The Campus Jock: A College Bad Boy Romance

by Serena Silver

  “Since you were staring up at a certain lady during the events, Flavio. Not even trying to hide it. You too, Raul.”

  Chloe sends daggers to Kylie as she smiles between her friend and the handsome Brazilian. Chloe takes a deep breath, attempting not to drop kick Raul as he puts his arm around her waist.

  “And why would I try not to look at this beautiful woman? She stole my breath away yesterday,” Raul purrs in Chloe’s ear.

  “I can take it away right now too if I aim my foot in just the right direction,” Chloe smirks.

  “You all know each other?” the woman asks.

  “We met on the beach yesterday,” Kylie starts.

  “Let’s just say they were better in the pool tonight then they were on land the other day.”

  Chloe smirks up at Raul and steps on his foot to get him to walk away. It doesn’t actually work, and Raul just stays right next to Chloe the whole time, his eyes glued to her.

  “So, what are we all going to be up to tonight? Shall we celebrate?” Flavio asks.

  “What did you have in mind?” Kylie asks.

  “A club maybe, you ladies in?” Raul says.

  “Not me, I am just going back to the Village tonight,” Chloe chimes.

  Chloe steps away from the group and points toward the metro train entrance. Raul looks over then at her. He is not going to follow her if Chloe has absolutely anything to say about it.

  “Well, I’m in,” Kylie shines.

  “I’ll make sure Chloe makes it home safely, then meet you,” Raul states.

  “I’ll be fine,” Chloe manages.

  “We’ll be taking the metro too, she can ride with us,” the man offers.

  “That would be perfect, thank you.”

  Chloe waves goodbye to everyone and goes with the couple down into the metro tunnel. Unfortunately, Raul is following behind, and Chloe can hear his footsteps perfectly.

  The metro is practically empty except for a couple of guys wearing Brazil shirts waiting at the end of the platform. Chloe has a bad feeling about them but has an even worse feeling about Raul trying to be a gentleman that she does not want.

  “Are you really just trying to help me, or do you want something in return?” Chloe asks.

  “I just want to make sure a beautiful woman gets back to her home safely. Rio is a dangerous place at night, and you are a target in your American gear.”

  Raul smiles and stands next to Chloe as they wait for the train to arrive. He is keeping his hands to himself, pleasing Chloe beyond words.

  “I have company,” Chloe manages between her teeth.

  “How about this, I feel better taking you home,” Raul responds.

  Chloe huffs out a breath and notices the older couple listening and smiling at Chloe and Raul. Chloe hears them mention how they were like that when they were younger, and it makes her want to gag. Raul apparently hears it too and smiles at Chloe. She fake vomits and turns away from him.

  “Put your hands up,” a man with broken English yells.

  Chloe turns around and sees three guns pointed at her and the couple. Raul steps up and pulls Chloe into him, making her feel safer in the face of danger.

  “Put your hands up,” the man yells again.

  Chapter Three

  Chloe puts her hands into the air along with Raul and the couple beside them. Her mind rolls through many scenarios, including the one where Raul warned her this could happen. Why couldn’t he have been wrong?

  “Give us everything,” the second man nearly screams.

  Chloe hands over her bag with her phone and wallet inside. The couple hand over their own bags and wallets. One of the robbers puts his gun away and takes the bags away from everyone, and holds his hand out to Raul.

  “No,” Raul commands.

  “Hand over, or pretty girl gets it,” the second screams.

  Raul looks between the barrel of the gun and Chloe before handing his duffel over with his gear inside. He pulls Chloe closer to him, and she invites it. The robbers don’t leave, though; they stay with their guns pointed at the group.

  “You have what you want, now leave,” Chloe demands.

  “I don’t think so,” the first robber chuckles.

  He herds the group to the edge of the platform and one of the robbers motions for the whole group to get down on the tracks. The couple does immediately, but Chloe is very reluctant. She looks to Raul who nods at her, assuming she is going to get down on the tracks too.

