by Rose Croft
“Yeah. She’s a fun girl.”
I realized I was holding my breath and had an overwhelming urge to choke my friend out as they talked about Theodora. I knew Nick well enough to know he wasn’t the guy to settle down with. He damn sure wasn’t boyfriend material. None of my friends were. For some reason, the thought of Nick fucking Theodora made me want to snap both his and Axel’s neck.
Nick, Axel, Dmitri, and I all roomed together over the past two years. Nick and I had started off as red-shirt freshmen, which gave us another year of eligibility, while Axel and Dmitri came in the following year as true freshmen. In college football terms, we were all juniors. They were my closest friends. It was natural on a football team to bond because we had to work together to achieve one goal. But right now, I wasn’t thinking about team unity.
“The fuck are you so quiet for?” Axel tossed a football at me that I caught before it hit me in the face.
“Nothing. Trying to focus on practice and not be a pussy, gushing about a fucking party.”
He grinned and walked by slapping me on the back. Nothing bothered that motherfucker. “Taylor turn you down the other night, bro?”
“No. I just have better things on my mind.” Out of all of us, Axel was the most outgoing and could charm his way out of any situation or into any girl’s pants. At least he backed up his shit on the football field.
Coach called us over to huddle and begin practice. He always felt the need to give us some kind of motivational speech before we broke out onto the field.
Nick strode up to me. “You okay, man?”
The fuck? Did I look like I wasn’t okay? I narrowed my eyes at him. Thinking about his happy-go-lucky ass hovering over Theodora the other night. I’d watched as she cheered Nick on over a stupid video game. Then, he proceeded to guide her over to the pool table and handed her a cue stick. Being the resourceful liar she was, she acted coy as if she didn’t know what she was doing.
My fists curled as Nick leaned over her, trying to show her how to aim the pool stick. A red haze formed when I saw his hand drop down to her hip. Murder was on my mind when I saw her green eyes flash at me, daring me to challenge her. It took all of my willpower not to assault Nick when after they played, he threw his arm around her shoulder and they walked out together. That asshole left with her. With her. I sucked it up and took it like bad medicine, berating myself for letting it bother me, and I wouldn’t start shit and cause a scene. Not at my house. Not with her, again. However, I could only take so much, and it didn’t take much to figure out where she lived. When I made it to her dorm, my temple pulsed because she wasn’t there. Hadn’t returned.
I shoved the memories away as I cut my eyes to my fuckhead friend. Who was about to lose his boy-for-life status forever with me if he kept pursuing her. Then, it infuriated me even more that I cared. “What are we doing? Talking out our feelings?”
He shook his head. “No, you just seem kind of pissed.”
Ignoring his observation, I yanked my helmet on. “Where the fuck is Dmitri?” Just as we were about to break huddle, Dmitri jogged up with helmet in hand. Red marks tinged his pale cheeks. Was that lipstick? Probably fucked a girl in the locker room. Dude liked to live on the edge. Luckily, Coach was busy talking to one of our offensive coordinators and didn’t notice.
“Where have you been?” I questioned as we walked out to the middle of the field to start scrimmage.
“I had to take care of something.” That’s it. That’s all he said. If Axel was a cocky windbag who never shut up, Dmitri was the complete opposite. I liked the silence too, but he made me look like a fucking chatterbox compared to him. Dmitri was originally from Russia but moved to the States when he was eight. His father was one of those tech geniuses who started a dot-com company in the late 1990s and was only a handful of the few that lasted through the millennium. Believe it or not, he grew up in Texas where his father expanded his business and caught a tax break.
Dmitri was a few inches taller than me and surprisingly fast, hence the reason he made one helluva wide receiver.
We lined up in our positions. Unfortunately, my focus was not on running the slant route I could perform with my eyes closed and making the catch. I zeroed in on that fucker who was our star middle linebacker. “Hut, hut,” our quarterback Troy Ferguson barked, and I took off a few steps before cutting across the middle of the field. Nick was barreling down on me to cover. Without a thought, I put my helmet down and stiff-armed him, shoving his ass backward until he toppled to the ground on his back while the now forgotten ball sailed over my head landing a few yards down the field.
