AllFreeNovel
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She waves me away when I offer her some cash, instead slipping a card over the desk to the guy with a smile and a wink. When we’re all paid and he hands over the to-go cups and two brown paper bags, we take them outside, finding a bench near the campus entrance, and park our asses to eat.
We don’t talk about what happened outside my car—instead Maisie asks about all my favorite things, sharing her answers afterward. My chest warms and my heart softens a little the longer she talks. She’s proving she doesn’t care what my life is like and that she’s just here to be a friend.
Without thinking, I blurt, “Thank you.”
Her eyes soften, and she bobs her head for a beat before lifting her mug silently. Even without a word from her lips, I know in that moment no matter who I am, or what my struggles may be, Maisie James just became someone I’ll call a friend for life.
Maverick
An alarm blasts through the bedroom, pulling me from sleep with a jolt. My eyes crack open, and my mouth feels like a ball of cotton was stuck to my tongue at some point in the night.
When I drop my feet to the floor, my stomach rebels, threatening to bring up what little I ate last night, thanks to the extreme amounts of tequila my friends and I knocked back. With the first game of the season rolling around in a couple weeks, we really should have saved it, but after a shitty practice, it only seemed right to have a few beers in the apartment.
That turned into Gray opening the homemade vodka his brother gave him as a leaving gift and which then turned into heading to one of the many dorm parties raging around campus last night.
Shoving my legs into a pair of sweats, I chuck a Bears hoodie over my head, slamming the alarm off before making my way into the lounge.
Gray snores softly on the couch, his head lolling over the edge, and his jeans unbuttoned. But other than him, there’s no sign of life around the apartment.
“Get up, fuckers!” I pound against Nash’s door, moving on to Beck’s door next, before whacking Gray around the head as I pass him to flip the coffee machine on.
The moment it comes to life, coffee seeping into my waiting mug, I sigh and inhale the bittersweet aroma, hoping to shift the hammer that’s steadily working away at my temples.
“Bro, there best be enough in there for at least two cups each,” Nash croaks, squinting in my direction as he pulls out one of the barstools and settles himself in, his head dropping against the cool counter. “I think I’m dying.”
“I think you’re dramatic as fuck and handle your booze like a chick.”
“You aren’t telling me you actually feel good today?” He scoffs, wincing as the coffee machine whirrs loudly. “We must have gotten through at least two bottles of tequila between us. Shit. Jenkins is gonna freak if we all show up to practice like this later. You better make that three coffees each, minimum. Then we’ll grab one from the Bean Bar on campus too before class.”
“Sure, let’s OD on caffeine, that’s going to help us play well later.” Shaking my head, I slide a mug across to him before lifting mine to my lips and savoring the caffeine that lingers on my tongue as I swallow it down.
“You got any better ideas?”
Gray stalks over next, grabbing his mug before heading back to the couch and sliding into the cushion. “Fuck ideas. We should just bail.”
When Beck joins ten minutes later, already dressed in a pair of black jeans and a plain black Henley, his dark hair brushed back, it’s hard to believe he was up until the early hours with us.
“Come on, fuckers, first day,” he shouts, flipping the radio on and drowning out the groans that come from the rest of us. “Let’s go.”
“How do you do it, Beckett?” Nash grumbles, sliding off the stool and taking his mug with him as he crosses the room to his door. “It’s too early for your shit, I’m going back to bed. Wake me up when it’s time to go.”
Beck lobs a cushion at him. “It’s time to go. We need to leave in about ten minutes. Get dressed. We skip out on the first day and Coach will bench us quicker than you can pull your dick out when you see a hot chick.”
“Speaking of hot chicks . . .” Gray turns to me, raising a brow as a smirk lifts at his lips. “Did I see you leaving with Harlow last night?”
“You did,” I answer, though I don’t tell him nothing happened. Let them think I’m fucking the head cheerleader. Easier than explaining to them I fell asleep with a hard-as-fuck dick, refusing to jack off to the image my brain conjured up for me.
Spoiler alert, it wasn’t Harlow.
I stayed perfectly limp when walking my friend back to her dorm.
“And?”
“And what?” I shrug, heading for my room. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
“You don’t kiss at all,” he mutters behind me, laughing to himself when I send the abandoned cushion flying back at him.
The crowd parts like the Red Sea as we make our way through. Nods and high-fives from the guys, hellos and glances from the girls as we pass. Pushing my hands into the pocket of my Bears hoodie, my Nikes slap across the tile, the lockers in sight.
