by Bella King
I should have felt bad for him, but I had to hold back a snicker at how wild he looked covered in food. There had been egregiously large amounts of messy food on the tray tosser’s plate, and most of it had landed right on Todd. I didn’t have a drop of cheese sauce on me.
Todd pursed his lips together and smiled. “That’s alright,” He said through gritted teeth. I could tell he was annoyed but trying to hide it.
I wouldn’t have, but I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve.
I looked at the guy that had tripped and recognized him as one of Oliver’s friends. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but it seemed odd that the second someone tried to pick me up, they were interrupted by flying food, courtesy of Oliver’s posse. Interesting.
I got up, handing Todd a napkin even though he wouldn’t be able to do much with it. He wiped his face with it, returning it to the table soggy.
The guy that had tossed the food took his tray back and scooped the slop back onto his plate. “Can’t let this go to waste,” he said.
I was repulsed. “You’re going to eat that?”
He laughed. “I’m joking. I don’t want to leave you two with a mess,” he explained.
“Weren’t you at the party on Saturday?” I asked, pointing my finger at him and squinting my eyes.
“Oliver’s party? Yeah. Mia is still at his place, I think, finishing the game.”
“They sure are taking a while. Didn’t she go there several hours ago?” I asked.
The guy nodded. “Oh yeah, they sure are hitting it off. I’d watch out for Mia. She seems like she really wants Oliver’s cock.”
I groaned. “You’re nasty. I don’t like Oliver.”
“Are you sure? I saw you two disappear in the bedroom the other night.”
I stood up. “That’s quite enough,” I hissed. “That’s not any of your business.” I tried to telepathically communicate that I was sitting with a messy yet suitable bachelor, but this guy wasn’t getting the message. If he was, he was ignoring it.
“I mean, you probably have a chance with him. He’s a nice guy.”
Todd was still seated, cleaning the vegetables off his sweater while he frowned at the both of us and our conversation. I’m sure he felt a little foolish after hitting on me to find out that I was shaking up with someone else. I didn’t want him to think that, but it was probably too late to change it.
I shook my head. “What was your name again?” I asked the guy.
“Jordan,” he replied.
“Well, Jordan, I think if you actually asked Oliver, he would tell you that nothing happened and that we’re definitely not involved.”
Todd put his hands up. “Listen, I don’t want to get in the middle of whatever this is. I think I’m going to go.”
My chest rose and fell in a heavy sigh. “See you, Todd.”
He waved, rushing out of the dining hall to get cleaned up and change his clothes.
I turned back to Jordan when he had disappeared. “What the fuck was that about?”
Jordan looked at me, scrunching his face up as though I were talking some alien language. “I tripped. What, I’m not allowed to trip?”
I groaned. “You didn’t do it on purpose?” I asked accusingly. I had my arms crossed tightly, and I was leaning into Jordan as though I could intimidate the truth from him with my small figure. It didn’t work very well.
Jordan laughed. “I don’t know who that loser was you were talking to, and quite frankly, I don’t care.”
“I don’t really know him that well either, but Todd’s not a loser. He was very polite.”
“Polite and pussy both start with a P, but one won’t get you the other,” Jordan replied in a sing-song voice.
I rolled my eyes. “Is that the Oliver gang motto or something?”
Jordan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Huh, that’s a good idea. I’ll pitch it to him next time I see him.”
“Please just leave me alone,” I said, grabbing my plate of half-eaten food from the table.
“Sheesh, no need to get your panties in a bunch,” Jordan said, brushing my shoulder as he walked past me.
He nearly knocked the tray from my hands. I took a step back to stabilize myself before walking toward the exit. I placed my tray on the conveyor belt to the kitchen and left the dining hall. I would have to have a talk with Oliver about keeping his goons away from me. I was certain this was his doing.
Chapter 14
I got back home to find Mia in the living room watching TV again. She sprung from the couch the minute I got home, pulling money from her pocket and waving it in my face. “I did it!”
I pulled my head back. “I hope you’re talking about poker,” I said.
“Duh. I beat Oliver. Here’s your fifty bucks,” she said, handing two twenties and a ten to me.
I took the money. “Thanks.”
Mia frowned, tilting her head to the side. “Hey, is something wrong?”
I took a deep breath in. “Do you know who Jordan is?”
Mia shook her head but stopped herself. “Oh, yeah. He’s one of Oliver’s friends, right?”
I nodded, slipping my shoes off and walking into the living room. I propped myself on the side of the couch. “Yeah, so I met this guy in the library. His name is Todd.”
Mia raised her eyebrows at me several times. “Ooo, Todd.”
I ignored her. “Todd invited me to the dining hall with him, and we were having a nice dinner when Jordan comes up, throwing his fucking tray at Todd. I swear he pretended to trip. I’m pretty sure he did it on purpose.”
Mia burst out in a vivacious cackle. “Holy shit, that’s golden.”
“I have to tell you something serious. I’m kind of freaked out by Oliver now,” I admitted.
Mia’s face grew serious. “Why? He seems nice enough. I was just over there, and he was a total gentleman.”
