Grey_The Encounter

by Allison White

  All I can do is sigh, lean into his warm chest, and mutter, “I am never drinking ever again.”

  He chuckles and whispers against my forehead, “Again, that’s what everyone says after drinking, Princess,” and kisses my forehead, all in one swift motion. My heart does cartwheels in my chest, and I bite down on my lip, retracting a smile.

  “What are you doing today?” Wait, why do I care?

  He scoffs. “You mean, what are we doing today?”

  “No, I don’t.” I look into his dark eyes. I never noticed those little sparks of lightning tendrils of grey before…I look away and feel my cheeks heating. What is wrong with me?

  “Yes, yes you do, because we are going to a boxing gym.” I raise my head and examine the slight crease in his forehead.

  “What do you need to go there for?”

  “To move boxes.” He snickers and looks at me, and I look at that dimple. “What do you think, Princess?” His hands grip my thigh teasingly; I tense but keep up a smile and shrug.

  “Okay, what do I need to go there for?”

  “I have to look after you,” he says casually.

  “Why?” I ask.

  He juts out his bottom lip, and I briefly imagine rubbing my thumb over it. “I’m bored, and I feel like gauging your reaction to a building full of shirtless men punching bags. Plus, I want to see if you, the prude of all prudes, can get turned on.”

  I smack his chest, and he chuckles. “I thought we were over that prude thing.”

  “Oh, we are never over that, Princess.” He winks at me, and I have to look away before he sees what effect he has on me.

  He stops in front of the bathroom door and walks inside. Considering it’s six a.m. on a Saturday morning, it’s empty—thank God. He walks over to one of the benches placed in the middle of the room and sets me down.

  “Dang it! I forgot my toiletry bag in the room.” I look up at him. “Mind going back and getting it?”

  “Sure, stay here,” he instructs.

  “Oh no. I was planning on booking a trip to Mexico.” I frown, and he rolls his eyes but smiles.

  He takes off his jacket, places it on the bench, and winks at me. “I hope you’re ready for your sponge bath, Princess.” He turns away and heads out.

  “That is not happening,” I yell after him. His response is a laugh that makes me smile. I like this Grey. The Grey that is helpful, funny, sweet, nice. Not the other Grey that is secretive, brooding, and switched off from everything around him—me especially. I wonder what brought this side of him out in the first place. And I also wonder what can keep him this way…

  An abrupt, persistent ringing sounds through the empty room. I look over, realizing it’s his phone. Probably Diana or some other girl calling for a quickie. My mouth goes dry as my heart plummets to my stomach. I turn my head away and dare myself to stand.

  I have to wash away this disgusted feeling right now. After removing my top and undergarments, I walk over to a shower stall and enter. Before I can forget, I unwrap the slightly bloody sock and drop it onto my pile of dirty clothes. I turn on the faucet and brace my body for the freezing water to connect with my skin. When it does, I barely flinch and dip my head under the water.

  “Starting without me, I see?” Grey’s voice bounces off the tiles. My body clams up, and I turn my head to see his arm stretching into the stall, my toiletry bag in hand. I take it from him but don’t reply.

  Hearing his phone ring flipped a switch inside me. A switch that, once flipped on, blocks out his wit and charm and portrays him as an obstacle to what I came to college for—education.

  He doesn’t pick up on it. “Don’t think of me too long or you’ll get pruned.” He snickers to himself, and I force myself to smile.

  “Right…”

  ***

  I’d never been to a boxing gym before, but it is definitely what I would expect. Muscular men beating the crap out of punching bags and/or each other. My mind wanders to the thought of Grey shirtless and sweating profusely as he takes his aggression out on a bag or a person. The image makes my cheeks swell with heat and my eyes widen as he swiftly turns on his feet.

  “I’m gonna go change. You stay here.” He points to a bench facing a massive boxing ring. I eye it and nod. He squishes his eyebrows together as I walk over to it and sit down. I look through my peripheral vision. His bottom lip is jutted out, and I look away. After waiting a few seconds, I turn my head to find him gone. I turn my head again and pull out my phone to distract myself while waiting.

