Before Randy can answer, a high-pitched scream tears through the house. His head jerks up, eyes immediately snapping toward Seth.
“She’s fucking here?!” Randy questions.
I glance at Seth. He doesn’t answer Randy, just takes a long pull from his beer and lets a crooked half-smile tug at his lips as he sinks deeper into the recliner, clearly savoring the downfall of his teammate.
And honestly? Fair. This is huge. A campus-wide event with everyone buzzing about the outcome. Hell, it must be big news if evenIknow about it, the person with exactly zero social life. The moment shatters with the sound of chaos as Shelby barrels down the stairs, her golden hair piled high like a crown. She flies into the living room, barefoot and breathless.
I smother another laugh just as Randy flops backward in defeat, banging his head against the floor with a dramatic groan. “Shit, shit, shit!” he repeats, his hands still covering his face.
“I beat you!” she says in her Australian accent as I watch her fall down over him to straddle his waist. With playful determination, she grabs his wrists and pins them to the floor on either side of his face. “Are you ready to get naked, Randy?” She laughs teasingly, her eyebrows bouncing in a playful wiggle.
“Fuck!” he says again as he lies there defeated on the floor.
“Oh, we aren’t doing that, but I will get you naked.”
Walsh is howling with laughter, and I can’t help but join in…she did it, she beat him. With all the talk about their recent ordeals, they are celebrities around here. Everyone at the college knows them and knows about the bet, especially because they were locked in a two all draw, before the kidnapping. And let’s be honest, every girl on campus was rooting for Shelby, for entirely selfish reasons, of course.
Christian appears in the foyer wearing loose black sweatpants that ride low on his hips, no shirt, and my eyes lock onto his sculpted chest and the stark white bandage covering hisbullet wound. His right arm rests in a navy-blue sling, a patch of white dressing peeking from beneath it, high on his shoulder.
He moves slower than I imagine he normally would. Careful. Controlled. But his face displays sheer delight. “She got you, man!” he says it with a proud expression stretched across his face, leaning lazily against the doorway. “This is fucking brilliant. Just when I think I couldn’t love her any more then I already do, she goes and does that!”
Shelby slides off Randy, coming to sit back on her ankles next to him, extending her hand. “Good game, Randy.”
He looks back at her as he props himself on one elbow and takes her hand in his other, shaking it gently. “Good game, Shelby.” His eyes look at her maroon shirt. “What jersey is this?” he asks, grabbing at the material.
“Oh,” she says, looking down at her shiny maroon-colored jersey. “It’s my Queenslander State of Originjersey. Let’s face it, Queensland always wins the decider. So, I thought I would wear it for good luck and look, it worked.” She beams, but her winning grin wavers as she takes in the three spectators. “Oh, hi… sorry, I didn’t see you there,” she says in surprise as she takes in the complete stranger who has been sitting there watching the whole exchange.
Randy rolls over to his stomach looking toward me, his face still covered in defeat and points in my direction. “Shelby, Christian, this is Rachel. Rachel, this is Christian, and this is his COD shark girlfriend Shelby.”
“Hi,” I reply meekly. They all look friendly enough, but they are also exceedingly popular, attractive, and extremely intimidating, and suddenly I feel completely out of place among them.
“Hi,” they both reply.
“Man, you look like you need a beer,” Christian says, looking down at Randy on the floor, his face now buried in a couch pillow.
“I do, but I have to drive Rachel home,” he says, pointing at me again but not looking up.
“It’s okay,” I say to him. “You can have a beer. I think you need it after that.”
I’m more than happy to catch an Uber. I’ve already taken way more time of his than I should have.
“Okay…beer me,” his muffled voice says into the pillow.
“Everyone else?”
“Yeah,” Seth says, standing and walking over Randy’s back with one foot…if he took his full weight, I think it would kill him.
“Fuck, you weigh a ton,” Randy gasps.
“Just so you know, I had sex in that spot last week using that exact couch pillow,” he says, not stopping on his way to the kitchen.
Randy quickly does a sit up and jumps to his feet. “Gross,” he whines. “This pillow is going in the wash…or maybe the trash.”
Randy reaches for my hand and helps me off the sofa.
“Are you okay to stay for a while? Do you need to get back to Sam?”
“No, my parents have him for the weekend. They took him down to my grandparents, so I’ve got the place to myself to study.”
