by Alley Ciz
Then it happens.
I read what he wrote in his post, and you know what I find?
Kay has an Instagram handle.
Would you look at that.
Clearly a glutton for punishment, I start to read through some of the comments.
PF Dennings.
JT Taylor and PF Dennings won multiple Worlds titles.
PF Dennings.
NJA has a PF Dennings listed as one of their coaches.
It’s the last one that gets me. I understood when she told me PF was her cheering nickname, but would the gym really list an employee by a nickname?
Shit! This is the Chrissy/Tina thing all over again, isn’t it?
“Motherfucker!”
I shut the screen off and chuck my phone into my locker so aggressively it bounces back out.
“Mase?” Trav approaches tentatively, scooping up my phone and plugging in my passcode to see what set me off.
“She fucking played me,” I mutter through clenched teeth before stalking off for the shower.
“P. F. P motherfucking F.” I slap the wall with each syllable.
“I need you to break it down for me, bro, because you aren’t making much sense right now.” Trav keeps his voice calm and steady as he steps into the stall beside mine.
“She had this whole story about how she got the name PF at the gym. And I mean, what kind of name is PF anyway?” I rake both hands through my hair, pushing the wet strands around and tugging on them. “It made sense that it was a nickname and Kay is her name.”
“Mason.” Trav rests his elbows on the half-wall separating us. “What’s got you so worked up? You’ve known Kay cheers for weeks.”
I let out a humorless laugh. Yeah…if only that were it.
“She has Instagram.”
“Oh-kay?” Trav eyes me like I’m a crazy person, and maybe I am. We are two grown men having a heart-to-heart naked in the shower.
“Her profile is listed as PF.”
“And yours is Casanova. People use nicknames on their profiles all the time, so I’m gonna need you to take a breath and explain why that has you wanting to Hulk out.”
“She’s PF on an Instagram I didn’t know she had. She’s listed as PF Dennings on the NJA website. The kicker is she has full-faced, smiling selfies posted on her friend JT’s profile. Fuck!” I throw my shampoo bottle, sending it skidding across the floor. “This is Chrissy all over again.”
My hands ball into fists and I brace them against the wall, letting the water beat between my shoulder blades.
The exhaustion from minutes ago is gone, replaced by the need to get back on the field and run tackle drills. Instead I’ll settle for going to Kay’s dorm to get some answers.
#Chapter66
Worry prickles at me like I’m at the top of a stunt and it’s about to come crashing down.
I don’t think I’ve sat down since I got back to my dorm.
I hated having to cancel my plans with the Graysons, but being in an arena filled with U of J students did not seem like the best idea given the still evolving circumstances.
E is losing his mind, and it took the combined efforts of Bette, JT, and me to keep him from driving up here and incurring all kinds of fines for skipping out on practices.
I put on a brave face for my brothers and sister-in-law but internally was freaking the fuck out. I even gave in and used the Admirals’ Instagram account to check to see what’s circulating from the UofJ411.
It finally happened. They figured out who I am.
Well…not completely. So far the only connection that’s been made is that I’m PF Dennings, but I sense the Kayla Dennings revelation isn’t far behind.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The booming knocks bring my pacing to a halt, causing me to look at the door like I’m Supergirl and I can see through it to whoever’s on the other side.
An overwhelming sense of trepidation washes over me. The soles of my shoes drag across the carpet, my feet unable to rise enough to take clean steps as I make my way to the door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A second round of knocks hits it, each pound hitting me like a blow to the gut.
My fingers curl around the cool metal of the doorknob, and with a squaring off of my shoulders, I twist my hand and open it.
Like a deflated balloon, my entire body sags in relief at the sight of my boyfriend on the other side.
“Mase.” I move to wrap my arms around him, seeking the comfort. I know the feel of his strong embrace will quiet the noise of this clusterfuck of a day and give me the last bit of nerves to share all the details I withheld.
I love this man so much. I never expected to, tried to fight it because I was afraid he would use me. It wasn’t right, and it wasn’t fair to him, but with every day I wake up to a good-morning kiss or a text after the nights we don’t spend together, my gratitude for how he relentlessly pursued me grows.
It wasn’t until I was in the thick of what my family considered damage control that the true depth of my feelings hit me.
I’m not saying I’m over here all zen-like and okay with the possibility of my past coming out and people discussing the worst year of my life like it’s the latest episode of the Kardashians, because I sure as hell am not.
But I feel like it deserves to be mentioned that my concern over my shit being used in a way that could negatively impact Mase was a startling realization.
Except…
Before I can make contact with the cotton of his football shirt I know is so well worn it feels like the softest silk whenever I snuggle against it, Mase shifts, avoiding my touch, and steps around me to enter my dorm.
