The COMPLETE Coventon Campus Series: Books I, II, & III

by Wright, Kenya

Anger rose in my chest. “What the fuck happened?”

  Kush raised his hands. “The man’s alive. Relax. He just made a fool of himself again. He and this hot black chick attacked this rich guy in a restaurant on South Beach today. Fuck. What was that name?”

  A hot, black chick? Shit. Evie was on South Beach.

  Kush snapped his fingers. “Chaos. No. Havoc.”

  I opened my mouth but had nothing to say.

  “Man, have you ever ate there?” He pulled on his shirt.

  They attacked a rich man at Havoc? Malcolm? Did they punch Malcolm? Did those two crazy ass friends of mine come down to Miami and go on a rampage for me?

  “Pipe?”

  I stared off in the distance. “Huh?”

  “You ever ate there?”

  Blinking, I looked at him. “Where?”

  “Havoc.”

  “Yes,” I whispered. “I used to eat lunch there with a friend almost three times a week.”

  What’s Malcolm going to do? I won’t let him hurt my friends. I have to find out more.

  “Are you okay, Pipe?”

  “Yeah.” I forced myself to nod. “Yeah. Go get the food. I’ll be fine.”

  Jay. Evie. What the fuck?!

  Once Kush closed the door, I rushed to my phone.

  Jesus. I just needed time to myself, not the goddamn clown squad to come down brawling and going viral. I have to find and stop them both before they end up in jail or ruining Jay’s public image even more.

  I googled Jay’s name. Sure enough, a whole bunch of articles came up. The media had now coined him the Heisman Maniac.

  “You’re just doing that Heisman trophy good, aren’t you, Jay?” I skimmed through a few and found some shaky video. “Fuck!”

  Malcolm’s image came on screen, right as Evie’s fist landed at his jaw. Not just her hand, but shock hit that bastard’s face. His eyes showed surprise. He stumbled back and set his hands to the side as if trying to keep his balance.

  You cut the shit out of me and dine in Havoc for lunch like it’s just a regular day? I hope Evie put all her power into that punch.

  Malcolm fell, right on his ass and gripped his jaw.

  “Yes!” I punched the air. “Punch that motherfucker in his face.”

  And for once, I laughed more than I ever had this week. I deepened my voice and yelled. “And the lightweight champion from California, Evie, the goddess of sucker punches and surprise bruising, knocks the demon fuck out with an Evie original. Clap for the crazy woman, ladies and gentlemen!”

  What the hell were they thinking? Now, if I kill the man, they’ll be suspects. Could I really kill him? Maybe. No.

  I returned to the earlier viral videos of Jay stalking the balcony naked. “What hotel was that?” Knowing Jay, he was probably still rooming there, just letting the paparazzi be comfortable and not have to search him out.

  I checked the few articles and discovered the name.

  “Golden Beach View. Awesome. You walk around on a balcony at night in a high-end, yet crowded part of South Beach and think no one is going to spot you?” I played the video again and laughed. “Now that I know Evie is here, I’m sure you were sneaking into her room and being a dumbass.” A sigh left my lips. “Evie.”

  That hollowness in my chest expanded. I thought I didn’t need anyone else, and then I see Jay and Evie on the videos, protecting my honor and making a fool of themselves. Now the empty space in the studio stretched out more. My core felt colder and hollower.

  “I do miss you two.” I shut off the phone and gazed at Kush’s painting of me.

  What do bruised angels do when their friends are in trouble? They fly over and help.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jay

  “Have you heard from the investigator?” Evie sat down on the couch next to me. “Jay?”

  On the television, the news channel replayed my screaming over Malcolm Ward.

  “Get up!” I towered over Malcolm’s shivering frame as he lay on the ground like a broken man. “You cheat on your kids and wife with my friend, and then you cut up my friend like he’s nothing! Get up you piece of shit!”

  The screen shifted back to the newsroom.