“Goddammit, eighty-seven!” Coach yelled. He rarely used our names to call us out. None of the coaches did. “What the hell are you doing? You can’t shove off a defender like that.”
I knew it. Everyone knew it. I didn’t just shove off. I flattened him to the ground. But it felt good anyway.
“What the hell was that for?” Nick breathed out. “That was stupid. You forget how to play your position?”
“No. I know what I’m doing. Do you?”
He adjusted his chinstrap. “I will get you back, asshole,” he breathed under his breath.
“Good luck.”
We lined up again, and I knew this was a running play. Being a tight end, I lined up next to our offensive line as an extra blocker. I watched fucking Nick set in position raring to take off. Gazing from his sneer, he was ready for retribution. Have fun with that, bruh. “Hut hut!” Troy called out handing it off to Axel who ran to my side, and Nick bolted my way like he had a vendetta hoping to bowl my ass over. I rushed him gripping his jersey and shoulder pads and pile drove him with all my strength and adrenaline, hoping to take this fucker down. We tussled back and forth until I body slammed him on the ground.
“The fuck is with you?” Nick spat, springing up shoving into me, and I returned the favor; we were still going at it, although play had stopped. Next thing I knew our helmets were flying off, and Nick and I were full-on punching each other. He popped me in the chin and I got him on his cheek. It took me a few seconds to realize teammates were trying to pull us apart, but I landed my fist to his face again. It took a few more seconds until we were finally separated.
“What the fuck, Roman?” Nick growled and at this point he sounded repetitive, but was huffing like a thwarted bull. We were about the same height. I may have had an inch on him, but he was stockier. He was pissed, but I had a simmering rage that’d been slowly building.
“Martinez, get your ass off the field,” Coach spewed with a red face. “Get your shit together.” I started to walk off when he added, “Five miles on the track in full pads.”
“Fuck,” I mumbled about to chuck my helmet.
“You say something? You want to go for ten?”
“No, sir,” I gritted out as I heard the whistle blow behind me and players hustled to set up for the next play.
I stalked over to the track seeing a few people from the cross country team training. Tossing my helmet aside, knowing I looked like a moron, I broke into a jog. Trying to block out the bullshit. Trying to forget the smell of fresh rain and flowers when I nosed into her neck. Most of all, trying to shut down any thought of Theodora, but it was futile. He’d touched her. My best friend had kissed her, and I had to fight the urge to defy my coach, take the field again and bludgeon Nick’s face.
Theodora
I walked across campus, reveling in the sunshine and mild temperatures. Well, not really that mild, it was only eighty degrees today, so considering it’s central Texas, you could almost consider it a cold front. The stately red brick building came into view and I strode up the steps, headed to my biochemistry class.
It was Tuesday morning, and I had three classes today until two, and then I had to go in for my shift at my new job at Duffey’s Pub & Grub. As I passed through the entry doors, I saw students gathered around in the foyer with backpacks slung over their shoulder congregating as usual. Among one of the groups, Roman
lingered with his typical serious expression and as though my body carried some kind of tracking device, his eyes soon landed on me.
I hooked a left, hoping to slip through the A hallway without incident. “Hey, aren’t you Theodora?” I glanced over and saw Taylor standing with two other girls holding a textbook in her arms.
“Yeah, Taylor, right?”
She smiled. “I thought that was you I saw you at the party the other night.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I haven’t seen you since…when was it? Three years ago?”
Like an animal that recognized a storm brewing, I felt a dark presence behind me. Taylor glanced over my shoulder. “Roman, you remember Theodora?” Then she caught herself, rolling her eyes, and chuckled as if she’d stated the obvious. “I mean, of course, you do since her mother worked for your family for years.” Her casual comment was meant to show I was beneath them. Or maybe it wasn’t. She didn’t sound malicious. It was more like stating a fact, which was true, but I held my shoulders high in any event.
