Right There with You

by R. J. Sable

  I helped myself to a glass of ice-cold water and knocked it back straight away, refilling my cup.

  “Not working for you, I see,” I nodded towards the beer bottle in his hand.

  “I'll have you know this is alcohol free,” he said, showing me the label. His eyes flashed with what almost looked like hurt. As though he was a small child being reprimanded.

  “I was only kidding,” I said quickly. “Thanks for the help,” I smiled up at him.

  “Anytime,” he answered, offering his hand out to me. “I'm Jason.”

  “Jamie-Lea,” I replied, taking his hand.

  I felt my fingertips tingle as he shook my hand firmly and I started to wonder if it really had been water that I'd just drunk.

  “Nice to meet you, Jamie-Lea,” he said, flashing me a million dollar smile.

  “And you,” I said, taking in his appearance more fully now that the light permitted. He must have been in his mid twenties, he looked around the same age as my brother, Craig. He was wearing a tight fitting pinstripe shirt, rolled over his muscular forearms. The top two buttons were open, revealing a toned chest with a spattering of light chest hair. He had a woven rope bracelet around his right wrist and a pair of perfectly fitting stonewash jeans that hung loosely on his hips.

  “I'm guessing you're not a fresher,” I said quietly, lowering my gaze down at the floor and blushing as I realised I'd been quite obviously staring at him.

  “No,” he laughed. ”I'm a PhD student, I did my masters here and loved it so much I didn't want to leave,” he said with another of his heart melting smiles.

  “Oh, cool,” I said, suddenly feeling a little stupid. “I guess that makes you a bit of a genius”. Oh way to go, Jamie, real smooth. I cursed myself inwardly, feeling more and more awkward by the minute.

  “I don't know about that,” he said smoothly. “How about you? You've got that scared squirrel fresher look.” He shot me a cheeky grin.

  “Scared squirrel?” I scoffed, realising that it was probably very true. “Yeah, I just moved here yesterday. I'm studying English.”

  “There you are, Jamie-Lea!” Emma said coming up behind me.

  “Hi, sorry, I was just grabbing some water. It was hot in there.”

  She took a few seconds to look at Jason, her eyes taking in his well-toned body for just a little too long, which made me inexplicably uncomfortable.

  “Hi, I'm Emma,” she said to him, fluttering her eyelashes.

  I frowned.

  “Jason,” he replied, returning his eyes to me. “Listen, you should drop by the athletics booth at the freshers’ fair on Monday morning. I'll be there. I can show you around a bit,” he said enthusiastically. He held my gaze for a few seconds. I couldn't ignore the intensity which gleamed out from behind his dark pupils. I smiled and opened my mouth to answer but Emma got there first.

  “We'll be there,” she nodded vigorously.

  “Cool.” His eyes flitted to her and back. “Enjoy your water,” he winked and strolled back off towards the nightclub.

  “He was fit!” Emma announced as soon as he was out of earshot.

  I giggled and she dragged me back towards the dance floor. We danced for a while longer until we decided to call it a night at around two. We lost Adam to the leggy blonde, and Sarah disappeared with a well-built Italian. The rest of us made a hasty retreat through the chilly air back to the flat. It had been a pretty good night, all in all. I smiled as I thought about the freshers’ fair. It would be nice to get a better look around.

  Relieved to be home and somewhat exhausted, I changed into some shorts and one of Craig's old T-shirts. I climbed over a few as yet unpacked boxes and slid into bed with my phone. I plugged it into the charger on the bedside table and sent a quick text to Karl.

  Hi Karl.

  I'm home. Sorry it's late.

  Had a good night.

  Sorry if I worried you.

  xx JL

  I shut my eyes and was asleep before I knew it.

  ***

  Sunday, 16th September 2012

  I woke up to the sun shining through the fairly ineffective, vomit-coloured curtains in my room. I picked up my phone and glanced at the time. It was half past eight. Pretty late rising for me; I was used to being up at six. It felt like a real luxury to have been allowed such a lie-in.