What is that about?
I shake it off.
The snick of the door latching sounds like a gunshot. The earlier anxiety returns full force, and when I turn and catch the angry glint in Mason’s eyes, I instinctively take a step back. It’s not that I think he would hurt me, but I’ve never seen him look…so…volatile.
“Mason? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me, P. F.”
Huh?
He never calls me PF, and why the hell did he say it like that? Like each letter of my nickname offends him?
“Since when do you use my gym name?”
He scoffs. “Gym name.”
What the what?
“Mason, what the hell is going on?”
“I feel like I should applaud you.” He starts to slow clap, each smack of his hands causing me to flinch. “You really had me fooled.”
Fooled? What?
“Again…what are you talking about?”
“Were you even bullied? Or is that just some lie you used to get me to stop pushing the issue of posting about us on my social media?”
That. Hurts.
Still, I can’t fault him; he doesn’t know the full extent of what I went through, doesn’t know how I was and the details leading to the worst of it because I didn’t tell him. I didn’t want him to look at me and see the same broken girl everyone else did.
“Why would I lie about something like that?” I fold my arms over my chest.
“You tell me.” He mirrors my action, and I have to force my eyes back up to his face in an effort to not be distracted by the way the muscles of his arms bulge. I have no idea what is going on so I’m going to need all my brain cells to figure it out.
Gone is the love I usually see shining in his green gaze, deep disdain in its place.
“Outside of you wearing my hoodie and when we’re sitting next to each other in class or at lunch, you keep as much space between us as you do between you and our friends.”
I don’t let any of our friends kiss me against walls. I keep that thought to myself, though. He has enough attitude for the both of us; we don’t need to add mine to the mix.
“You would stress when told there were posts of you with Trav. With Alex and Kev. Of Noah bringing you coffee and people accusing you of cheating on me with Adam
.”
My back molars snap together at the mention of that creep.
“I gave you an easy solution to shut the haters up. You wouldn’t have to do a thing except smile for the camera, and yet you refused.”
Are we back to this again? I thought we squashed it.
“You told me you don’t like having your full face show in pictures.” He pulls out his phone and thrusts his arm out until it is inches below my nose. There’s a picture of JT and me after winning Worlds reposted from JT’s page onto UofJ411’s.
“That picture is like five years old.” Wow. They’ve really been digging if that’s the picture they used to learn my name.
Mason ignores that comment and re-pockets his phone. “So what I really want to know, Kayla—if that’s even your real name—”
What’s that supposed to mean?
“—is if you didn’t want things posted of us because you were worried about your other boyfriend finding out.”
“What are you talking about?” I can’t keep the confusion out of my voice.
His eyes still have that blank stare, and with each second it remains, my heart cracks a little more.
“JT is just a friend. He’s as much a brother to me as E.” I throw my arms out in frustration. Why are we even fighting about this?
“Yeah, and in Biz Markie’s song, that’s exactly what the bitch says when she’s actually hooking up with the other guy.”
I let out a growl.
So many emotions swirl within me.
Frustration.
Anger.
Betrayal.
Confusion.
But the most prevalent is hurt. I’m hurt because he doesn’t trust me. It’s ironic that the campus playboy is the one accusing me of cheating.
“This was a mistake,” he says, his voice defeated.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” I implore, reaching out to him, but he steps back before I can make contact—again.
“No. I mean this.” He bounces a finger between us. “This is the reason I don’t do relationships.”
I stop breathing. He can’t be saying what I think he’s saying, right?
“Are you breaking up with me?” I croak.
He doesn’t look at me when he answers. “Yes.” Then he steps around me, careful to make sure our bodies don’t even so much as brush against each other, opens the door, and leaves.
I can’t move.
I can’t breathe.
My heart is breaking.
Mason, the first guy I’ve taken a chance on in years, just dumped me.
Mason, the campus playboy, thinks I was unfaithful. The concept would be funny if it didn’t hurt so much.
Instead I feel like I’m dying on the inside.
Once again, social media takes from me.
Tears leak down my face as I fall to the floor, my legs no longer able to support me under the crushing weight of my despair.
What the hell just happened?
Okay, okay I totally hear your shouty capitals before you even type them. I’m sure you’re like WTF ALLEY!!! I need to know what happens.
Good news! Book 2 is available for preorder and wil be out October 15, 2020.
Game Changer (#UofJ2) PREORDER HERE!
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Randomness For My Readers
Whoop!
Now I know I left you on a cliffy with Kay and Mase…but don’t worry book 2 is done and Game Changer will be out October 15th and you can preorder it here.
