AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kit pointed at me. “Not one word or I’ll spread your shit all over the Kappa house.”
“What a friend,” Cruz clipped out, standing up behind me.
Kit flushed again. Her hand lowered a little, but she was still glowering. “Just–don’t say anything, Mara.”
“Kit’s got a boyfriend.”
Barclays’ eyes widened and he jerked to the side, away from Kit.
All eyes went to Zeke, who had leaned back in his chair and gave a smug smile. His eyes went to Kit. “You got nothing on me, and if you threaten Daniels again, you got two new enemies at Cain.”
Kit’s eyebrows dipped together.
He clarified, “You know I’ll go hard for her. I’ve always had Daniels’ back. Things will just be extra-enemy-ish between you and me now.”
Kit was losing some of her steam, but she turned to Barclay. “My boyfriend cheated on me. We broke up before I came here this weekend, and FYI, he’s the reason I came along.”
Atwater hooted. “Dude. That means you’re the rebound fuck.”
Barclay was giving her another assessing look before shrugging. “I’m okay with that.” He swooped in, picking her up, and as she gave a little shriek, he took her upstairs. He said to Cruz, “Wake me up thirty minutes before we gotta go for the bus.”
Cruz nodded.
Labrowski came out from the kitchen. “First pizza’s done.” He took in the weirdness of the room. “What’d I miss?”
30
CRUZ
“You sure about this?” I asked Mara as she was waiting to help the guys to their car. Labrowski, who was sober, drove it to our house and she was taking it to the Alpha Mu house. From there, the plan was to get Miles into his car and she would drive that back to their place.
“Miles will wake up enough to transfer cars and we’ll all be good.” She moved a little closer to me, looking up at me. “When does your bus leave tomorrow?”
“We need to be at the arena by ten.”
“Thought you guys usually fly in the night before a game?”
“We do. This time’s the exception.”
She nodded, taking me in, lingering on my mouth.
Things had changed with us, but things had been changing for a while. I wasn’t really sure where to go, but I was going to let Mara take the lead, at least for a bit. Her face flickered before clearing up and she stepped backwards, away from me. “Sounds good. Get some rest. Gotta make sure you win tomorrow.”
Right. Win tomorrow. That’s how she was doing this?
“Yeah. Thanks.”
The guys were ready, waving from the car, so Mara took off. Atwater stepped up behind me, eating another slice of pizza before pointing at the car with it. “Thought she’d be staying tonight?”
Yeah…
I knew too much.
I knew about her mom. Had met her mom. Now I knew her friends. Saw her ex in person. Her old life and this life were together, and I saw it all. She was all the way exposed.
Was that right? Was I getting that right?
Most girls would eat this shit up, but Mara was different. She told me earlier she’d usually run from situations like this.
I sighed. “No, man. Not tonight.”
He grunted.
Labrowski had shut down the kitchen. All the lights were off. It was just Atwater waiting for me, and he started up the stairs. Everything was locked up.
It was after I came back from the bathroom before the text came through.
Mara: We need to stop, at least for a while.
Mara: I’m not hiding. I’m not running, but this is all new territory for me. I’m really sorry. This doesn’t mean I want to stop being friends, but… I need a breather so I don’t use sex to hide from life. If that makes sense?
I dropped to my bed, expelling a ragged breath.
Me: That makes sense. Talk later?
Her text came in ten minutes later.
Mara: Talk later.
We were both lying. We wouldn’t be talking later, and both of us knew it.
31
MARA
Cruz’s team won both games. Friday and Saturday.
Gavin’s fraternity threw a rager for one game, and a party for the other. I didn’t know the difference, but they reassured there was one. I went, which was easier because Blaise had gone back to Cain on Friday. Zeke stayed for the weekend, and so did Kit, but she hadn’t reached out to me. She stayed at the Kappa house except for Saturday. As soon as I saw some of the Kappa girls at Gavin’s frat, I took off. Zeke called to find out where I was that night, so he came over. Zeke fit in so well that if I hadn’t known better, I would’ve assumed he knew Skylar from high school. The two bonded in a weird way, that only strengthened when he stayed the night at our house that night. Skylar asked three times when he was leaving on Sunday because she wanted to make sure they exchanged numbers. Zoe had a perplexed look on her face the whole time, but she never said anything to me.