  I noticed a few blinking messages on my phone. I had a few notifications from Facebook taggings and comments, and a few texts. I opened my inbox to read the texts I'd missed from last night. Two from the twins at around 20:45 and one from Karl at 02:20 this morning. My identical twin brothers had sent me identical texts.

  Karl's pissed.

  You're in trouble!

  Cursing myself for not reading them last night so I at least had a warning, I messaged them both back.

  Thanks for the heads up.

  Miss you all

  xx JL

  I opened the message from Karl.

  Ok. This isn't over.

  I groaned loudly into my pillow. Why can't they just let stuff like this go? I get the whole wanting to protect me thing, but I'm eighteen now. They have no right to tell me what I can and can't wear, do they? I sighed, feeling guilty that I was questioning them after everything they'd done for me. I rolled out of bed and, in a moment of defiance, didn’t re-make it. Ian and Karl made sure our beds were made up every morning, making us redo them if they weren’t up to scratch.

  I nipped into the cupboard-sized, en-suite bathroom and pulled on my running gear. I enabled the GPS programme that Ian had put on my phone so that anybody on my friends list could see where I was when I was running. For my safety, they'd insisted. I headed out the door, locking it behind me and trying to put my ear buds in so that they sat comfortably. I almost crashed into Adam as I went through the building doors.

  “Hey, Player!” I greeted him with a small hug.

  “Ugh, don't judge me!” He groaned, sounding a little worse for wear.

  “I'm not!” I protested, giggling slightly. “Six brothers, remember!”

  He grinned back at me. “You off for a run?” He looked at me as if I was insane.

  “Yeah, I thought I'd look around a bit before breakfast.”

  “You're a mad woman!” He grinned and waved as he headed inside.

  I turned up the volume and set off to explore the campus, making a mental note to make my bed when I got home, because staging an impromptu Skype bed inspection was exactly the sort of thing Ian was likely to do.

  Chapter 2

  Monday, 17th September 2012

  “So we're going to the freshers’ fair today, right?” Emma asked as we sat eating our breakfasts in the kitchen. “You know, to get Mr Hottie to show you around?” She asked, fluttering her eyelashes once more.

  “I was going to go to the freshers’ fair anyway, sign up for some clubs and get some freebies.” I refused to admit that I'd quite like to see Jason again, even though it was pointless.

  I'd learnt very quickly that there was no point getting into any sort of relationship beyond friendship with guys. Even my male friends were often victim to my overbearing brothers. Alex, my best friend back home, had taken his fair share of beatings. He didn't get scared off like all the other guys though, that's what I loved about him.

  “You've got to admit he's hot though, right?”

  I sighed, not really wanting to get into it.

  “You must be used to being surrounded by muscly guys, I saw some of the guys you were with when you moved in. They your entourage?” She grinned at me.

  I laughed, they'd probably have exploded if they'd heard her call them that. “No,” I replied, still giggling. “They're my brothers.”

  “I'm sure you don't want to hear this, but they were really hot!” She exclaimed.

  I rolled my eyes at her. It wasn't like it was news to me. I'd had tonnes of girls trying to befriend me just so they could get close to Craig and Jake while we'd been at school together. It had gotten old pretty fast. They wer
e always with new girls. Except for Karl, he'd been with Elise since he was seventeen. They were adorable together and she was the closest thing I had to a big sister/mother figure in my life.

  “Are they single?”

  “Not sure, probably. They don't really talk to me about that sort of stuff,” I admitted reluctantly.

  I think she sensed my hesitance and switched topics.

  “The freshers’ fair starts at ten, want to check with the others if they want to come?”

  “Yeah, that'd be cool. Let's hope they wake up in time,” I grinned at her.

  We ate our breakfasts together and she chatted away about her family and friends back home. She was a lot more fun than I'd first thought. Sat in her baggy, grey sports shirt and short shorts, with no make-up and bed-head, she seemed much less girly-girl and a little more tomboy. A little easier to relate to. I kept relatively quiet, content to listen to her speak, nodding where it was appropriate. After half an hour, I felt like I knew her much better.