I leaned back on the couch more, placing my hands against the side cushion to hold myself up. “You know that shit that happened when we were at his place drinking on Saturday.”
“How could I forget it?”
“Well, he told me today not to talk about it. Like, he only did it because he was drunk, and he doesn’t want me to tell people about it,” I explained. “He claimed to have a crazy ex, and that’s why, but I really doubt that.”
Mia pouted. “Aw, I’m sorry, girl. There are plenty of other fish in the sea though. Todd, for example.”
“Are you even listening?” I was growing heated, digging my fingering into the plush cushion. “I told you, I don’t like him like that. All I’m saying is that he was really strange about it and probably lying about his ex.”
“I can find out about the ex thing,” Mia offered.
I relaxed my grip on the sofa. “I was going to ask you that if it’s not too big of a deal for you.”
Mia beamed at me. “That’s what friends are for, Lydia. We’re besties!”
I smiled back at her, feeling the weight of the conversation beginning to lift from my body. My pulse returned to a normal rhythm, and I relaxed my jaw. “That’s true. We have to stick together, no matter what.”
Mia opened her arms. “Give me a hug.”
I stood up straight and walked into her embrace. Everything from that day sort of melted away with that hug. Mia was a special friend, and I didn’t know where I would be without her. She was my rock, and I was glad that she was helping me out with all this.
I was also glad that I was going to have help getting to the bottom of why Oliver was behaving so strangely around me. Jordan must have been watching me in the dining hall, making sure to humiliate Todd, or probably any other guy I was with, the moment he noticed me enjoying myself. He was part of Oliver’s posse, with Oliver as the ringleader.
As I pulled away from Mia’s comforting arms, I thought about my own crazy ex and how he too had stalked me after I told him that I was leaving him to go to a different university. He had grown wild with anger and refused to leave me alone, followin
g me around and showing up to my house at night.
Those had been some scary times, and I was a bit concerned that Oliver might be doing something similar. He had left a note for me while I was at work, tried to find out where I lived, and possibly sent Jordan to spy on me.
I could have been paranoid and tainted by my past experience with men, but I wasn’t ready to let something like this go. The fear that I had felt all those years ago was beginning to creep back into my life, and I was desperate to find an escape from it.
The only thing that threw me off about all this was the fact that Oliver didn’t want people to know that we had kissed in his room on Saturday. With my ex, he had wanted people to believe that we were still together, going as far as telling my own parents that we were in a long distance relationship.
He was a crazy guy, no doubt, but at least he was predictable to some extent. The emails, the stalking, the prevailing possessive attitude, none of these were surprising to me at this point. For the most part, though, I had left him behind, and I would hopefully never see him again.
Oliver, on the other hand, was a harder nut to crack. I couldn’t figure him out, but that’s where Mia came in. She would help me uncover his true intentions, because I didn’t believe he wasn’t into me, and I didn’t believe that he had a crazy ex. He would have acted differently.
Chapter 15
School doesn’t stop just because I get wrapped up in some social bullshit. I had classes back to back on Thursday, with little to no breaks in between them. I ran from classroom to classroom, taking notes and wiping any thought of Oliver from my mind. There was simply no time to be thinking about guys.
I slammed back an iced coffee in the morning, but by midday, I was jonesing for another. Heart health be damned. I was going to have what I craved. Between classes that were an hour apart, I hurried out to the coffee shop on campus to get a refill.
It was raining again, but this time I came prepared. I had an elegant black raincoat on with a red and black checkered interior that was sort and warm. It had a hood, but I didn’t wear it unless it was pouring outside, and today was just a light sprinkle.
My matching black rainboots splashed on the pavement as I walked quickly to the coffee shop. I loved the smell of rain, but the warm smell of roasting coffee beans was even better as I approached the shop. Combined, the two smells would make the most kickass candle.
It had been a few days since the incident with Todd, and I hadn’t seen him since. I doubted he wanted anything to do with me anymore, but that was probably for the best. To him, I was trouble, and to me, he was nothing more than a distraction from school.
I pulled open the heavy door to the coffee shop, shaking the droplets of rain off my jacket as I entered. It was warm and smelled wonderful in the shop, the gentle glow of yellow light illuminating the interior. I wished every place was like this.
There were only two people in line, an old man and another student. I got behind them and waited with my coffee thermos clenched tightly in my hand. I felt a little like an addict lining up for my daily fix, expect for this was one I needed several times a day.
I wondered what happened when you reached your tolerance limit for caffeine. Does your heart just explode one day, or could you just keep increasing the amount you consume until you were gulping down whole pots of coffee to no effect? Surely there was an upper limit, but I hadn’t reached it yet.
As I stepped up in line to order, I heard the rumbling of a truck pulling up in the parking lot outside the building. I recognized that sound as Oliver’s truck almost immediately, being iconically shitty in that it sounded like his vehicle was putting out a metric fuck-load of pollution into the air behind it.
“One tall vanilla iced coffee, please,” I announced to the young man behind the counter.
He punched a few buttons on the screen in front of him. “5.99,” he said dryly.
