By that time, Mia had met whatever-his-name-was and was in the land of exploratory hook-up bliss. Wade left early, but he said that he saw me and a guy gettingcozy. The guy was Mia’s hair shampoo commercial guy, but no one knew what his name actually was. What they both confirmed was that neither Jett, his brother, nor Ash had been anywhere near our party.
I still had a gaping hole in my already blank memory ofwhenandhowI met Jett. But it did narrow it down to the fact that I really must have met him on the way home.
Sitting up in bed, I drew my knees to my chest. The party was on Oakwood, and I lived on Blossom. There was half a campus between my apartment and the party on Friday. Even with the distance, I still had no reason to pass where the football stars stayed.
Had I decided to walk the campus? Alone? It wasn’t something I usually did, but then getting wasted wasn’t something I did either. My head dropped onto my knees as I gave up. I would probably never know. I was getting flashbacks of X-rated moments, but nothing that led to the beforeorthe after. Not until I woke up and heard him and Ash in the room. The only signals my brain was receiving was theduring, and sure, for my first time, I seemed to have done well if the moans I heard when I closed my eyes were anything to go by . . . but I needed more. I felt my body heat at the thought ofmorewith Jett, but I think my body and my brain knew it was a one-time thing.
Lying back down again, I fleetingly thought of asking him. As briefly as the idea came, I shoved it away. After all, there wasno need to deliberately poke the beast. Especially one that was already on the hunt.
* * *
It seemed all morning, the only thing people could talk about was that someone had stolen from a Santo, and the triad were out for blood. I tried not to listen, but as with all things like this, the more I tried not to, the more I heard.
First, it was his wallet. Then no, it wasn’t his wallet, it was his watch. By mid-morning, after said “victim” was seen with his watch on, it was his car key. This one made no sense to me, as I would have guessed that his key was easy to replace since the car was sitting on the driveway of their house. Sure enough, by lunchtime, it wasn’t his car key but his car. Again, that was preposterous — the car wasrightthere. I was beginning to lose interest in the whole “who stole from the Devil” saga, but I grudgingly felt bad for him if he had lost something. However, if I were honest, I felt worse for whoever the poor sucker was who stole it from him.
Their life wouldn’t be worth living.
As I sat under my tree on the quad at lunchtime, I waited patiently for Mia. The tree was giving me shade from the sun, and it was a hot one today, which is why I was grateful I was wearing a strappy tank top and the lightest pair of shorts I could find. Nice respectable length, not short shorts like I had seen some girls wearing, while wishing I had their confidence.
With my head leaning back against the tree, I watched the students amble past, the heat making us all lethargic and sticky. My eyes dropped shut, and I think I dozed off a little, jarring awake when a shadow appeared over me and my foot was nudged.
Wade and Mia grinned down at me as Mia waved a can of Coke in front of me. I could see the condensation running downthe side of the can, and my mouth watered at the thought of the coolness.
“I think I fell asleep,” I admitted as I took the drink and pushed my sunglasses on top of my hair.
“You slept badly last night,” Mia said as she uncovered her salad box.
Nodding, I took a deep drink of the cold soda. “And to what do I owe the pleasure of your company this lunchtime, Mr. Wade Gordon?”
“Bea’s at some sewing thing — some event her department’s involved in. Only time I’m that close to a needle is either on the record player or the tattoo gun, know what I’m saying?”
“I thought the secret to a happy relationship was doing what your partner wanted, even if you didn’t want to?” I teased him lightly as I uncovered my own lunch that Mia had bought me.
“Tell that to my mom and dad,” Wade snorted. “Mom did everything Dad wanted right up to the day hewantedhis secretary more than Mom and left us.”
Mia raised her eyebrows in surprise at Wade’s outburst but said nothing.
Looking over at me, he grinned. “Your favorite Saint is the talk of the campus,” he said before biting into his sandwich. “AndI heard that the fact everyone is talking about it is only pissing him off more.”
Mia dropped her fork as she clapped her hands excitedly. “Oooh, and I heard that Friday is the reason he isn’t playing.” She looked between us both with a grin, knowing she was telling us new information. “So they’re saying he wasn’t injured, he was suspended.”
“Suspended?” I asked her, aware that I was leaning forward, eager to hear more. “For what? His game on Saturday was on point. I mean, he had a sixty-eight percent completion rate, what more do they want? Blood?” I shook my head in derision.
“It freaks me out when you rattle off the stats like that,” Wade said as he picked up his can of Coke. “You’re weird.”
“No, not the game,” Mia said, bringing my attention back to her. “Apparently, he was out Friday night before the game, and he was drinking, and he kept the whole house awake with some skank he took home.”
I had no words. I was dimly aware that Wade was chuckling and giving Jett a virtual high five.
Please let me still be asleep. “He’s suspended for sleeping with a girl?” I asked her, hearing the crack in my voice, and hastily swallowed more of my drink.
“I think so, that and the partying before the game,” Mia nodded. “I think the team complained or something.”
“So, nothing was stolen, that’s a lie?” Wade asked. He looked a bit too disappointed in the mundane fact that it was just Jett and another nameless girl.
“Oh no, apparentlyshealso stole from him, which is why he’s looking for her.”
The can of Coke dropped from my hands, and as I failed to catch it, the one small mercy was that I didn’t splash anyone. “Slippery,” I murmured as I hastily moved slightly away from the spilled drink.