  Adam came through the kitchen door wearing only a pair of jogging bottoms, hanging off his hips and giving us a view of his well-defined abs and smooth chest.

  “Morning!” We both chimed as he wiped the sleep out of his eyes.

  “Morning, ladies,” he nodded to us, grabbing some cereal out of his cupboard.

  As he was helping himself to a generous portion, Emma turned back to me.

  “So tell me about your family,” she said with a smile.

  “Well, there's not much to tell. Just me and my six older brothers, and Matt who’s kind of like an adopted brother, he's lived with us since I was born,” I said, noticing that Adam was listening. I blushed, it wasn’t that I was ashamed of my family. It was just that, once I described them, I usually got sympathetic looks that made everything awkward.

  “And your parents?” She asked.

  I cringed a little, knowing where this was going but figuring it was better to get it out the way and hoping my roommates would gossip amongst themselves so I wouldn’t have to tell the story more than once.

  “My mum died when I was a baby and my dad was killed in a military exercise when I was six. My brothers raised me with a little help from our relatives.”

  There was the stunned silence. Here comes the awkwardness.

  “Oh, Jamie-Lea, I'm so sorry... I didn't mean... I mean...” She stammered, looking for the right words. Nobody ever found the right words.

  “God, these value coco-pops taste like sawdust!” Adam spluttered, taking us both by surprise.

  I couldn't help but laugh, I was grateful to him for bringing some levity to the situation.

  “Kinda having a deep conversation here, Adam!” Emma said, sounding a little annoyed.

  “And I'm suffering without a decent morning sugar kick here, woman!” He quipped, shooting me a wink.

  Emma sighed as she turned to the sink and washed her dishes up. “I'll meet you in here at twenty to, Jamie-Lea?” She said as she made her way to the door.

  “Sounds like a plan!” I answered warmly.

  Once she was out the door Adam focussed on me, the playful look in his eyes replaced with one of concern.

  “Did you mind?” He asked gently.

  “No, thanks for rescuing me,” I said earnestly.

  “Anytime,” he grinned, relaxing. “I was raised in foster care, so I get where you're coming from.”

  I nodded. I'd never have guessed he didn't come from a normal, happy, family home. He seemed so well balanced and confident.

  “So, where we going at twenty to?” He grinned at me.

  Adam, Bradley, Emma, and I were all up in time to make it to the freshers’ fair. We walked around the stalls, grabbing goodie bags of everything from condoms to kitchen utensils. I found plenty of clubs to sign up for and splashed out £100 for a sports club membership for the year, which meant I could use the gym for fifty pence a time and included sports clubs.

  My brothers were pretty ruthless about exercise, so at least they couldn’t accuse me of slacking off. We passed through the sports booths and I lost the others as I signed up for the running and swimming clubs before stopping at the athletics booth. There were those blue-green eyes again. Although, now we were in daylight, they looked more green than blue. He'd already seen me and was smiling that smile that made my legs tremble as I made my way to the booth.

  “Jamie! Hi, little squirrel!” He said, squeezing his way around the table to give me a one-armed hug.

  “Hi, Jason” I said quietly, unable to bring my gaze up from the floor. “I'm not sure that nickname is going to work,” I mumbled, feeling my cheeks redden.

  “Too late, it's stuck now,” he said, and I caught him grinning as I chanced a look to his well sculpted, full lips. “Will you sign up for athletics club, you know, since you're here anyway?”

  “I thought you were going to give me a tour?” I chanced another look, this time at his too thick lashes.

  “Sure. If you sign up for athletics club!”

  “Blackmail, that's your game?” I grinned, feeling a little more relaxed.

  “You got me. Come on, you're obviously a runner, you'll love it!”

  That one caught me off guard. How does he know I run?

  “You were showing your legs off on Saturday,” he grinned, seemingly reading my thoughts. “Plus I saw you this morning.”

  “Oh God, you saw me all sweaty and gross!” I cringed as he laughed. His laugh was so warm and deep and sent pleasant vibrations down my spine.