  “We have a statement from Malcolm Ward’s lawyer stating that Mr. Ward is unaware of this friend who Jason Taylor could’ve been talking about. He believes that while Mr. Taylor is a talented athlete, he may need to seek help. Mr. Ward explains that he would never cheat on his wife or disrespect their marriage by having an affair.”

  “Fucking liar.” I grabbed the remote control.

  “...surprisingly Mr. Ward will not be pressing charges against Mr. Taylor and his female friend who also attacked Mr. Ward.” The newscaster knitted his fingers together. “As you may remember, she was reported to be one of Mr. Taylor’s girlfriends in a relationship that everyone believes involved threesomes, drugs, and orgy parties.”

  “Really?” Evie rolled her eyes. “I totally don’t do drugs, but how did they find out about all of those orgy parties I’m always hosting?”

  “This isn’t funny.” I shut off the television and flung the remote control across the room. The device crashed into the wall. The black plastic cracked and fell to the floor.

  “Calm down, please.”

  “Ward looks like some weak, old man being harassed by two misguided college kids when in actuality, we’re defending our friend from a vicious attack. What the hell he did, we don’t know, because said friend is being an asshole and hiding from us, but still!” I jumped up from the couch and paced in front of the television. “Pipe won’t answer his damn phone. I could just choke the shit out of him sometimes. Who does he think he is? He knows how much I worry. He knows how much I—”

  “What?”

  “Need him,” I blurted it out.

  “He knows, Jay. He’s just...maybe he’s scared or something.”

  “You always understand him.”

  “You too. We just get to the understanding in different ways.”

  “We made a fool of ourselves today.”

  “We were kind of prepared for that. In fact, when have we really cared what people think?” I asked. “Frankly, I’ve been beaten up enough in the media where I just don’t give a fuck about the news, Twitter, Facebook, and whatever else gossip shoveling platform is out there. As long as you stay true to yourself, everything is fine. We know why we attacked Malcolm, and that’s all that matters.”

  “True, but it wasn’t one of our best plans. In fact, that was pretty dumb.”

  “We both wanted to hit the guy.”

  “True.”

  “And it felt good to kick him.”

  “It did. But now, we look insane,” I admitted.

  “Well, shouldn’t we be getting used to that by now?”

  “Yeah.” I raked my fingers through my hair. “Yeah. I should be used to the ridicule by now.”

  My phone buzzed on the table. I gave up answering it. I’d already got yelled at by all the people that counted—my grandparents, coach, and my publicist. Everyone else would have to wait until next week.

  I ceased with pacing and faced Evie. “Did your mom call yet? I’m sure she’s seen the videos.”

  “Yeah. Well, she didn’t actually call. Instead, she texted.” Evie pulled her phone out and read, “Tell Jay to put on clothes next time he sneaks into your room. And it had better have been your room, and nothing but hand-holding and soft talking should’ve been happening in that room once he walked his naked behind in there.”

  “Uh, okay.”

  Evie raised one finger. “I’m not finished. Shall I go on?”

  “Oh, there’s more?”

  “Yes.” She read further. “Additionally, let’s try to stay out of the news for the rest of the week. Keep your hands to yourself, Evie. Justice for black people is still a fifty-fifty outcome. Stop punching rich, white men. Unless that’s the one that hurt my baby. Did he hurt Pipe?”

  “Well, did you tell her that it was him?”<
br />
  “No.” Evie put the phone down and shook her head. “Mom doesn’t need a face and name. You think we fuck up with revenge? Mom would be caught shooting at Ward’s house.”

  I shrugged. “Then, maybe we should call her.”

  “No way.”

  “What other choice do we have?”

  “By the way, did the investigator call you back with any information?” she asked.

  “No, I haven’t heard anything new from him yet. Apparently, Pipe hasn’t used any credit cards or been seen around Miami.”

  “Do you think he’s even still here?” she asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Come on and sit down. I ordered pizza.” She lifted her legs up on the table and leaned back on the couch. “Forget about all of this. Everything is going to work out.”