  Chloe is not easily scared or murdered like that, though. She pretends to get low to get on the ground but instead sweeps her leg behind one of the robbers. He falls to the ground, and she reaches for his now discarded gun. Raul follows with her and manages to tackle one of the other guys.

  The robber pushes Chloe back, and she nearly falls off the platform. Raul has managed to hold back one of the robbers while Chloe reaches for the gun one more time and grabs it. She holds it up to the robber she took it from and looks down the sight. He doesn’t look afraid, though.

  Chloe keeps her eyes trained on her target, but is keenly aware of the fight between Raul and his own robber. Chloe feels for the safety and turns it off, knowing now that she had an advantage the whole time.

  “Drop it,” Chloe hears behind her head.

  She turns around and sees a gun pointed in between her eyes. The first robber has a horrible smile on his face and clicks his own safety off. Chloe takes a gulp, worried now more than ever that she could really die here tonight.

  Chloe sees a gun being pointed at the first robber and Raul states something in Portuguese that Chloe doesn’t understand. The other robber runs off and leaves the first one with Raul and Chloe. She turns her own gun on the man pointing at her.

  The couple is now climbing up onto the platform and holding onto each other. The woman helps Chloe up as she keeps her gun pointed at the target. Raul circles around and stands next to her.

  “If I were you, I would put the gun down,” Chloe grits out.

  Instead of listening to her, though, the robber runs off, and Chloe lowers the gun and turns the safety back on before clearing the barrel. Raul does the same and takes the gun from her. The couple immediately wrap a shaking Chloe in their arms.

  Chloe thinks back to all the training her dad gave her

  with guns and thanks him in her head. Of course, she will never tell him what happened here tonight, but nonetheless, she thanks him for everything.

  “Are you okay?” Raul asks.

  Chloe looks up at Raul and sees a giant red mark on his head, and reality crashes in. She pulls away from the couple and goes up to Raul.

  “I’m fine, but what about you?”

  Chloe lightly touches his forehead, and he flinches back.

  “I’ll be fine soon. We need to call for help,” Raul commands.

  Chloe nods and digs through her bag on the floor and finds her phone. She hands it over to Raul who dials for help.

  The couple is holding onto each other tightly and touch Chloe on and off. She can still feel herself shaking with fear and adrenaline, no doubt everything will set in later, and she will have a major freak out on Kylie.

  “They are on the way. I let them know they need to bring an interpreter,” Raul announces.

  “How are you not freaking out?” Chloe asks.

  The couple behind her murmur in agreement and look around, waiting for the police to arrive quickly.

  “I grew up in Rio, not the safest place to grow up in. You tend to see a lot of guns.”

  Raul takes the clips out of the guns and sets it all down on a nearby bench. Chloe sits down on one opposite, trying to calm her shaking hands with no luck. She does feel a moment of relief as the first few police officers trickle in from above. The train arrives behind her and Chloe feels her ears ring with the noise of everything.

  People are milling around the platform curious as to what just went down. Chloe ignores everyone.

  Chapter Four

  Raul holds an ice pa
ck up to his head while people bustle around. Chloe just watches him, feeling bad that she didn’t trust him in the first place. It may only be a bump and bruise, but everything could have been so much worse.

  “Are you sure you are fine?” Chloe questions.

  “Yes,” Raul mumbles.

  He catches her eyes, and the deep brown of his eyes makes her heart thump harder in her chest. It is almost like he can see the deeply hidden secrets in her soul that she doesn’t even know about yet.

  “Do you have any more races?”

  “No, tonight was my last for the games. I will be fine, Chloe, I promise.”

  Chloe lays her hand over Raul’s and tries to show him that she does care that he tried to help her, even if it meant that he got hurt. He smiles at her and holds onto her hand.

  “This shouldn’t have happened. First Zika and now this? We aren’t the only people who have been robbed since getting here.”

  “Good news, the chances are high that this is the only time you will ever be robbed in your lifetime.”

  Chloe laughs at the joke that Raul tried to make, but it came out more as just a fake laugh. She does smile up at Raul, to make him feel better about everything.

