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My muscles tense as a wave of fear paralyzes me. In my chest, my heart stops beating for a second.
“What incident?” I try to sound as calm as possible, hiding the panic that pools on my stomach.
The students from Johns Hopkins—especially his lacrosse team—are Moss’ biggest rivals. What worries me is that in Ryder’s lie about the phone, he made it seem like they were behind the innocent prank. This is a problem because if Carter went to get payback, it was for no reason at all.
Kaleb shrugs, missing the wave of nausea that shakes my body.
“It was a couple of weeks ago, I think. He wanted to get back at them because of what they did to his phone. I don’t know the details, honestly. I was out of town when it happened. You should ask Dave about it. He went with Carter,” he suggests, tilting his head. “I’m surprised that you didn’t know since you live together and all that.”
“We’re not exactly knit close,” I mumble as worry sneaks under my skin, mixing with my anger.
“I can see that. Anyway, I’m going to take a shower, try not to get yourself into more trouble.”
The only trouble that I’m going to be into is when the bomb explodes, and Carter finds out that I was the one who stole his phone and that Ryder had my back.
If he doesn’t know it already.
I meetBree at the cafeteria an hour after the paramedics of the infirmary made sure that Ryder didn’t have a concussion. They gave him a bag of ice for the pain and suggested that he went home, but the dumbass doesn’t want to miss his classes. Ryder says that he’ll end up falling asleep in the apartment, and there won’t be anyone there to wake him every thirty minutes in case he does have a concussion, which means that I’m going to be his nanny for the rest of the day.
Bree is sitting on one of the tables talking with Ash. I take advantage of the distance to appreciate that they’re both complete opposites. While Ash is tall and lean, with a face that brushes the limits of perfection, black straight hair that reaches her waist, and snow-white skin, Bree is the opposite. She’s tiny, her wavy hair messy, with olive skin, rough edges, and chaotic vibes.
I like her chaos.
I walk to her table and kiss her cheek, nearing the corner of her lips, but not close enough that she’s going to get uncomfortable by some kind of PDA. It’s not like what we did is a secret. If Ryder knows, I’m sure that her friends know too.
Bree smiles with my kiss, but it fades once she sees the small red bruise on my jaw. I don’t think it’s going to get purple. Hopefully, it won’t because I have things in mind for the weekend, and I don’t want a purple bruise on my face.
“What the hell happened?” Her eyes fall on the ice bag that Ryder presses on the back of his head. “What the fuck happened to you two?”
“Our roommate,” Ryder responds, dropping on one of the free chairs and leans his head on the table.
I sit next to Bree, and she inspects my face. Her fingers caress the affected area, rubbing it gently. I wince when she presses down on the bruise.
“Do I need to ask the asshole roommate, or are you going to tell me the details?” Bree inquires in a demanding tone and arches a brow.
I wrinkle my nose because I don’t want to get into details about what happened.
“We had an intense practice.”
“I thought lacrosse was a spring sport,” she comments, frowning.
I nod.
Bree’s not wrong about it. The official season doesn’t begin until spring.
“It is.”
“So?”
“Coach likes to call us sometimes to make sure that we’re not working on our game,” I briefly inform because I don’t want to bore her with the details. “Anyway, Carter was being a dick, tackled Ryder using unnecessary force, and the rest is history.”
Bree rolls her eyes, exasperated.
“Well, history isn’t going to tell me how the fuck did you end up with a bruise, Stanley.”
“Your knight in a shining armor went to defend my honor and got into a fight with Carter,” Ryder explains, barely holding his head up.
Bree gawks at me, speechless. For a moment, I think that she’s going to scold me, but she laughs and kisses my bruised jaw.
