Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
“Oh, is that what your ex-girlfriend told you? That she was scared of the Big—” I leaned closer to his face. “Bad.” God, I wanted to knock his teeth down his throat. “Wolf?” A few guys around us snorted. “Or do you just have a problem thinking someone else is fucking what used to be yours?”
“She is mine!”
The possessive part of me reared its ugly head. She had been mine first. “Is she?” I gripped his scrawny shoulder.
He tried to back away, but I held him in place and leaned down by his ear.
“You like my sloppy seconds, Brent?” I knew damn well saying that was disrespectful to Jade, but I couldn’t help myself.
His shoulder tensed under my grip, and then the little fucker took a swing at me. His fist grazed my cheek, the force not enough to kill a fly. Oh, that little asshole was about to get it, and every bit of hate I had harbored toward him for the past year.
“Remember,” I said, balling my fist. “You took the first swing.” Then I laid his ass out cold on the locker room floor with one punch.
A collective ohh broke out from the other players, one of them mumbling, “Shit, Brookes.”
Shit was right. If Coach found out about this—
“What in the ever-loving hell?” Coach shoved through the guys crowded around us. His gaze dropped to Brent sprawled out on the floor, and then it lifted to me. Man, was the scowl on his face angry. “Boy…” He grabbed my shoulder and shoved me forward. “Get in my office.”
“Come on, Coach.” I thumbed back at Brent. “He was running his mouth.”
“Don’t give a rat’s hairy ass. Get your butt in my office.”
The players parted, allowing us through the locker room. With the adrenaline dissipating, I realized how stupid that had been. Sure, the dickhead had it coming, but I should have tried to hold my shit together until I ran into him off campus. Plausible deniability and all that crap…
I followed Coach down the trophy-lined hallway to his office. He jutted an angry thumb toward the open doorway. The first time I’d been in this office, my dad had been with me, beaming with pride. Something told me, as I took a seat in the chair across from Coach’s desk, Dad wouldn’t have been so proud of me right then.
Coach slammed the door before walking behind his desk. “We’ve got our game with Tech this weekend.” He paced the small space in front of his window, smoothing a hand over his thinning hair. “So, why in the hell are you acting a fool? Dammit, Brookes.” He sank into his chair and snatched a notebook from the corner. “I’m gonna have to suspend you, and you’re the best damn player we have.”
Suspension? I’d expected to run an extra mile after practice, maybe have to pick up the tackling dummies. But suspension?
His brow wrinkled. “Don’t look all confused, boy. You know you can’t go around knocking the skull off teammates.”
“He threw the first punch. Ask—”
“You’ve been sacking that kid left and right at practice. And ain’t nothing funny about it, Brookes. The team sure as shit ain’t gonna find it funny when we lose. We won’t have a whore’s chance in hell without you.”
“But—”
“Look, you wanna go around acting like a caveman outside my locker room, help yourself. But I can’t have you doing that crap on my clock. Shit…” The hinges on his chair creaked when he leaned back on an aggravated groan. “Trust me, I wouldn’t suspend you if I didn’t think the dean would have my ass if she found out. But she ain’t exactly fond of me.” Because he’d fucked her and showed her nudes to half the faculty during a drunken poker night, or so I’d heard. “I’m sorry. But I’m gonna have to suspend you for a minimum of two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” My face heated. Anxiety knotted my stomach. I couldn’t miss this week’s game. Definitely not two. “Coach, I—”
“It ain’t none of my business what beef you two have going on between you, but rules are rules.” He leaned over the notebook, scribbling something on the paper. “Now, go on and get yourself outta here. Sort your head out. Go do meditation; talk to Jesus. Whatever shit it is you kids do these days to get yourselves right.”
My jaw clenched, and I shoved out of the seat. A shit-stained tidal wave of anger tore through me. At Brent. At Jade. Mostly, though, that anger was with myself. I’d allowed someone who shouldn’t matter to matter too much and for way too damn long.
Twelve
Jade
Warm afternoon sun hit my face when I walked out of my biology class, as if the universe were attempting to brighten my bleak mood. But nothing cheered me up. My car was broken, Wolf was being even more of a dick than usual, and I was still forcibly living in a damned frat house. With my ex! Just an average Thursday.