  “It wasn't that bad,” he said kindly.

  My face must have gone from pink to puce and I wanted the floor to swallow me whole.

  “Honestly, you looked lovely,” he said trying to ease my discomfort. “Take a look at our pamphlet.”

  I focussed all my attention on the words in front of me so I didn't have to look up at him. I had to admit, it did sound fun. I wasn't used to training on my own and it'd be nice to try a few different things with some new people.

  He placed his right arm around my waist as he pointed out things in the leaflet. I found it hard to concentrate with his hand on my hip sending tingles through my body, which I valiantly tried to ignore. What's wrong with me?

  “Stop, stop, I'm sold!” I said, cutting him off mid spiel.

  “You'll sign up?” He asked, his eyes lighting up.

  I couldn't help but smile. His eyes made me feel a connection to him that I couldn't explain. It was clear there was a lot of depth hidden behind those cerulean shields.

  “If it'll get you to give me my tour, then what choice do I have?” I exclaimed, pouting and attempting to sound annoyed.

  “Absolutely none at all,” he answered seriously.

  I shoved all my freebies clumsily into my backpack and followed him out into the entrance hall.

  “What do you want to see first?” He asked.

  “You're the expert, what's worth seeing?” I blinked up at him.

  He smiled that irresistible smile and offered me his hand, which I took cautiously, wondering just how many days he'd need to spend in hospital if my brothers were here. He led me out the student union and across towards the main building. We walked in a strangely comfortable silence as I enjoyed the warmth of his hand, which was rougher than I had expected.

  “This is undoubtedly the most important place on campus,” he announced, stopping in a large and bustling hall outside the library.

  “Oh?” I asked inquisitively. “And why is that?”

  “Because they have the best coffee!” He declared, gesturing to the right of the library where a cosy open plan coffee shop was situated.

  “Is that so?” I answered before I could stop myself.

  His playful demeanour made me so at ease.

  “It sounds like you don't believe me. Which means I'm going to have to prove it to you.” His voice was smooth, with just the right amount of a growl to accent the masculinity he exuded from every pore. He put his hand on the small of my back and guided me to o
ne of the small tables in the corner before I could object.

  “What can I get you?”

  “No, you can't buy me coffee!” I argued, immediately regretting my outburst.

  “Oh, and why is that?” He asked, thankfully amused.

  “Because this isn't the twentieth century!” I said stubbornly, feeling the heat rush to my cheeks. I had enough men trying to look after me at home, I didn't think I needed another one here.

  “Alright then, crazy lady. How about I buy this coffee and you buy the next one? As long as you promise not to burn your bra while I fetch them,” he winked at me and turned away, leaving me speechless at the table.

  He was smiling but I felt guilty; I didn’t mean to be rude. I didn't have time to ponder it any further because I felt my phone vibrating in my jeans pocket.

  “Hello?” I said, answering it quickly so I could stop feeling guilty.

  “Hi, Jelly!” I recognized Craig's voice and felt my lips immediately curving into a smile.

  “Hi, Craig! How are you?”

  “I'm good. You sound happy.”

  “Course I'm happy, I get to talk to you!” I grinned.

  “I helped you move on Friday, Jelly. It's been a whole three days,” I could practically hear him grinning.

  “I know, but I miss you guys.”

  “You could move home?” He suggested.

  “Yeah right!” I scoffed. “You'd never let me live it down. I'd end up being your little house maid or something,” I said seriously. “Plus, I'm having fun up here,” I added honestly.

  “Good, I'm glad. As long as you’re being careful,” he said sternly.

  I rolled my eyes at him.

  “Don't roll your eyes at me.”

  “How did you know?” I sighed.

  “I always know, and you should know that by now. You're lucky I'm not there, or you'd be paying for it.”

  I sighed and rolled my eyes again, enjoying my defiance. “Was there something you wanted?” I said, frustrated.

  “Watch your tone, Jelly,” he warned.

  “Sorry,” I said quietly, automatically lowering my gaze to the floor.