The Junior (College Years Book 3)

by Monica Murphy

  Ouch.

  The other half of the reason she cut me out of her life is because she’s totally hot for me and didn’t want to end up getting with me, only for it to fizzle out because that’s what we do. Not just me, and not just her, but we.

  As in, we can’t make relationships last long. Yeah, I messed around with Baylee off and on for a couple of years, but that’s only because she made it so damn convenient for me. I took advantage of her. I know I did. After seeing Jackson and Ellie go through a similar struggle, only for them to end up together and completely in love with each other, I had to take a good, hard look at myself and my behavior with Baylee.

  I didn’t like what I saw. I was a jerk to her—for a long-ass time. She should’ve told me to fuck off a while ago. I was preparing to go to her and explain exactly that to her, too, but the girl beat me to the punch.

  Baylee cut me off around the same time that Gracie did. They both walked out of my life, and once they were gone, it was like I threw a party.

  A giant, let’s see how many girls I can get with, never-ending party. I didn’t even realize what the hell I was doing. Why would it matter that Gracie and Baylee pushed me out of their lives? I didn’t need them. I was surrounded by all kinds of women. What did they matter?

  Still haven’t quite figured out the answer to that…

  My wild behavior only lasted about a month. Until my friends staged an intervention with me and told me I needed to stop partying and drinking and fucking girls. That I was acting a little out of control and needed to get my shit together before I flunked out of school and couldn’t play football anymore.

  That straightened me up quick. Sometimes it feels like football is all I’ve got left. The last bit of glory before I end up being just another mundane motherfucker doing the same ol’ thing, different day.

  Couldn’t risk losing that, so I immediately agreed with my friends, which shocked them. I can still have a good time, but I just need to have a good time in moderation.

  Jesus, I sound like my dad. He’s been preaching moderation to me since I was fourteen and he caught me stealing a pack of smokes out of the carton he kept in the cabinet over the fridge.

  “Caleb. Buddy. Let’s go outside,” Eli practically yells at me, pulling me out of my head.

  I glare at him, realizing he’s probably been talking to me for a while, but I was too lost in thought. I send Gracie a look as she crosses her arms, her expression hard to read.

  Exhaling roughly, I exit her bedroom, following Eli out of the apartment and into the parking lot.

  “Are you two going to be able to get along? Because this is going to be a really shitty year for me, living with you two fighting all the time,” Eli says the moment we stop by Gracie’s car.

  “She always starts it,” I immediately say, but Eli shakes his head, cutting me off with a firm look.

  “You say shit too. And sometimes all you have to do is look at her and she’s pissed,” Eli says as he runs his hand along his jaw, his gaze narrowing as he contemplates me. “This was probably a bad idea on my part. You’re both pretty awful. But only together. Get one of you alone without the other one around? You’re fine.”

  “And we’re living together. How the hell is this going to work?” Frustration ripples through me and I tell myself to calm down. We can totally make this work. And we need the other roomie.

  Well, Eli doesn’t. He can afford whatever, because that mofo is rich. His dad the video game designer bleeds money. Me? I’m from a nice, middle-class family who makes just enough to take a couple of vacations to the central coast every year in their old travel trailer, and Dad buys T-bone steaks to barbecue a couple of times over the summer. To him, that’s extravagant living.

  I want more than that. But how? I was recently forced to declare a major and I chose business, like my friend Tony. That guy is smart as shit. Plus, his dad bleeds even more money than Eli’s, and Tony is probably going to take over the family business one day. Why wouldn’t I follow in Tony’s footsteps?

  Though I have no business to take over. No family fortune to inherit. I am on my own and I know it. This is why I work at Mitchell’s Landing every summer, and I have them schedule me for as many hours as possible. If the tourists don’t tip me in beer—true story—they tip me in cash. And sometimes, if they’re hot and female, they tip me with a blow job.

  Again, true story.

