by Claire Adams
Chapter Two
Jet
I pulled into a parking spot at the college and got out of my car. I grabbed my gym bag and headed inside. I headed straight for the locker room to get changed. I grabbed my gear out of my locker and pulled my shorts and T-shirt out of my gym bag, and changed for training. I was meeting my brother, Craig, at the gym that day. We were going to lift some weights and get a little jacked. He was part of the MMA fighting team too, but was a lowerclassman. My brother and I were close, and we often trained and hung out together.
I left the locker room, and headed out to the training area to find my brother. I saw my coach training a few guys, and waved to him as I headed to the weight area.
“Hey Jet, how are you doing?”
“Good, man. Have you seen my brother?”
He shrugged. “No. But I haven't been around the gym yet. He could have slipped by me.”
I laughed. I waved him off and continued on to the weight room. Once I arrived, I saw my brother setting up the bench press because it was chest and shoulder day. He was sliding plates on the weight bar.
“Hey, buddy. Already getting in there, aren't you?”
“Yeah, can't waste any time. We are tanks, bro.”
I laughed. I totally loved that guy. I patted him on the shoulder and went to assess the weight situation. We weren't bodybuilders, but we lifted pretty well. I liked weight days. It was good for the ego to lift weights and feel so much stronger.
“Okay, you do the first set, and I will spot you,” I offered.
“Sounds good.”
He lay himself down on the bench and braced himself under the bar. I stood in front of him, ready to take the bar if needed. He brought it down slowly to his chest and pushed it up. He did a set of 10 with solid weight before he sat up and we pumped fists. He did two more sets like that, adding weight each time.
It was then my turn. I weighed a little more than he did, so I could lift more. He spotted me, and I took it to eight each time. When my sets were done, I went to the water cooler to get a drink. When I came back, he got 60-pound free weights for each arm and did chest presses again. We each worked those sets until we were dripping sweat off our bodies.
“So how's life, man? What have you been doing these days? Haven't seen you in a bit.”
“Not much, really. Training for the fights. Been out a few times, but mostly training, man. And of course school too, but let’s be honest, it's not my focus.”
Craig laughed at that. “No doubt. Heading for the big time, man.”
“You know it.”
“So what about the ladies? I heard you screwed some art student,” he laughed. “Not really your regular type there, is it?”
I didn't like what he said, and I bristled briefly, not saying anything. Fucking Kyle; I could almost kill the guy for opening his mouth, apparently all over campus. He didn't even hang out with my brother, and yet my brother had heard the same gossip everyone else had. I didn't like that my teammates knew about her, and assumed she was just some girl I banged one night. I certainly wasn't going to add insult to injury by continuing on with that kind of talk. There was no way I was going to continue on with the rumors and make the situation worse. I was lucky that Natalie was still talking to me…and fucking me.
“Let's not talk about the girls in my life. How about we talk about the chunky girl you are still dating. Why haven't you unloaded her by now?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Your girlfriend, man. Why are you talking about Natalie? Look at your girlfriend. She put on, like, 20 pounds since you started dating. Why don't you drag her in here? She used to be hot, but she's not anymore.”
“Crystal isn't fat.”
I laughed. “If you say so.”
I could tell I was getting a rise out of him and it's exactly what I wanted―for the topic to get off of Natalie.
“You're a dick, man.”
“Ahhh, I'm just busting your balls. I love Crystal; you know that. But you should bring her to the gym sometime.”
“Let's just finish this workout and get the hell out of here.”
I loved my brother, but he was easy to get to if I really wanted to. When he met Crystal, she was a sweet piece of work. All ass and tits, and everything was firm. They had been together for two years now, and she just gotten a little too comfortable in the relationship with her fighter boyfriend and had eaten one too many bags of chips. She no longer went to the gym, and although it was true she wasn't fat, she could definitely stand to lose the 20 pounds she packed on. Craig was sensitive about the issue because he didn't like the extra weight she had gained. They often fought about it because Crystal didn't like him bringing up her weight. Anyway, the two of them had issues, and if I ever needed to change the subject, bringing her up was a great way to do that.
We set ourselves up to do chin-ups, and we worked at doing 25, which was a sick amount. When I finished my set, every muscle in my upper body burned, especially my arms, which felt like noodles. Next, Craig did a set of 15 chin-ups, and then we went to do shoulder presses.
We continued on through our workout, hitting chest, shoulders, and we finished up with abs. We continued chatting about nonsense, and the conversation never went back to Natalie, which I was relieved about.
“When was the last time you talked to Mom?” Craig asked me.
“I don't know; last week I guess. Why?”
“Oh just wondering. She invited Crystal to some benefit, and she wants me to go with her. Are you going?”
“I haven't heard anything about it, and if I had, I would have declined. I don't have time for that shit, man. Mom always has these benefits and charity things, and dressing up to go save the owls or whatever other crusade she gets on is fucking ridiculous.”
Craig howled with laughter. “You got her right on the nose, man. I think Mom has too much time on her hands. She should have gone to work after we all grew up. Too many brunches with the ladies have gotten to her head.”