  “Oh really? My publicist just said that I lost two commercials.”

  “You’ve lost commercials before, and then you catch the ball, smile, and do an interview with your shirt off, and suddenly America has forgotten why they were even mad in the first place.”

  Smirking, I returned to the couch. “Is that resentment coming from your voice?”

  “Yes. It’s hard for people to dislike you for a long time. I wish I had that talent.”

  “You’ve been mad at me for a long time.” I sat down right next to her. “I don’t care about America’s forgiveness. It means nothing. They love me until I act like a buffoon and then they love me even more or love to hate me.”

  “I’m not mad at you anymore.”

  “You barely answer my calls.”

  “Are we back on us again?” She got up and began to walk off.

  I rushed up and reached out to gently stop her. “Please—”

  “Please what, Jay?” She gave me a weak smile. “I thought we agreed to talk about this once we fixed everything with Pipe.”

  “I can’t fucking help it.” I rubbed my face. “I know the shit is annoying. I’m annoyed by myself every time I beg for you to come back to me.”

  She placed her hands on her hips. “Then stop begging.”

  I took a step toward her. “Stop begging?”

  She backed up. “What are you doing?”

  I pointed to the floor. “We’re going to have this out right now.”

  “No, we’re going to wait on this pizza to come, eat it, and head to bed.”

  “Yes, or no, will you ever come back to me?”

  “Correction.” She poked my chest. “I wasn’t with just you. I was with Cynthia and you. So when you ask me if I will ever come back, does that mean to your threesome?”

  “You know that’s a no.”

  “Oh!” She clapped her hands over and over and did a quick jump. “So you mean I finally get to have the grand Jay all to myself? Oh, yippee! I don’t have to share him now? Hallelujah! Praise him.”

  She should’ve been pissing me off. Instead, laughter fled my lips. “Fuck you, Evie.”

  “Oh no, blessings! Blessing! Jay has finally figured out that I was something worth cherishing. Too bad you found that out a little late.”

  “It’s never too late.”

  She edged back. “It may be.”

  “You said you would think about the proposal.”

  “I...” She sighed. “Okay. First of all, the proposal is just this way to save yourself from all these fake dangers you see in your future. I think you’re the only one in this world that thinks imminent harm is going to come to you when you become a success.”

  “No, I proposed because I love you.”

  “No.” She wagged her finger. “You’re scared, and you think that you need me to hold your hand and dedicate my life to protecting you from everyone as well as yourself.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Isn’t that marriage?”

  “I...” She twisted her lips in confusion. “I don’t know.”

  “We wouldn’t know, right?” I stepped forward. Barely a foot lay between us. “We have no idea what a true marriage is because our parents never got to show us. For them, life was too short. Out in seconds. At first, they had happiness and kids, then either one or both of them ended up dead.”

  She opened her mouth to speak and then closed it.

  “Dead. Money didn’t save them. Not even love. Shit just happened, Evie, and we lost them, and in some ways, I think you, Pipe, and I are a bit messed up with that. We got weird ideas about love and friendship. But we’ve also had...”

  She relaxed her shoulders and stared at me. “What? What do we have?”

  “Us.”

  “And we will always have each other,” she whispered back. “Whether we’re married or not.”

  “But I want marriage.”

  “And I want...”

  “What?”

  Evie twisted her mouth into confusion. “I don’t know.”

  Fear ran down my spine, but I asked anyway. “Do you love me?”

  She looked down to the ground. “You know I do.”

  “Not love between friends. Do you love me like a woman loves a man?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then take me back.” I closed the distance between us and pressed my body against hers. Evie’s soft breasts pushed against me. Her nipples hardened, and I had to focus on not picking her up and taking that lush body over to the bed. “Take me back, Evie.”

  “Let me think about it.”

  “No.” I leaned down and brushed my lips against her forehead. “Life is too short for that. I’m done wasting time. I’m about to have everything in my grasp, except you.”

  “That’s not a bad deal.”