  “You have to make it work,” Eli says, reaching out and clapping me on the shoulder in an extra brotherly way. His gaze is intense as it locks on mine. “Just…try to get along with her. Stop always saying things that piss her off.”

  I send him an incredulous look. “Eli. My friend. Everything I say pisses her off. You know this.”

  Eli laughs. “Can you believe you just called me your friend? We used to hate each other. I still remember that night I caught you flirting with Ava in the parking lot after a game.”

  “You were on our turf,” I defend, remembering that night too, when Eli and the rest of his football team—they were our biggest rivals in high school—came to watch us play on their bye week. My flirting with Ava at that time was completely harmless. I knew I could never get with her, no matter how hot she was. Her brother is one of my closest friends.

  Besides, Jake Callahan would kick my ass if I even so much as touched his baby sister. She’s been off-limits since day one.

  “Didn’t mean to change the subject.” He gives me another shake before releasing my shoulder. “But yeah. Keep the peace with Gracie. If everything you say to her makes her angry, then maybe you shouldn’t talk to her at all.”

  Right. Like that’s going to happen. Most of the time, it’s like I can’t resist her—and she can’t resist me. Yes, we piss each other off, and we argue all the time, but the arguing feels more like foreplay. Deep down, I think she likes it.

  Deep down, I know I like it. I enjoy getting a rise out of Gracie. Have I mentioned how beautiful she is? She’s fucking gorgeous. Tall and slender with long, long legs. Not much in the tits department, but that’s okay. I can work with what she’s got. Cute little ass. Slim waist. And then there’s her face…

  Eyes I can’t figure out what color they are because they always feel like they’re changing. Light brown. Bright gold. Greenish gold. Flat out green. Long, brown hair she recently highlighted. I know this because she shared photos on her IG story at the salon while getting her hair done. A mirror selfie of her sitting in a chair with her hair wrapped in foil. Somehow, she still looked good.

  Truth? I’m dying to bang her. I would bang the shit out of her if given the chance, no hesitation. And it would be good between us. I know this. Every time we accidentally—or not so accidentally—touch, sparks fly. I’m surprised we don’t light shit on fire.

  But it would end badly. I wouldn’t be able to commit. Neither would she. We’d get mad at each other. Or more like, she’d get mad at me, I’d blow her off. And boom.

  Friendship—whatever little friendship we might actually have—over.

  “I won’t be around much this summer anyway,” I say. “I’ll be working all the time. And then practice will start. Then school. I’ll never be home. And isn’t she student teaching? She won’t even be on campus when school starts back up.”

  “Right. Exactly. Perfect,” Eli says with a nod, though his expression is uneasy. I almost feel sorry for the guy, but he’s the one who asked Gracie to move in with us in the first place, so he literally asked for this.

  Gracie chooses that moment to appear and I turn away from her, initiating my, “Let’s ignore Gracie” plan at this exact minute.

  “I only have a few things left,” she says as she heads straight for the trunk of her car, her arm grazing mine as she walks past.

  My skin ignites. Just from that simple brush past me. Girl did it on purpose too.

  Who’s antagonizing who now?

  “We’ll get everything else,” Eli says, rushing toward her. More like kissing her ass. “Grab whatever�
��s lightest and we’ll take the rest.”

  “Thank you so much,” she tells him, sounding genuine.

  She doesn’t thank me at all.

  Figures.

  We grab the last remaining boxes—they aren’t that heavy—that are in the back of her car. She takes a stack of clothes on hangers and once she’s closed the trunk, off we go toward the apartment, Gracie leading us as if she’s the queen and we’re her lowly servants.

  Kind of sucks. I don’t want to be trailing after Gracie the entire summer and into the school year, doing what she wants, whenever she asks. I’m not her whipping boy.

  Taking a deep breath, I pause in the doorway of the apartment, telling myself to reset. Why do I always assume the worst when it comes to Gracie? She’s never asked me to do anything like that, ever. She has zero expectations of me.

  Wait. Scratch that. Her expectations of me are super low. I’ve got nowhere to go but up, truthfully.