“Yeah, no kidding. I feel for you, man. But you can always tell Crystal to go stag; it wouldn't be the end of the world. She would still get wined and dined. I think a plate at these events goes for like $500.”
“Yeah, I know. It's crazy.”
“Anyways, I'm fucking beat. Let's hit the showers.”
Craig nodded, and we trudged out of the weight area. By now, my coach had left for the day, and there weren't too many of my teammates left around. I was looking forward to hitting the shower and getting cleaned up since I was covered in sweat, and I smelled worse than a pig.
We got into the locker rooms, and I grabbed a towel from my locker. I stripped down and put my sweaty clothes in the mesh pocket of my gym bag, so that I could take them home to wash later. I headed to the shower and opened the door to turn on the tap. Warm water poured out, and I adjusted it until it came out hot. Steam started to rise out from the shower, and I stepped in. I quickly rinsed off before grabbing the bar of soap. I soaped down my entire body, scrubbing off the sweat and grime of the gym. I rinsed again, and grabbed some shampoo out of the bottle on the shower ledge. I scrubbed my hair and rinsed, not bothering with the conditioner. Now that I was squeaky clean, I leaned my head back into the showerhead, and let hot water course over my body, pulling some of the pain and soreness with it. There was nothing better than a hot shower after a hard workout. I believed it not only cleaned my body, but my soul as well. I just felt so much better prepared to take on the world afterwards. I turned off the faucet, and opened the shower door. I stepped out, closing the door behind me, and grabbed my towel. I quickly dried off, and went to find my clothes.
I got clothes out of my gym bag and dressed before I checked myself out in the mirror and did a quick body flex.
Man, I looked good.
I checked my phone for messages while I waited for Craig to get out and get dressed. I heard the shower shut off, and he got out to dry himself off and get changed.
“Hey, Jet
, I'm going for lunch with Crystal and Dad. You should come.”
I groaned inwardly, but didn't say anything. The last thing I wanted to do was to go have lunch with my dad. My dad was not a fan of my MMA career aspirations. He thought it was a cool hobby to have, but it didn't make any sense to him as a career. If I went to lunch with them, we would get into yet another debate about how I should take over the billion-dollar tech business he created from the ground up. Sometimes I thought that was all the old man ever talked about. I was bloody sick of it, and I had no intention of going into the family business, so I fervently wished my father would get over it, already. I loved my brother, however, so I thought I would go on his behalf.
“Yeah, I guess that would be cool.”
“Don't sound too excited or anything,” he laughed.
“No, sorry, it's not that. I just don't want to get into another argument with Dad. It's frustrating.”
“Yeah, I hear ya. It won't be like that though, I promise. I'll stop him if he starts in on you again.”
“I'll hold you to that, man.”
“Hey, maybe you should get Natalie to come. You know, since you guys are fuck buddies now. Dad would just love that you are dating an art student. It may even distract him from focusing on you at lunch.”
I laughed along with him as we headed out of the locker rooms.
Chapter Three
Natalie
I woke again, and realized it was almost lunchtime. I still felt pretty tired from the late night and all the booze, but at least the headache and nausea had left. The extra sleep had done me good, but it also didn't leave me with a lot of time to get to class. I rolled out of bed and checked myself out in the dresser mirror to make sure that I was suitable for public consumption. I had slept in my clothes but they weren't really wrinkled so I decided they would do. I had to brush out my hair, though, because it looked like I had been shagged; quite well, actually.
I intended on sneaking out of the apartment and avoiding Jet's roommate, Kyle, at all costs. I had no intention of dealing with him, and I figured he got more than an eyeful of me that day anyway. I grabbed my purse and headed to the door, swinging it open. Just at that moment, Jet burst into the room, almost knocking me over.
“What is wrong with you? Do you have to ram into me every time we meet? Thankfully, I didn't have books in my arm this time.”
“Sorry, I didn't expect you to be right at the door. I wasn't even sure if you would still be here.”
“Would you have preferred to come home and have me already gone?” I glared at him, waiting for a response.
“What? No. What are you talking about? That's not what I meant at all.”
I felt fairly stupid, standing there in his room after the drunken escapades of the night before. I had pushed myself on him last night, and the result was sex, and I wasn't even sure if he liked it. He didn't appear to be overjoyed at the moment. Surely, I was good. I had never had any complaints before. Though, with Jet's track record, maybe I still had a lot to learn.
“Oh, forget it,” I said.
“Is everything alright? Did you sleep okay last night?”
Sleep? He was asking me about sleep? Were we really not going to discuss the sex show I put on for him last night? Ugh, men!
“Yeah, Jet, I slept really well last night. Thanks for checking up on that.”
“Ah, sarcasm; how original of you this morning.”
“Where did you fly off to so early in the morning? It was a little odd to wake up alone this morning.”
“I'm sorry, Natalie. I already had plans today to meet my brother at the gym. I hadn't expected ... you last night. I didn't want to ditch him today.”
“You could have left me a note.”
He stood there silent, unable to say anything else, or maybe he just didn't care to.