  “It’s the worst one of all. I would rather break my leg, lose my ability to play, but have you in my arms every night.”

  “Jay.”

  “I love you so much.”

  She sighed. “I do too.”

  I lifted my hands and combed my fingers through her soft curls. “Be my wife.”

  “Jesus. Can we just date first?”

  “Okay.”

  “Wait.”

  I nodded. “Exclusive dating sounds good to me.”

  “Wait, I didn’t say exclusive.” She backed away.

  I embraced her before she could move farther. “You think I could share you?”

  She pointed at me. “I shared you.”

  “I’m not sharing.”

  “You’ll have to.”

  “Oh really?” I clasped my hands on to that full ass and lifted her up.

  “Jay!”

  Just like a barbarian, I slung her over my shoulders and carried her over to the bed. “I’m not sharing you.”

  “Put me down.”

  “Okay.” I tenderly placed her on the bed.

  “We’re not having sex.” Giggling, she lay back on the bed.

  I bent over and unsnapped her jeans. “Okay.”

  “Okay?” She watched me pull off that pesky denim. “And are we going for a repeat from the plane?”

  “Is that what you want?”

  Her eyelids drooped into horny cat mode. “I don’t know. I like when you kiss me.”

  “Is that what I did? Kissed you?”

  “Yes.”

  “You liked it when I licked you?”

  Her voice was a soft mutter. “Yes.”

  I gazed down at the red silk panties she wore. Little hearts glittered and outlined the top. “Those are pretty.”

  “Pipe bought them for me. It’s my lucky pair. Don’t ask.”

  “You know I have to.” I lay down next to her and placed my hand on her stomach, circling her belly button with my index finger. “How did those panties become so lucky?”

  “He bought them during last fall’s final exam week. I ran out of clean clothes. I was studying the whole week and hadn’t done my laundry. I dove into my closet pulled out the unopened package, wrenched the panties out, put them on, and booked it to my exam.”

  “Let me guess, you aced the exam?” I slipped my fingers up under her shirt. Smooth
skin slipped under my fingertips.

  She stirred next to me, lazily drooping her eyes. “Yes, I aced it. And then I decided to only wear them when I have an exam.”

  “And every time you’ve worn them, you’ve aced it?”

  “That’s right. I tell this to Pipe. He suggests I test it out. Well, that’s after he cursed me out for putting the panties into the closet in the first place.”

  “So you tested them?”

  “For one whole week of testing, I didn’t wear them.”

  “And you failed?”

  “Nope. Aced them.”

  “And what did Pipe hypothesize?”

  “That they were still lucky, and all of the luck had simply seeped into my vagina.”

  “Clearly. I’ve tasted that luck.” Smiling, I leaned down and pressed my lips against hers.

  “Jay,” she moaned.

  “I missed you.”

  She placed her hands against my chest and stopped me from kissing her again. “We can’t rush this.”

  “I won’t.”

  “You’re talking about marriage.”

  “I’m talking about our future.”

  “We don’t even know that we have one.”

  “You plan on being out of my life?” I asked.

  She turned her face away. “No.”

  “Look at me, please.”

  She faced me.

  “I’m sorry for everything, Evie. I can’t say that enough. I don’t deserve a chance. I don’t deserve your patience. I don’t deserve to have you next to me, but you’re here and that’s all that will play in my mind from now on. I learned my lesson, baby. Come back to me.”

  She lifted her hands and covered her face. “God, you’re never going to let me go, and I’m never going to run away.”

  “That’s a good thing, right?”

  “I hope so because...” She removed her hands and stared at me, studying my face. “I do miss you.”

  Relief eased out of my chest. “You do?”

  “Yes. I try to stay busy. I talk to Lamm and pour myself into my studies. My friends think I’m worried about academics. I’m just working hard so I can forget you. I’m just filling my head with anything between every book so that I can forget all of the memories. And we have so much.”

  “My whole childhood is you.”

  “And mine,” she whispered.