“Yes. I remember her very well.” His voice was deep with a hint of derision. Despite my brave front, my nerves were skittering under my skin, and I could almost feel his heat behind me, although we weren’t touching. I realized my fingers crawled up my neck, and I quickly dropped my hand.
“Anyway. It’s nice to see you again. We should get together sometime.”
“Yeah, that’d be great,” I said, knowing that would probably never happen considering she and I had never hung out together in high school. She’d never been mean or hateful like some of the other girls back then, but she’d been friends with that crowd. Pretty sure we weren’t going to have lunch and share secrets about Roman. I hitched the strap of my backpack on my shoulder taking a step away, nodding down the hall. “Um, I have to go.”
I didn’t bother looking behind me, and he didn’t say anything either, but I could feel his eyes on me. When I made it to class, I found my seat with a shaky feeling that for some reason, it was probably inevitable at this point we’d run into each other more and more. I will always look out for you, Theodora. His words from the past came out of nowhere in my bank of memories, and I dropped my books on the desk. I shouldn’t have thrown down the gauntlet the other night. Foolishly. I’d demolished that line in the sand between stubborn and stupid.
When class finished, I closed out my laptop and stuffed it in my backpack. As I exited the lab, I saw Roman leaning casually against the wall across the hall alone, with arms crossed, staring intently at me like he’d been waiting the whole time.
I ignored him and took off toward the double doors leading out the side exit since my next class was in the following building. Without hesitation, he was beside me; his steps matched mine. There were a few other students headed that way too, so it’s not like I was too concerned he’d flat-out try something outrageous like the other night.
“Is there a reason you’re following me?”
“No. Why would you think that? Going to my next class, too.”
I shook my head, and he reached the door, holding it open. My brows furrowed, wondering what he was doing? What was his angle today? I rushed down the steps, but he clasped my arm, leading me off to the pathway away from the students that were filing back and forth between the two buildings.
“Let go of me.”
“Not until you listen.” He pulled me farther down the sidewalk until we were alone. Still out in the open.
I yanked my arm again, and he didn’t relinquish his hold. “We can do this all day, Theodora.” The way he spoke my name sounded like a parent talking down to a child. It’s not like I was going to overpower his hold.
“Fine.” I stilled, but he didn’t remove his hand. “What do you want now?”
He tilted his head as his eyes measured me; I also noticed a cut on the side of his mouth. “Giving you a chance to reconsider.”
“Reconsider what?” I laughed. “You’re funny if you think you can tell me what to do.” His jaw ticked, and I added, “It hasn’t worked out that well for you so far.”
“I think it’s about to.” He backed me against a tree, shrouding me in. Heat, I felt his heat radiating around me. If Nick was warm, Roman was like a furnace that burned me each time I got close. He palmed the tree over my head, glancing down as though we were a couple having an intimate conversation between classes. “Keep tempting me.”
“Why should I listen to anything you say, Roman?” I shifted around, seeing if anyone was near. Just in case I needed to call for help.
“Because I said so.”
I scoffed. “Maybe you should lay off whatever steroids you’re taking.”
“You’re using him to piss me off.”
A threat of laughter threatened to come out again, then I felt it. His thumb drew circles over the scar in the crook of my arm near my elbow. He’d always done that in the past too. Touched my scar. Thumbed it like he was trying to erase it. It would always be a reminder of when my nightmares began. Maybe he was reminiscing as well.
I glanced down at his hand. “I am not—”
“Stop fucking lying. For once,” he cut in sharply. “You don’t think I noticed the way you watched me the other night? I thought you would give up the game before it started, but no, you really want to challenge me. I’m serious, do that shit again and I’ll not only accept the challenge, but I’ll win the fucking war, so stop testing me.”
“Are you done?”
