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“I am.” He pointed. “This is my last year of college. I had a hell of a game tonight, and you two are acting like children not young adults, so I’m treating you like children. You are going to your dorm, your home while you are this college. She is going to her room.”
I was sure that lecture continued to the elevator and probably to the car here to pick her up.
Pricilla asked, “Who are you? I don’t know you.”
I said with a confidence I didn’t really feel, “I’m Poppy Zeigler. He uh…landed on my arm at the game.”
I held up the casted arm. Her eyes went wide, “Oh my God! You’re the girl on the news. You like snuck down there to get a picture of him or something?”
“I have a press pass. I did not sneak anywhere. I was getting shots of the game and didn’t realize how close the players were.” I wanted to smack her. He was right, she was definitely a little brat.
“So why are you here?” she asked. “If my girlfriend can’t stay, why do you get to?”
Before I could respond, the door closed and he said, “Because this is my apartment and I say she can. What the hell has gotten into you lately?”
Freedom. Freshman freedom. I was nowhere near as cute as his cousin, quite a bit more meat on my bones, even if I was still small compared to him. Hell, most men around here might be considered small compared to him. But compared to her, or her perfect girlfriend, I looked like what happened to them when they grew up, got married, had three kids, and stopped working off the baby weight.
I looked at the floor and wished it was a portal I could drop into and pop out wherever my parents were.
“I’m just having fun. What is so wrong with that?” she asked.
“You’re not even old enough to drink. You’re at a frat house notorious for bad behavior, and you—”
“Ugh! You sound like my Dad! I came here to get away from all that.” She threw up her hands as she tried to stand, but she went right back on her ass on that couch.
“You came here for Candice. Not school, not because family was here, but because she is here. She’s bad news. Why can’t you see that?” he asked.
“I love her. She loves me. How is that bad news?” she asked.
“Love? Love you say? Well, if you really loved her, you wouldn’t be stumbling through that door drunk. I wouldn’t be calling you at a frat house at four in the morning. If she loved you, she wouldn’t be using you for my apartment, your car, which she has the keys to, right?” he asked. She nodded. “If you two really loved each other, you wouldn’t be putting one another at risk like that. Both of you drunk, anyone could do anything to you.”
She looked away. He tilted his head. “Did someone—”
She got up and ran to her room where she slammed the door. He slid his hand from his forehead to his chin and said, “I’m going to have to graduate from prison.”
I smiled then pulled my lips in and bit down, so he didn’t see that as he turned to look at me. He said, “You should try to get some sleep.”
“I’m not tired right now.” I got up and walked over to where he stood and looked up at him. Big brown eyes looked down at me. “You need to watch something funny.”
“Is that what I need?” he asked with a sigh. I nodded. He rolled a shoulder and said, “Whatever.”
He took a seat on the couch and kept looking down the hall, pausing the television, and then I heard it, too. He headed down to her room and because he left the door open, I could hear him saying, “Just let it come up. You’ll feel like shit tomorrow either way, but at least I can rest knowing you aren’t going to choke to death on your own vomit.”
“Thanks for that visual.” She sounded miserable.
I was really a bit smitten with Brady Parker.