For those of you who have read my words before you may have noticed a few cameos from my BTU Alumni Squad. If you are new to my crazy and haven’t run screaming from the room you can be sure to check out the BTU Alumni while you wait for #UofJ2. Don’t worry these are stand-alones.
So I like to give you my fun facts in bullet style but I’ll leave this one out on it’s own because it’s special.
I actually the U of J books before I ever published my first book Power Play. I had been invited—no idea how, so don’t ask me—to join a NaNo writing group on Facebook with so many of my favorite authors and thus this brain child was born.
So now for a little bullet style fun facts:
It’s because of these books that I got the idea to make Tap Out part of the BTU Alumni world. Plus TO is where Lyle our Espresso Patronum barista makes his first appearance there.
Jordan Donovan (E’s mentioned PR person) is the matriarch of the BTU Alumni world and you can meet her in Power Play if you were curious about her story.
The majority of the funny t-shirts on my Pinterest started because of Kay.
Kay and Em are my anti-morning fictional soul sisters. Then again, this is probably why I do most of my writing in the middle of the night #NightOwl
I didn’t actual cheer because my high school didn’t have a good program but my sister-in-law cheered for the Central Jersey All-Stars (who NJA was loosely based on)
I love the look of a backward hat. Mr. Alley rocks one like no other. Probably why I ended up married to him and procreating with him 3 times lol.
My high school varsity jacket for lending the inspiration for the title design lol.
Most of the IG handles you see in the comments are from my reader Covenettes. So many are great bookstagrammers I would check them out.
If you don’t want to miss out on anything new coming or when my crazy characters pop in with extra goodies make sure to sign up for my newsletter! If my rambling hasn’t turned you off and you are like “This chick is my kind of crazy,” feel free to reach out!
Lots of Love,
Alley
Acknowledgments
This is where I get to say thank you, hopefully I don’t miss anyone. If I do I’m sorry and I still love you, just you know, mommy brain.
I’ll start with the Hubs—who I can already hear giving me crap again that this book also isn’t dedicated to him he’s still the real MVP—he has to deal with my lack of sleep, putting off laundry *because… laundry* and helping to hold the fort down with our three crazy mini royals. You truly are my best friend. Also, I’m sure he would want me to make sure I say thanks for all the hero inspiration, but it is true (even if he has no ink *winking emoji*)
To Jenny my PA, the other half of my brain, the bestest best friend a girl could ask for. Why the hell do you live across the pond? Mase is yours and yes he is the ONE hero I will confirm you can claim. I live for every shouty capital message you send me while you read my words 97398479 times.
To Meg for being my first ever beta reader who wasn’t related to me. I’m so grateful this book brought you into my life.
To my group chats that give me life and help keep me sane: The OG Coven, The MINS, The Tacos, The Book Coven.
To all my author besties that were okay with me forcing my friendship on them and now are some of my favorite people to talk to on the inter webs. Laura, Maria, Kelsey, Lindsey, Kristy, Stefanie, Becca, Samantha (both of you), Renee, Dana, Lianne, and Anna.
To Sarah and Julie the most amazing graphics people ever in existence. Yeah I said it lol.
To Jules my cover designer, for going above and then again with designing this cover. I can’t even handle the epicness of it.
To Jess my editor, who is always pushing me to make the story better, stronger…giving such evil inspiration that leads to shouty capitals from readers that even led to a complete overhaul of these first 3 U of
J books.
To Caitlin my other editor who helps clean up the mess I send her while at the same time totally getting my crazy.
To Gemma for going from my proofreader to fangirl and being so invested in my characters stories to threaten my life *lovingly of course*.
To Dawn for giving my books their final spit shine.
To my street team for being the best pimps ever. Seriously, you guys rock my socks.
To my ARC team for giving my books some early love and getting the word out there.
To Christine and Wildfire PR for taking on my crazy and helping me spread the word of my books.
To Wander and his team for being beyond amazing to work with and this custom shoot for all of the Mase and Kay books. And Wayne and Megan for being the perfect models! Seriously i think the world can hear my fangirl squee whenever I get to message with you both on IG.
To every blogger and bookstagrammer that takes a chance and reads my words and writes about them.
To my fellow Covenettes for making my reader group one of my happy places. Whenever you guys post things that you know belong there I squeal a little. And for letting me use your IG handles.
And, of course, to you my fabulous reader, for picking up my book and giving me a chance. Without you I wouldn’t be able to live my dream of bringing to life the stories the voices in my head tell me.
Lots of Love,
Alley
For A Good Time Call
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* Are you a Romance Junkie?
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