  “You say that, but I have a feeling you were just the start of my bad luck,” Chloe elbows Raul.

  Raul laughs at her joke, a real and honest laugh. Chloe lets herself laugh now too, feeling real relief and happiness since everything in the metro.

  “Do you have any races tomorrow?” Raul asks after calming down.

  “No, Kylie has her qualifying tomorrow, but that is at night.”

  “What about you? If you’re staying in the Village, then that means you race too.”

  Chloe pulls her hand out of Raul’s and looks down at her clasped ones.

  “I am a marathon swimmer, so I go next week.”

  “Plenty of time to workout then. Maybe I could join you on one.”

  “I doubt you could keep up with my distance. It is ten kilometers, you know,” Chloe mocks.

  “You don’t think I could do it? I think I could.”

  They both laugh at his dishonest statement and relax as the hustle and bustle around them gets louder. Apparently, there were some drunk people coming in and making a real fuss. Chloe watches as one of the men from before walks by in cuffs.

  An officer talks with Raul about something that Chloe can’t understand. He nods and points at the guy who just walked past in cuffs, and it becomes apparent that they managed to catch at least one of the assailants. Chloe looks at him behind the bars of a jail cell and scrunches her face. He looks down, shame or anger on his face, it is hard to tell.

  “So, they got one, but he isn’t turning on the other two,” Raul mentions.

  “At least they got one,” Chloe smiles at Raul.

  “You were impressive back there.”

  “I was raised in the backwoods in Minnesota, raised to hunt. Then I learned self-defense when I moved to the Twin Cities. Safety first.”

  Chloe internally smacks herself at her word vomit while Raul smiles at her. It is really impressive how he is able to smile at everything Chloe is saying and doing, it is actually annoying her a bit.

  “Can we go?” Chloe yawns.

  “Yeah, we are good to go.”

  Raul helps Chloe up, and they grab their bags they got back. He walks with his arm over her shoulders, and Chloe likes the feeling of comfort it provides. It feels like home to her.

  “Do you want to go sightseeing with me sometime, Chloe?” Raul asks.

  They exit the police station and walk along the streets. Raul is leading them toward a street with cabs on it. Chloe is watching their surroundings with a keen eye, only half paying attention to what Raul is saying.

  “So, you want to go?”

  “Where?” Chloe asks.

  “Sightseeing. I can show you around Rio, and we can get some food too. You have tomorrow free, so I thought it would be a fun way to pass the time.”

  Chloe giggles at Raul’s word vomit. Some of the words were extremely accented and hard to decipher, but Chloe got the gist of it all.

  “I don’t know, maybe.”

  “Wonderful, wonderful,” Raul claps.

  Raul calls out for a cab when they stop on the corner. One pulls up to the curb, and they both climb inside. Raul instructs the driver in Portuguese, and they are off. Chloe recognizes the way to the Village and remains silent on the way there. Raul is looking out his own window, silent too.

  It doesn’t take long for the cab to pull up in front of the Village entrance for the building the USA is staying in. Chloe sees a few lights on in the rooms up top, but most are out.

  Raul follows Chloe out of the cab and pays their driver the fare. He walks Chloe up to the door to the building and stands there looking at her. Chloe looks down at her feet, unsure of what to do now that the night is ending.

  “So, I can pick you up tomorrow, and we can go see some of the sights if you want.”

  “Sure, I’ll be here,” Chloe admits.

  Raul nods then leans forward. Chloe’s eyes grow wide, worried that Raul is going to try and kiss her on the lips. Instead, he kisses her on the cheek.

  “I will leave once you make it inside,” Raul tells Chloe.

  “Okay, goodnight,” Chloe says.

  “Goodnight,” Raul answers.

  Chloe goes inside and feels her chest contract and grow in her chest. She holds her hand over her heart as she walks to the elevator and presses the button. Chloe keeps looking back at the door, knowing that right there she was kissed by Raul, even though it was just on the cheek.