  I don’t even know what I’m doing here. After seeing he is clearly attached to Diana in a seemingly unhealthy way, I should have insisted that I’d pass this horrendous hangover by myself.

  I press my finger on the black sunglasses he shoved on my face in the car. Although I feel like I’m barely functioning, I’m positive I could have taken care of myself. It’s not like I’d die without him. I was doing exceptionally well before he came along. Then again, he wasn’t here to twist my perfect life upside down. After this, I vow that I will stop interacting with him. But something tells me it’s easier said than done.

  I’m on my phone, scrolling through assignments due this week that I already completed when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and come face to pelvis with a man. I crane my neck back to look up at his face.

  From this angle, he’s quite attractive. The fluorescent light creates shadows under his thick eyelashes and accentuates his razor-sharp jawline, which has a thin layer of stubble.

  I rise to my feet, the pain subsiding under the bandage and the black cap Grey helped put on my head and look into his bright blue eyes. A fading scar is on his left cheek; it curves when he smiles and points a finger at my stomach.

  “You must be Olivia…” I screw my eyebrows together, not sure how to interpret this situation—a man I don’t know with a scar that clearly indicates he’s had a dangerous past knows my name. And I’m alone. In a boxing gym. How did I get here?

  He laughs softy, quickly sliding his tongue across his dry lips. “And I sound like a creep, must look like one too. I’m David, Grey’s friend. I own this gym.” His hand extends, and I hesitantly meet my hand with his large palm.

  “Grey has talked about me?” I’m genuinely surprised. I thought for sure the only girl he’d talk about with friends was Diana. I mean, she does calls him every day to hook up. My stomach tightens, and I retract my hand.

  He doesn’t look fazed. He nods. “All the time, actually. You’re becoming a thing. A thing he won’t stop yammering about.” A smile takes up my face before I can stop it.

  “Really?”

  “Absolutely.” He narrows his eyes, and his bare chest and arms constrict when he crosses them and strokes his facial hair. “What are you doing to that boy where he can’t shut the fuck up about you?” His colorful language makes me laugh, but I cover my mouth with my hand then put my hands behind my back.

  “I don’t know. I…I didn’t even know I had any effect on him, especially not like that.”

  “So what are y’all? Fuck buddies? No, no. The way he goes on and on, y’all have to be something bigger than that—” My heart beats twice as fast with each word he says. I want him to go on and reveal Grey’s true feelings toward me, but he’s cut off before he can do so by the devil himself.

  “Is this fucker spreading lies about me?” Grey strides up beside David. I try not to, but I examine his fit physique. He is shirtless and open for me to critique every lean, brazen feature of his tatted and scarred body. I’ve seen him this way once before, when Jaimie and Julia dragged me to his fight. But that was under barely any lighting. Here, though, there’s enough light for me to see up close.

  His chest is broad and has a massive display of a soaring bird among clouds and a line that reads: Forever Always Hiding. Below, on his left ribs, is an intricate script I can’t decipher from where I’m standing. Both of his arms have dark ink in different images I can’t examine all at once. But I do catch sight o
f skulls, smoke, and X’s. As for his muscles, they’re all defined and tightly packed. My eyes drop lower, and I nearly choke on air. He has defined V indents in his hips that point down. He’s wearing dark gray basketball shorts and black Nikes sneakers.

  David replies wittily to his friend, but I can’t focus on his words. Not when this sex god is standing in front of me…sex god? What is this boy doing to me?

  I lift my eyes and am immediately drawn into two dark eyes that hold a vault’s worth of secrets. He lifts his lips in a smirk, and I know he’s caught me checking him out.

  Feeling my cheeks spread with fire, I bite my lip, my tell-tale sign of embarrassment, and look to the floor.

  “Anyway, we should get started before Vinny wants to use the ring,” David says, and I snap back into reality. He’s smiling from ear to ear as he launches himself into the ring, rolls onto the mat, and pops to his feet, leaning over the thick blue ropes. “You know how the fucker likes to hog it. And I do not want to have to beat his shit in. Again.”