“What are you up to today? What are you doing later?”
“I really have to get to class, okay, Jet? I'm running late.”
He just nodded, confused as always.
As I walked passed him, I whispered in his ear, “By the way, Kyle saw me naked this morning.” With that, I kept walking down the hall, and made a mental note that he didn’t say a word. I headed out the front door, thankful that Kyle either left the apartment, or holed himself up in his room for the day. Either way, I avoided him, and that's all that mattered.
As I was walking down the street I texted my friend, Brenda, from the art walk, and told her to meet me outside of campus before class. I called a cab, and had it pick me up as I continued to head down the street. I didn't want Jet to come out looking for me, as I was sure I alarmed him about the comment about Kyle seeing me naked. One-night stand or not, I knew Jet to be the territorial type, and he would not like the fact that Kyle had seen me naked.
I watched as the cab pulled up beside me, and I got inside. I gave the address of the college, and the cab pulled away from the curb. I lay back in the seat, determined to rest my eyes again before I got to school. I didn’t have any of my schoolbooks, so I would have to wing it for the time being. I really hadn't thought through my seduction routine last night. Had I done that, I would have brought along my books as well.
As the cab pulled up to the college, I saw Brenda outside the front doors, waiting for me. I paid the cab driver, including tip, and bounced out of the cab toward her.
“Hey girl, how ya doing?” I asked.
“You are a sight for sore eyes. Where is your stuff?”
“I left it at home, so you are gonna have to be my book buddy for class.”
“At home? Julie told me you didn't make it home again last night, and you haven't been home all week.”
I blushed, forgetting that Julie and Brenda were also friends.
“Yeah, I stayed at Jet's. No big deal, though.”
Brenda raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, right. I guess when that handsome stud bought your artwork he sure won you over, didn't he?”
“No, no, are you crazy? Absolutely not. He hasn't won anything. It was just a one-time slip on my part. I was actually out with Benny last night. I just needed to do something, anything to try to get over my ex, ya know?”
“Really, that's all it was?”
“To be honest I don't even remember much about it. Drank too much. But yes, I'm just trying to get that jerk out of my head, and Benny suggested spending the night with someone might do the trick.”
“Benny suggested you sleep with Jet? Are you serious?”
“No, he actually vehemently insisted I not sleep with Jet.” I laughed. “He just meant a guy in general, but thought Jet was a bad idea. For obvious reasons, of course.”
“You are sure in a pickle, aren't you?”
“Yeah, it seems that way.”
“So, what kind of gun is he packing?” she said, chuckling.
“Oh God, are you actually asking me this?”
“Well yeah, he's a stud. And since I don't have a prayer of having him ask me out, I'm curious.”
“Well, although I don't remember a lot of the mechanics of the evening, I do recall being pleasantly surprised, so the boy is definitely packing a lot of heat,” I laughed then, winking at her.
“Wow, I'm so jealous. I can't remember the last time I had sex.”
“Brenda, please, I barely remember it. Just pieces. It could have been a wild disaster for all I know.”
Brenda shrugged. “I don't know. Men like wild disasters.”
I chuckled. “Maybe.”
“So are you guys a thing now?”
“No way. He's already slept with me; I doubt I'll ever hear from him again.”
“I think he really likes you, Natalie.”
“No, he doesn't. I'm just the next thing for him to conquer. And then he will move on.”
We got to class and settled down in our seats. I settled in as the professor made an announcement to the class.
“Class, I want you all to be prepared for next Thursday. Class will be a little bit different that day and I
want you to take that into account. We will not be meeting in the classroom, but in the gymnasium this time. So don't be late, and don't skip that day, as we will be having a special project.”
I shot Brenda a disappointed face as I thought about the project. It had to be a sports-related themed project, and the thought of it bummed me out enormously. I had a strong dislike for sports of any kind, so the idea of a project based on it was disappointing, to say the least. I took it for what it was worth, however, and buckled down for another art class.
When class ended, Brenda and I grabbed our things and headed out to the hallway.
“So what do you think the project will be about?” Brenda asked me.
“I have no idea, but I think it's going to be severely lame if it's in the gym. Like, what is she going to have us draw? Basketballs and catcher’s mitts? Borrrrrring.”
Brenda laughed, but it was cut short when she stopped suddenly. I looked away from her, only to find Jet standing there, waiting for us outside of class.
Brenda broke out into a grin and said, “Hey, Jet, nice seeing you again.”
He smiled and nodded at her before his eyes met mine again.
I turned to Brenda, who was still grinning like an idiot.
“So, Natalie, I will catch you later; I got to run.”
“Oh sure, have a good day.” I watched as Brenda hurried away, casting a look at me over her shoulder as she headed off. That left me alone with Jet, and I wasn't happy about it. I had been sure the stalking and showing up at random times and places would have ended once he had his way with me. Why was he back for more? The drunken sex couldn't have been that good.
“Hi, Natalie, how was class?”
“It was peachy, Jet, and how was whatever it is you have been doing all day long?”
“I had a good day with training, thanks.”