  Reality crashes in on her way up to her room though, thoughts about her actual impression on the guy come flooding back in. She didn’t like him until after everything happened. She thinks about if she will still feel the same way in the morning and doubts it.

  In front of the door to her room, Chloe notices the light flooding out from underneath. Kylie is more than likely already back and worried. Chloe opens the door and heads inside.

  Chapter Five

  Kylie nearly tackles Chloe as she comes into the room. Chloe has to disentangle herself from her friend and cross the room.

  “I thought something had happened to you? Where were you?”

  Kylie moves back to looks Chloe up and down while she deposits her bag onto the bed and slouches down on top of it.

  “Something did happen,” Chloe admits.

  “Do I need to ask or are you going to tell me?”

  “Well, we were robbed on the Metro platform and held at gunpoint. So, no big deal.”

  Kylie kneels down in front of Chloe and pulls her into her arms. Chloe lets herself cry, letting all the stress and fear out from earlier that night. Kylie rubs her hand up and down Chloe’s back.

  “It’s okay, it’s over now,” Kylie shushes.

  “Raul was there, and if he weren't I would probably be dead,” Chloe makes out.

  “What do you mean?”

  Chloe pulls back from Kylie and wipes away the tears from her face and eyes. She takes a deep, shuddering breath and locks eyes with Kylie.

  “There were three robbers, and they forced us to get on the tracks, but I swiped the legs out from one. I managed to get the gun while Raul wrestled it from the other. The third pointed it at me, but Raul pointed his at him because the other two ran.”

  “Slow down and take a breath,” Kylie pleads.

  Chloe does take a breath, followed by about ten more deep ones. Her nerves are fried for the rest of the night and Kylie is being way too nice for Chloe to deal with.

  “Well, the other two got away, and the third runs off too after all guns were pointed at him. Raul called the police then, and we were at the station up until a little bit ago.”

  Chloe stands up and paces around the smallish room. She is shaking out her hands, still rattled from before and especially since Raul is gone now.

  “You’re okay, though, right?” Kylie asks.


  “Yeah, I wasn’t hurt. Raul got hit on the head, but he is fine apparently.”

  “Good,” Kylie nods.

  Chloe sits back down on the bed and pulls Kylie up onto it. They both just sit there for a while, letting Chloe calm down and Kylie process everything that was just told to her.

  “How was your night?” Chloe asks.

  Kylie laughs at the sudden change in conversation and lights up her face.

  “Let’s just say that Flavio is definitely not as smooth as he thinks he is. He is a terrible dancer and even worse at actually holding a conversation that has nothing to do with him.”

  Chloe laughs along with Kylie at the thought of a not so suave man trying his best to be suave.

  “So he is what we thought?” Chloe asks between laughs.

  “Basically, but he is nice and does try.”

  “Well, at least he tries.”

  Chloe thinks back to her small talk with Raul on the cab ride over. He was genuine then, and Chloe loved it. He seems to be, by far, a better person than Flavio. Yet, Chloe feels nervous at the thought of agreeing to go on an actual date with Raul.

  “I did something bad,” Chloe whispers.

  Kylie looks over at her friend, concern purely on her face and nothing else.

  “What did you do?”

  “I agreed to go on a date with Raul. He was so nice in the car, and he seems like a great guy with everything that happened tonight. Flavio may be everything we thought, but there is more to Raul.”

  “So, this isn’t bad, this is good. You agreed to a date with a good looking great guy. Nothing bad there.”

  “Chloe turns her whole body to face her friend, crossing her legs in front of her. Kylie does the same, curiosity painted across her face now.

  “What if it turns out that I do like him? What if it was all an act?”

  “You still need to go. If it goes bad, it is just one date. No harm, no foul.”

  “What if it goes well?”

  “Then you will get laid for the first time in over a year. I think Raul could be that miracle worker.”

  Chloe hides her face in her hands shakes her head. She cannot believe what her friend just said. She cannot let herself believe that Raul could be anything other than a nice-ish guy she met in Rio at the Olympics. Then again, he is very charming and sweet and nice.