“No.” He swiped the hair off my shoulder and ran his thumb up the side of my neck, gently pressing into the slight bruise still faint and tender from his rough touch the other night. “Don’t ever cover this up.” He leaned in and ran his tongue over my skin scraping back and forth sending little tingles shimmying up to my ears. Was he trying to remove the concealer I dabbed on this morning? He nipped at the spot again, and I hissed, trying to back away. This was too much. He was too much.
He still held my arm, but lifted his head. His eyes were dark, intense, and filled with either contempt or lust, or both, I wasn’t certain. “Don’t try me on this one.” For a second, I thought he was going to lean in and bite me again. However, his grip loosened on my arm, and I seized the opportunity to shove him aside.
“Leave me alone. Go find Taylor. I’m sure she enjoys your touch more than me.”
As I stepped past, he tugged on the hem of my shirt causing me to pause before the fabric ripped from the tension. I didn’t have too many nice articles of clothing, and what I had, I was trying to keep in good form. “I’m trying to be reasonable here all things considered. But I can be unreasonable, too.” His eyes roved over me, unreadable, and I fought a shiver threatening to tingle down my spine. “I know how much you enjoy my touch.” He finally released my shirt after a few unholy seconds.
“By the way, how did you know where I lived?”
He smirked. “Campus directory.”
“If you ever break in my room again, I’ll call the campus police.”
He stepped in. “I didn’t break in. I was concerned about a friend who should’ve been home, but wasn’t answering her door.” He scanned my body with his eyes. “Now, run along before my mood changes,” he warned quietly.
And I did.
The next morning in Sociology class, I opened my laptop and waited for class to begin. I was a few minutes early and the conversation (if you could call it that, more like threats) I had with Roman ran through my mind for the thousandth time. Why did it bother him so much whether I went out with Nick or not? He obviously didn’t care about me. He apparently was on some kind of revenge trip. Whatever, I didn’t want to be an unwilling adversary on this ride at all.
As usual, Nick and Axel slid into their seats just as Professor Smith started his presentation. “Hey.” Nick grinned, rolling a pen between his fingers. I glanced up, noticing the black and blue bruise under his left eye. My brows drew together. Roman had a gash on his lip. Did they? No, they wouldn’t fight, would they? A rustle behind me and the creak of the chair gaine
d my attention. I was shoved forward as the back of my seat was pushed, and I jerked around to see two jean-clad knees against my chair. I followed the trail of long legs and froze in shock. What the hell was he doing here? Roman was kicked back with his hands folded over his lap. His body language was casual as if it were normal for him to show up to a class he wasn’t enrolled in. However, his eyes held an icy glare. There was nothing careless about his dark eyes. He was furious.
“The fuck you doing here?” Nick asked with a puzzled look.
Roman kept his eyes on me as his lips curled up. “Couldn’t make my afternoon class yesterday, so I’m here to catch up.”
“Could’ve just shared my notes if you’d asked,” Axel said nonchalantly.
“He doesn’t take Sociology,” Nick stated with a frown. “I know his schedule.”
Roman leaned in with a gleam in his eye. “Maybe I’ll change my schedule. This class seems…interesting.”
“Is there a reason why someone is interrupting my lecture?” Dr. Smith paused and gazed around the auditorium. He was always threatening to throw someone out of our class, but it hadn’t happened yet. Unlike some professors. I turned back to Dr. Smith and forced myself to listen to his speech. But my mind kept drifting. Roman was certifiably set out to make my life hell. He could kiss my ass for all I cared. My inner bravado sounded nice and all, but I wasn’t one hundred percent convinced of it either. I shifted in my seat uncomfortably as the room felt hotter. After fifty-five minutes of awkward torture, students began shuffling around, exiting the auditorium. I looked at Nick, realizing I was physically stuck in place. My hair had drifted over the back of my chair and was caught under Roman’s knee that had been pressing into my seat the whole time. A reminder he was still here as if I would ever forget.
Regardless, I ignored his presence. “What happened to your…” I reached out and touched Nick’s cheek. If Roman wanted to threaten me, then I’d show him how much he didn’t affect me. On the outside, at least.