “Get out already.” I grabbed his shoulders and shoved him out the door.
After changing, I slipped into my bed, tossing and turning. The uneasiness I’d tried to banish after my run-in with Chris still ran rampant in my brain.
Slamming my hands into the mattress, I flung off the covers and peered out my door.
The house was quiet. I tiptoed down the hallway to LJ’s door beside mine.
Keyton’s door was open, but his room was empty.
Gently knocking my knuckles against LJ’s door, I opened it.
He lay in bed on his back and turned to face me.
The creases in his forehead deepened. He had probably been grinding his gears about me not letting him fix the Chris problem.
“Couldn’t sleep?” I walked further into the room, floorboards creaking under my bare feet.
“No. I want to get dressed and go beat the shit out of him.” Ding. Ding. Ding.
“Can we not talk about him?”
He propped his head up on his hand and lifted the blankets.
I dove for the invitation, laying on my back beside him, staring up at the ceiling.
“Thanks.”
“Anytime, Risa. Night.” The bed dipped. He scooted away, but laid on his side facing me.
“Night.” I closed my eyes and let his steady breaths ease the tension from my body.
Only for tonight.
This was the last time we’d share a bed.
11
LJ
It had only taken me forty-eight hours of snapping at everyone and pacing in my room to finally storm across campus to the on-campus senior apartments. We had a game this week, so Marisa would be home alone.
Marisa hadn’t slept in my bed last night, but she’d stayed up late and had left her light on.
It made me feel like a rampaging beast was trying to gnaw its way out of my chest.
I pounded my fist against the door. The metal rattled against the frame.
The door opened. In the gap, the bruised and scabbed face of Chris stared straight back at me. “What the hell are you doing here?”
I slammed into the door, pushing myself inside. “What do you think I’m doing here?” The debate had raged in my head on the way over.
Marisa would kick my ass for doing this, but it needed to be done. It wasn’t like getting suspended from the team would cut back on my playing time anyway.
The blood leeched from his face, showing off the yellowing of the edges of the bruises.
“It was a mistake. I was drunk.” He licked his lips, wincing when he hit the patches of broken skin.
“You think getting shit-faced is an excuse for hurting Marisa? She’s got finger bruises on her arms thanks to you.”
“I was just messing around, trying to scare her.” His voice was pitched up and squeaky with a tremble. Good, he should be scared.
I closed the gap between us so quickly, he stumbled back and fell onto the couch. “And you think that’s better? You think it makes you tough?”
Looming over him, I reigned in my anger, leashing it and holding on tight. The last thing I wanted was to knock him out and for Marisa to take it on as her fault. “You don’t come near her. You don’t breathe near her. You don’t even be in the same building as her.”
His head bounced up and down like a bobblehead on a dashboard.
“If she shows up to a party, coffee shop, library, whatever, you leave. Don’t even take time to gather up your shit. You walk out the door without a word or a look.”
“I…I will. I promise.”
“You’d better.” I wanted to rip his fucking head off. Instead, I backed up and left his apartment without even closing the door. Maybe I shouldn’t have stopped Keyton. Maybe I should’ve piled right on.
Knowing he was on campus would keep me on edge, but Marisa was adamant about not going to campus security.
Crossing campus, I got to the locker rooms early to change for practice. We had a game this weekend. Not that I’d be playing.
The room was quiet—at least as quiet as a locker room ever got on a practice day. A few coaching staff went over their clipboards and binders like they held a treasure map to the Holy Grail. The lingering scent of muscle rubs, athletic tape and sweat permeated every inch of the place.
By the time I got into full pads, more guys had filled the room.
Keyton followed behind a group of defensive linemen and froze when he spotted me. His door had been open the night Marisa crawled into bed with me, but closed in the morning and in the two days since, like he’d been waiting for everyone to clear out before leaving.
Instead of avoiding me, he clenched his jaw and made a beeline straight for me. “Sorry for losing it the other night. How’s Marisa?” It all wooshed out like a single word.