I pulled out the ten dollar bill that Mia had returned to me, sliding it across the counter to him. I received my change in return, including the one cent, which would end up between my couch cushions by the end of the week. I bet the copper in those were worth more than the purchasing power of the coin itself.
The sound of rumbling stopped as I walked to the end of the coffee bar, waiting for my drink to arrive. I looked toward the parking lot to see the red truck sitting across the lot. After a moment, Oliver stepped out, wearing a leather jacket and a white t-shirt tucked into jeans, a classic look, but undeniably fitting for Oliver. The trick there was to be smoking hot, then everything would look good on you.
The iced coffee arrived as Oliver entered the coffee shop. His eyes found mine immediately, and he smirked, walking directly over to me. I nervously pulled off the lid of the plastic coffee cup, preparing to pour it into my thermos as Oliver stepped up.
“Everyone has their vices,” Oliver said, glancing at my thermos. “I thought you drank water from that. Now I see why you hold it like it’s the only thing keeping you alive during class.”
I smiled and shrugged. “We do what we have to, to survive the college experience.”
Oliver smiled, but his smile was off putting, almost bitter. “Yes, we do what we have to.”
“I assume you’re here to get your fix, too,” I said, changing the tone.
Oliver’s face relaxed. “Yeah, it’s been a tough week. Professor Lyche is driving me insane, having me grade so many papers. I’m not cut out for grading.”
“You can give me an A,” I said with a wink.
“Actually, I gave you a C on the exam,” Oliver replied seriously.
My stomach dropped. “What?!” I spoke so loud that even heads with headphones turned to us.
“I’m joking, Lydia. Jesus, you need to relax about the whole grades thing. You know they don’t give you grades in the real world,” Oliver said, completely breezing over the fact that my grades were the only reason I was able to afford school.
“And I suppose this isn’t real life to you, just a game,” I said, my toes curling up in my rainboots. I poured the cold coffee into my thermos aggressively, splashing some over the side.
Oliver raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you should drink more. I’m having another get together this weekend. You’re welcome to join.”
“No,” I snapped. “I’m busy.”
“I didn’t say when,” Oliver replied coolly. He wasn’t showing any reactions to my mood swings, and it made me angrier. He had no right to be so relaxed all the time.
“I’m busy all weekend,” I clarified.
“Your friend Mia is coming,” Oliver said, reaching out an arm and propping himself up on the counter, leaning toward me.
I could smell the heavy scent of his cologne, mixed with the smell of rain and leather. It drove me wild, but I would never admit that to him. I barely wanted to admit it to myself. His blue eyes screamed innocence and guilt at the same time, and I was so caught up in his gaze that I forgot what he was even saying to me.
“So you should come,” he said, his voice turning to a low grumble like the engine of his truck. “It’ll be fun.”
“I’ll think about it,” I breathed, the words slipping out like sand between my fingers at the beach. I couldn’t stop myself.
Dammit, Lydia. This guy is trouble.
Yeah, I knew that, but he was making me feel hot and bothered. I put my thermos in between us, separating myself from him with the serotonin inducing effects of fresh coffee. That would cool me down.
The last thing I needed was another addiction. Oliver would have to take the back seat to coffee.
Oliver leaned in a little more, his eyes fixed on mine. I looked down at my coffee, trying not to get sucked in. His leather jacket creaked as he moved in close. I had to be stronger than that to survive an entire semester of him in my class.
“I really think you should come,” He said. Something in his voice made that sound more like a command than his opinion.
I gripped my thermos tightly, bringing it to my lips and
taking a sip. I looked up in his eyes, which were swirling with something dark. “I said I’ll think about it,” I replied firmly.
Oliver leaned back, nodding. “Good, I’ll see you then,” he said, turning around and walking to the counter to order.
I rushed out of the coffee shop, not looking behind me as I rushed to my next class. I didn’t want to come to his place and risk another incident like last time, but for some reason, his voice sounded like he would be very angry if I didn’t.
I juggled the pros and cons in my head as my rain boots hit familiar grass on the way to the science building. If I was with Mia, then she could keep an eye on me, and I could always turn down booze when offered. It wouldn’t be so bad.
Plus, if Oliver and his friends got drunk again, I might be able to pry some truth out of them as to what was going on.
I was so caught up in my thoughts that I almost didn’t notice Jordan standing across from the science building, watching me as I walked to class. It could have been another coincidence that he was there, but I wanted to confront him this time to see if he had any reason to be there.
I changed course, ignoring the fact that class would be starting in five minutes. As I began to approach Jordan, he disappeared into double doors. I stopped walking, standing between the two buildings, watching the doors to see if he would come out again.
He didn’t.
I sighed heavily, changing my course back to the science building and rushing in with my thermos of iced coffee sloshing around in my hand. My ass hit the seat at the precise moment the professor walked in.
Chapter 16
“I think that Jordan is stalking me,” I said to Mia in the dining hall at dinner.
Mia snuck a plastic bottle filled with a clear liquid that could only be vodka out from her bookbag and unscrewed the lid. “Really? He seemed pretty normal when I talked to him,” she said, pouring a generous amount into the thick translucent plastic cup half full with cola in front of her.