Page 21 of The Golden Receiver

Instead of backing up or even apologizing, he reached out again with that handful of napkins. “I know what I’m doing, Kieran.”

I shoved his hand away. I did not want or need his help. I wanted him to go away, find the friends he came with, and leave me alone. His brand of help didn’t make things better. The way he was rubbing at my shirt had spread the stain. Meeting in the morning for runs hadn’t helped me move up the depth chart. All he did was annoy the piss out of me under the guise of helping, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with that right now.

The soda spilling on my shirt washed away every ounce of goodwill I had left toward this party.

Fuck the thirty minute minimum.

Fuck the three-football player rule I’d set for myself.

Fuck the whole Alpha Claw Omega party.

This wasn’t me. This wasn’t the kind of shit I enjoyed doing, and I wasn’t going to make friends at a party where I was on edge and counting down the minutes until I could leave. Who the fuck wanted to be friends with someone who was in a bad mood and mentally watching the clock?

It was time to go. I looked over my shoulder at the living room. It looked about fifty times more crowded than it had been, but there was another door. Some kitchen door I’d seen a few people slip through on my laps. I didn’t know what fresh hell waited in the backyard—probably couples hooking up on patio furniture—but it was a risk I was willing to take. Had to be better than being stuck in here.

It didn’t take more than half a second to make my decision. Evander was still standing there, looking down at his hand and then back up at me. I left him standing in the crowded kitchen and pushed my way out the back door. I was hit with the mingling smells of pot and cigarette smoke. There were a few clusters of people standing around, smoking one or the other, but at least it was quieter out here. There was also, predictably, a couple making out on some of the furniture on the porch. I didn’t spare them more than a glance, because watching two strangers go at it was about as appealing to me as watching paint dry.

It was quieter outside. I could still hear the music and crowds in the house, but it wasn’t so loud that it drowned out every one of my damn thoughts. I felt like I could catch a full breath for the first time since I’d stepped foot into the frat house. I was ready to get back to Karloff Hall and forget this entire failure of a night.

I took the wooden steps down from the patio two at a time and let out a sigh of relief when my feet hit the grass. It was another step away from this damn party. There was a gate on the side of the yard, and I started toward it. I didn’t give a shit that it led to what was the Creelin University equivalent of a dark alley. It was only the length of the frat house, and it looked empty to my human eyes. Unless there were students that could turn invisible, I figured it was safe enough.

I pushed through the gate. No sooner than I’d taken a step into the alley did I hear someone call my name.

No, not someone.

Evander.

Fucking Evander.

He really could not just take a damn hint and leave me the hell alone, could he? I ignored him and kept walking, but I should’ve known better than to think that would work. He was one of the most stubborn people I’d ever met. Within a few strides, he was right behind me. I kept walking, but I could feel him behind me. I started toward campus, and I thought that maybe, since he came with friends, he’d realize I was leaving and go back to the party. Surely, he wasn’t going to abandon his friends twenty minutes into a party to stalk me around Creelin.

Except I forgot I was dealing with Evander Fucking Hemmings.

I gave up on the idea that he was going to leave me the hell alone about a block away from campus. He wasn’t talking, but I could feel his eyes on the back of my head. He stayed a pace or two behind me the entire walk, and it was starting to grate my nerves. I hated the feeling of being followed, of being watched. I always had. I could feel it like it was something tangible.

I whipped around to face him. He grinned a wild grin at me. His teeth were bright white in the dark, and I suddenly thought of Little Red Riding Hood.

Oh Evander, what big teeth you have…

Not that I thought Evander was the kind of monster that had a taste for human flesh. To my knowledge, those types didn’t exist with any more frequency than human murderers. But damn if the old fairy tale wasn’t playing in my mind.

Unlike Little Red, I wasn’t afraid of this Big Bad Wolf. Not that Evander had anything in common with the fairy tale creature. He had more in common with a golden retriever if anything.

“Why are you following me?” I snapped, taking a step toward him.

Evander looked at me, and with the way the streetlights caught his eyes, they almost looked like they were glowing amber. I’d seen his eyes do that while we were running in the mornings. It must have been some kind of werewolf thing, and I was starting to get used to seeing weird shit on campus anyway. The only thing he didn’t do was answer.

“Don’t you have friends at the party?” I demanded. “Maybe you should go back to them.”

“And let you walk home alone?” he asked.

He sounded amused, and I didn’t like it. I felt like I was the butt of some joke. Can’t let the delicate fucking human walk home at night alone. Never mind the fact that I had been staying on my own since I was about fourteen, when Pops decided that I could be trusted for a few hours on my own instead of haunting that corner booth at his bar. My neighborhood back home was a lot shadier than anything Creelin had to offer, so I didn’t think there was much danger in walking a well-lit path back to campus without a wolfy escort.

“I don’t need it,” I told him. “You can go.”

I’d hoped the dismissal would make him leave, but it didn’t. Instead, he took a step closer to me. “You know, it wouldn’t hurt for you to be a bit nicer,” he pointed out. I didn’t have the patience for this shit. I turned and started back toward campus. He fell into step beside me. We walked in silence for another block. He didn’t speak again until we reached campus. “You make it really hard to be your friend, you know that right?”

Had I indicated in any way that I wanted him to be my friend?