I slid another slice of meat lover’s pizza with extra jalapeños onto his plate. “Have another slice and thank your lucky stars someone is watching out for you, man. Those girls are a walking invitation to losing your scholarship if you hook up with one of them and things go south.”
“Remember what happened to Freeman when he dated Tory’s sister?” Fitz pointed a glare in Finn’s direction. “Our draft stock is already lower than the skill players.”
Johnson sat up straighter, a smirk tipping up one side of his mouth.
“You don’t need to go and do something deliberate to lower it even more,” Fitz added.
The way Fitzy glared at my roommate gave me the distinct impression that if he and I had traded places, he would have whacked Finn upside the head—knocked some sense into him.
Finn hunched over his plate, his attention zeroed in on the pizza.
“Hey, now. We kicked the shit out of the Bulldogs today, made a damn point to the rest of the conference. You all actin’ like we lost, for fuck sakes.” Johnson topped off all our beers. “Drink up. Have some fun.” Gesturing to me with his mug, he asked, “What’s the story with tonight’s shirt, Bax?”
I glanced down and grimaced when I saw what I was wearing: “Everything I want is either too expensive or won’t text me back.”Huh.Must have been a Freudian slip when I tugged this one on before leaving the locker room.
Finn perked right up. “A reference to your phantom hookup the other night?” He snickered.
“Nothing phantom about it.” To avoid further conversation, I took a long pull from my mug and held it out for Johnson to top off again.
Shoulda known this bunch wouldn’t let it go once Finn had brought it up.
“Phantom hookup? You hangin’ out with ghosts?” I could have sworn Johnson’s hand shook a little as he poured my beer.
“Just because I didn’t give you chapter and verse about my good time the other night doesn’t mean I made it up.” I backhanded Finn’s bicep, jostling his slice from his mouth right as he was about to take a bite. “Jeez.”
Shooting me a dirty look, he shrugged his shoulder, pulling his arm away from me. “Jeez yourself.” He downed a mouthful of pizza. “But you gotta admit, you hooking up with a girl on a random Thursday night is pretty far outside your wheelhouse.”
I threw up my hands. “Whatever.” Wiping my mouth on a napkin, I let out a belch and said, “Can you move, please? Gotta take a piss.”
“Jesus, Bax. We’re eating here,” Fitz said, his tone censorious. Out of all the guys on the team, Jeremiah Fitzgerald was probably the most mature. He wasn’t an asshole about it, but he kept the rest of us in line.
“Sorry.” Turning to Finn, I said, “But seriously, could you let me out?”
Grumbling under his breath, he stood from the booth to allow me to slide past him.
Needing a break from talking about a certain girl who didn’t want to give me her number after I’d shown her a good time, I took my time washing my hands and splashing cold water over my face. When I returned to the table, the others were figuring out how much we’d ordered to leave an appropriate tip.
“Time for the celebratory part of the evening,” Johnson said as he stood and stretched beside the booth. “After the way we beat up on the Bulldogs, the basketball team is prolly quakin’ in their Converse over the flip-cup tournament tonight.”
“Guess you didn’t hear,” Fitz said as he pushed out from the booth. “Our boys gave the Bulldogs their own beatdown in a preseason game last night.”
Johnson straightened his shirt, tugging at the cuffs and putting on a show. “Not even a little bit worried.”
As we headed to our respective rides, I said, “I have to check on something at the house. I’ll catch you guys at Taylor’s.”
Finn shrugged and followed Fitz to his tricked-out lowrider and Johnson shot him a glare, knowing without it being said that Finn would ride shotgun, relegating him to the back seat. As I swung up into the driver’s seat of my truck, I chuckled at the running back’s attitude about linemen sticking together.
I made a show of heading up the block in the direction I’d normally take to the sweet Victorian I shared with Finn, Callahan, and Danny. But when I saw Fitz make a left turn to head to Taylor’s apartment complex, I took a right. It was pure masochism, but I needed to know if Piper was hanging out somewhere I could “casually” show up, maybe talk her into going to Taylor’s party with me.
Rolling through the alley behind the three most popular college bars on main, I scanned the parking lots for a burgundy Camaro with a provocative license plate and came up empty. On the off chance she might have decided she liked the Molly, I took my time driving past it, but her car wasn’t there either. Feeling pathetic and a bit like a creeper, this being the second time in two days I’d made this round, I turned my truck in the direction of Taylor’s place and resolved to forget about a certain hot girl who’d rocked my world and walked away.
With a groan, I cracked open one eye and let out a sigh of relief. I was in my own room on my own bed. On it, not in it. Sprawled out on top of the blankets and still wearing all my clothes, including my boots. I rolled out of the rack hungover as fuck with no recollection of how I’d ended up in my house, but damn glad that was where I’d found myself.
A vile stench rose from my clothes. Glancing down, I noted with disgust the remnants of last night’s pizza clinging to the front of my T-shirt. At some point, I’d obviously heaved up dinner. Scrubbing my hands over my face, I encountered more than only beard stubble. I would have rolled my eyes at my stupidity for drinking myself into oblivion except I knew the move would hurt.
With more effort than a college athlete in top form should ever expend, I managed to kick off my boots. Staggering to my feet, I tugged off my offensive T-shirt and shoved my boxers and jeans down my legs, steadying myself on the edge of the bed as I finished kicking them off.
Bare-ass naked, I hustled into the bathroom. Steam hung in the air, telling me at least one of my roomies had already showered. As I stepped into the spray, I hoped he’d left some hot water for me, and when it hit the back of my neck, I let out a sigh of relief. Bracing my hands on the tiles, I hung my head low between my biceps as I let the water do its thing to revive me. Blanking my mind, I ignored both the headache and the queasy stomach left over from whatever antics I’d got up to at Taylor’s party—until someone pounded on the bathroom door.