  But I’m also going mostly silent. Eli was right. I need to leave her alone. Pretend she barely exists. She’s just a roommate. I need to act like I don’t even know her. She’ll probably be busy too. She mentioned needing to find a job to Eli, and that fucker suggested she come work where I do.

  I hope that doesn’t happen. Most of the time, the girls work in the fountain while the guys work in the kitchen or on the dock. We have a couple of dock girls, as we call them, and they work in the office, handling the boat reservations and giving the customers boating instructions, taking all the calls and the money and whatever else. We have a couple of regulars who return every summer, and while they haven’t started yet, they will soon.

  I’m not too worried about it.

  We spend the rest of the afternoon hanging out. Well, Eli and I hang out. Gracie is in her room upstairs, unpacking all her stuff. Setting up her bed—we carried the mattress and box spring in for her while she brought in the frame—doing all the things a person does when they’ve just moved.

  Moving sucks. It’s been nice that I’m the one who has remained in this apartment while it has had a revolving door of people. My original roommates were Tony and Diego, with Jackson and Eli living together at another apartment complex not too far from this one. Diego moved out to live with his baby mama, Jocelyn, and become a little family, leaving just Tony and me living here, and Tony covering Diego’s share of the rent because he’s a rich motherfucker.

  Jackson eventually moved out of the apartment he shared with Eli and is now touring the country with his band and took his girl, Ellie, with him. They’re dropping out of school and everything which, hey, if that works for them, cool. Tony recently moved in with Hayden. Eli moved in with me. And now so has Gracie.

  Wild. If you would’ve told me a couple of years ago that I’d be living with that hot chick I liked to torment I’d tell you no fucking way.

  Yet here I am, living with her. And Eli too. We used to be mortal enemies. That guy hated me and the feeling was mutual.

  Now look at us.

  “You going out tonight?” Eli asks me, pushing me out of my thoughts.

  “Nah. I gotta open tomorrow,” I say. Meaning I have to be at work by seven, and considering it’s less than an hour away from where we live, I have to leave the house by six in the morning at the latest.

  Eli frowns. “That sucks. I was hoping to go to that party at your frat house.”

  The frat house I’ve been avoiding lately. I’m not partying anymore. Not really.

  “You can go without me,” I tell him.

  Eli shakes his head. “Nah. My girl is coming home tomorrow for good. I should go to bed early so tomorrow happens faster.”

  “Aw, look at you. All eager to see your girlfriend and shit.” He’s so gone over her. Ava Callahan can do no wrong in his eyes. It’s been tough for them with her going to college in San Diego while he’s here, but they’ve made it through one school year. Hopefully, they’ll keep going.

  “Shut up,” he says, but he doesn’t sound pissed. “You don’t know what it’s like.”

  “What what’s like?” I frown.

  “Loving a girl so much that you can’t stop thinking about her. You haven’t found the right one yet,” he says.

  I see the sincerity written all over Eli’s face, and I want to roll my eyes. Call him a lovesick pussy or whatever, but I keep my opinion to myself. I know he means every word he says. All of my friends are just like him. Stuck on one girl, stupidly in love with them. Willing to do anything for them.

  That’s nice and all, but it’s not for me. Not yet. I have enough time before I have to settle down. We’re still young. Like, extremely young. Why do I need to tie myself to only one woman? No one tempts me anyway.

  Well.

  One girl does tempt me, but not in the right way. More like I want to get Gracie out of my system once and for all. Fuck her once and be done with it. But now that I’m living with her, I can’t cross that line. Fucking your roommate when you’re not interested in her beyond a quick hookup would end up way too messy.

  I need to ignore her. I need to remain quiet so she ignores me. We can make this living arrangement work.

  I know we can.

  Two

  Gracie

  “We’d love to hire you,” the owner of Mitchell’s Landing says right off the bat. Michelle is a pretty woman with bright blue eyes and a wide smile that she’s currently aiming at me. “But, unfortunately, we’re full at the fountain right now.”