  Grey laughs, and I flick my eyes over to his body. His eyes meet mine, and I look away again. In my peripheral, he’s smiling from ear to ear. That bastard.

  “Enjoy the show, Princess,” he says, and I roll my eyes and stalk back over to the bench and take a seat.

  He’s shaking his head, that smile still gripping his cheeks. I watch as he follows his friend’s approach and joins him in the boxing ring. He straps on black gloves after inserting a mouth piece. They tap gloves and begin hopping around on their feet. Grey sends me a wink before avoiding a punch he saw coming as if he expected it from a mile away.

  I tear my eyes away from him and turn my attention to the phone in my lap. I don’t want to see him. David could have been lying about Grey talking about me constantly. He is Grey’s friend after all.

  My phone buzzes, and I pull up my messages.

  Mason: Up for a little cliché pom poms and frat douches tonight?

  What’s that supposed to mean?

  Olivia: Elaborate…

  Mason: There’s a bonfire to kick off the football season tonight. Wanna go?

  I glance up at Grey swinging and connecting his fist into David’s ribs. I wonder if he knows about it. If he did, he would have invited me out, right? But wait. If he did know, he’d invite Diana. There’s no point to even wait around for him to ask me out.

  Why would I even want that? He’s trouble, and I told myself I wouldn’t interact with him after today. So there’s no problem. Plus, I should be attending events such as this. It shows school pride and endorses a healthy university lifestyle. Not like coming to a boxing gym with a guy who changes his moods with a snap of the fingers.

  I look back at my phone and reply to Mason with a slight smile to my lips.

  Olivia: I’d love to go with you.

  We text back and forth for a while before he informs me it starts at ten, but he’ll pick me up and we’ll go around ten-thirty.

  The sound of men grunting and rubber gloves knocking against skin stops, and I look up. Grey is alone in the ring, spitting out the mouth piece and falling to his butt as he sticks his long and slightly hairy legs out of the ropes. I’m guessing they’re taking a break.

  He’s panting lightly and is covered in pellets of sweat, which drips from his dark, short hair, between his abs, and creasing between defined muscles. He picks up a water bottle and tips his head back to take a long swig of water. His eyes shift over to mine, and I quickly look back to my phone.

  I don’t notice how unsettled I am until I look at my shaking hands. How is it that he can have me shivering and losing my breath with one look?

  “Getting hot and heavy yet, or should I ask David to whip off his shorts too?” Grey jokes, but I don’t react. “Oh, come on. I’m only joking, Princess. Unless you’d only get all frisky business when I whip out my, you know.” I lift my eyes to find him moving his hips in circles. I stifle back a smile and roll my eyes.

  “Is everything about sex to you?” I question. Yes.

  “Yes,” he answers, a slick smile on his face.

  The familiar, aching sound of his phone ringing breaks the tension. I clench my teeth shut, intending to ignore it and heeding this sign from above. But then, I listen to it. One…two…three…four…something snaps!

  “Why don’t you answer it, Grey?” I ask through gritted teeth.

  “It’s all the way down there…?” He knits his eyebrows together and chuckles, uneasy. “Mind throwing it up here?”

  I reach over to his gym bag on the floor and fish out his phone. I contemplate throwing it at his head but decide against it. All of his buddy fighter friends would probably destroy me faster than I can say “dang it.” I toss him his phone; he catches it and swipes his thumb across the screen. A smile splashes across his face. I want to throw his damned gym bag at his head. I bet that’d hurt more.

  “What’s got you tickled?” I ask before I could think about the can of worms I’m opening.

  He raises his black eyes and squints them. “What’s it to you?”

  I shrug nonchalantly. “Just curious.”

  He stares at me for a while, and I think he figured out what I’m poking at, but he says, “I just got notified that there’s a sale at DSW.”

  “Sure it’s not Diana again? She sure can be persistent.” I click my tongue against the roof of my mouth while I give him a tight smile.

  He looks at me before bursting into laughter. “Are you fucking with me?”

  “I don’t know, you tell me.” I don’t know why I’m acting jealous right now. I have absolutely no ties to this man. He can do whatever he wants. He means absolutely nothing to me.

  “Wait, what the hell do you mean again?” He ceases in laughter and scowls at me. “When did she call the first time?”

  Busted.

  “I don’t know,” is all I can say. “But your phone buzzed earlier back at the dorms, in the bathroom. I just thought she was calling.”

  He looks at me as if I lost my mind. “A friend called me!” he exclaims, then shoots to his feet, leans over the ropes. “Don’t go through my phone! Who the fuck do you think you are?”

  “I think I’m Olivia Westerfield, and do not curse at me!” My head is singing a painful tune, but I push through. He can’t just stomp all over me!

  “You are nothing to me, Olivia,” he snaps. “Nothing! You’re just some girl I decided to fuck with because I got bored. That happens to a guy when he’s screwing the same girls—yes, girls, fucking plural—over and over! You’re just a boring little prude needle in a much larger haystack!” His words slice through me.

  “If that’s true, then why don’t you leave me alone? I don’t want to get in the way of your manwhoring ways.” I stand and cut him a glare I pack with ice, then turn on my heels and storm outside.

  How could I have thought for a second that he wasn’t who I presumed he was? That shows me I hold too much faith in people, and I intend to stop that idiotic habit right this second.

  Chapter Nineteen

  By the time I arrive at the dorms, I’m covered in goosebumps and brimming with pure rage. I had to find my way back to the dorms after storming out of the damned boxing gym. But since I’m still new to the town, I had no idea how I was going to get back. I would have used Google Maps to help navigate me back to campus, but my phone died the second I stepped foot outside the gym. It was as if the gods above wanted to make the situation ten times worse than it already was.

  So, for half an hour, I walked around town, searching for bus stops that would take me back to campus. Come to find out that to get back, I had to take seven buses, all with varied number of stops. Two had to make ten stops while the other three had to take eight to fifteen. Then, I had to walk all the way back to the dormitory for twenty minutes in the cold. The only thing I had to protect me from the brutal wind was a thin cardigan.

  Combine that with the burning emotion of anger directed toward Grey, you could say I quickly turned into a deeply
pissed off Tasmanian devil.

  When I finally walked through the automatic doors of the dormitory, I nearly melted into a pool of sudden warmth and ultimate gratitude. My skin had grown ice cold and my lips weren’t able to stop trembling while my teeth clacked nonstop. But as I rode up in the elevator to my dorm floor, I rubbed my shoulders and soaked up all the heat.

  Now, as I walk to my dorm room, my hatred toward that boy in black hasn’t diminished one bit. I knew I was wrong to think any better of him. I knew he was trouble the moment I first saw him in the dorm room. I should have known better. I should have heeded my parents’ goal for my future success and stayed as far away from him as possible. But he—with those stupid black eyes—sucked me in and hung me on a thread while he screwed around with other girls and created this gaping hole in my chest.

  An agitated breath leaves my blue lips as I clutch the door handle to my dorm room. I imagine it is his throat but take in a deep breath and blow it out of my quivering lips. There’s no need for me to lose myself any more than I already have. Plastering on a fake smile, I twist the handle after inserting my key and push the door open. I close it behind me, finding Jaimie and Julia lounging on Julia’s bed.

  “You look like shit.” Julia coughs after inhaling a rolled-up blunt.

  I sit on my bed and pull off my shoes. “Please do not smoke in here,” I tell her in a frighteningly calm voice. “Go outside.”

  “Fuck no,” she says, blowing out the toxic smoke. “This is my room.”

  “Well, it’s mine too,” I snap, belting out a piece of my anger behind the words.

  They share a look.

  “Who pissed on your chastity belt?” she asks. I look up from the floor, my freezing hands gripping the side of the springy mattress; they look at me as if they see a ghost.