  My own smile falls. “Oh.”

  This has been the story from every restaurant and resort I’ve hit up on the lake since I started earlier this morning. I walked into every establishment on the lakeshore, resume in hand, asking for an application. And every single one of them has told me they’ve hired their staff for the season, and I’m too late. Who knew early June was too late?

  Not me.

  “I do have one position that recently opened up, but it’s not easy. Not that it’s hard,” she’s quick to correct, probably thanks to my widening eyes. “But most of the young women I hire don’t want to deal with the guys.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask carefully.

  “We need someone to work the office on the dock. All boat rentals happen up at the store, but once we give them the paperwork, they need to meet with someone at the office on the dock. Then you’ll take care of them by showing them the boating instruction video and sizing everyone for life jackets, while one of the guys who works the dock brings their boat or jet ski around for them.”

  I like how she says “you” when describing the position. As if I already have it. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

  “Usually it’s not, but the boys at the dock can be… a lot,” she says, scrutinizing me carefully. More carefully than she was only a moment before. “Not that they do anything inappropriate, but they can be loud and obnoxious. As in, they’ll all show off for you and try to get your attention.”

  “I can handle them,” I say firmly, knowing for a fact that Caleb is one of these guys she’s referring to.

  And he’s going to kill me if I get this job. He’s been ignoring me for the last few days since I moved in with him and Eli, which is fine because I’ve been ignoring him too. Pretending he doesn’t exist is easier on my mental state, but considering I live with him, I still have to see him whether I want to or not.

  Like when, just last night, I found him exiting the steaming hot bathroom with a towel around his waist and nothing else. Water droplets still clinging to his bare skin, rivulets trailing down the perfection that is his back.

  Who knew a back could be so sexy? It’s not something I’ve ever really thought about before, but checking out his bare back as he dashed down the hall toward his bedroom, I was immediately thinking dirty, filthy thoughts.

  I told myself to calm down. Big deal. So he just got out of the shower, so what? But all of my fantasies went into overdrive, visualizing a naked Caleb under a hot spray of water, soaping himself up. Me soaping him up.

 
; Ugh. Yeah. Not good. He’s got an amazing body. Broad shoulders and chest, washboard stomach, thick thighs. Big ol’ dick.

  Hmm. I don’t know if that last part is true, but come on. With the way he acts, and all the women he gets with, it has to be a decent size. At the very least, he knows what to do with it.

  I need to stop thinking about Caleb’s dick. Seriously.

  “They’ll be the ones who train you. Well, TJ will train you too. He’s the dock manager and he’s a good guy,” Michelle explains as she glances over my application yet again before returning her gaze to me. “If you’re interested, I would love to hire you. They get tips on the dock, but not as much as they do in the restaurant.” She hesitates only for a moment. “Are you sure you want the job?”

  Does this mean she’s giving it to me? And why does she think I don’t want it. I totally do. “Yes,” I say firmly. “I definitely want the job.”

  “Then it’s yours. If a fountain position opens up, I’ll keep you in mind for that as well. Maybe you could even pick up a shift once a week,” Michelle says.

  “Wow, that’s it? I have the job?” Most places I’ve applied, I’ve had to go through a process. An interview. Sometimes a couple of rounds of them. Then it’s a lot of waiting around, hoping to get a call or an email. Sometimes I never hear back. Sometimes I do.

  This was the easiest job I’ve ever gotten.

  “You have the job,” she says with a smile. “Come on back. You can grab a couple of T-shirts and I’ll have you fill out all the forms.”

  I follow her into the restaurant/store, noting all the girls working behind the counter. There are a lot of them and they all look busy. They also all look younger than me. I know most of them are high school students, or they just graduated.

  I’m going to feel like an old lady around here. I already feel enough like one, hanging out with the group that I do. Hayden and I are older than all of them by two years, some of them three, like Ellie and Ava.