“Perfect,” TJ growled under his breath. “We’ll make them sorry they’re not here with us.” And suddenly he was pulling me against him and moving his hands very close to my rear end. It reminded me of the way he’d held Tasha at Burger Bar. Funny how he’d never even tried that while we dated. Funny, as in he knew better. Until now, that is.
Now it was all out war, which meant I wouldn’t cause a fuss over it. As long as he didn’t grab my butt completely.
The thought barely came to mind when TJ did exactly that. Both hands, all fingers and thumbs, solidly grabbed onto my rear end.
I squealed and shoved at his chest. “Don’t,” I warned, squaring a look at him. “I’mnot a girl you can do that to, and you know it.”
TJ had the nerve to roll his eyes, but he gave me a nod and stepped back up to me. He flattened his hands stiffly against my shoulder blades and gave them an awkward pat. “Like this?” he asked snidely. “Is this what you like?”
Well, at least TJ wasn’t making it hard to put things to an end between us tonight. But that’s when I remembered what was actually going on here. TJ hadn’t asked me to come to this because he wanted me back; he wanted to come so that he could make Tasha jealous. Just like I’d wanted to make Jett sorry.
So what was this? A game of fake dating in reverse? It was ridiculous.
I hadn’t let myself look back at Jett and Tasha yet, but as we spun in place to the slow-paced song, coming to the spot where they’d be in view, I allowed my gaze to drift over them. Jett looked furious. Jaw tight, eyes narrowed, body rigid. It seemed he was glaring at the back of TJ’s head. A glare that landed on me as we shifted our weight to the beat. And then we were facing opposite directions. Jett with his partner, me with mine.
I wondered if that meant that TJ and Tasha were facing one another now. As if answering my question, TJ moved in and started pressing kisses to my neck. I froze in place, my feet planting in one spot as I considered how far I wanted this game to go. It felt like I was selling my soul to the devil, and for what?
If witnessing TJ’s groping session made Jett suddenly want me instead of Tasha, I’d be left to assume that he had more than an innocent relationship in mind. Which implied that there weren’t a whole lot of good guys out there. Which suddenly made me want to just…cry and tear out of there all at the same time.
“Just let me grab your butt for a second so she can see,” TJ pled. “She’llfreak.” At once he slid his hands down and grabbed, moving his sloppy kiss up the side of my neck.
I struggled in the constricted space, ready to swat him off me like a gargantuan fly, when someone pried him away from me. Before I could see who it was or what exactly they were doing, a fist slammed into TJ’s face.
Adrenaline spiked through me so hard it hurt. I couldn’t tear my eyes off the sight of TJ teetering on one foot, catching himself with the other, and then stumbling into the oblivious couple behind him.
I worked to drag my eyes off the scene, very aware of the crowd that was forming around us. I pressed my hand to my chest to catch my breath and spun to see who had started the fight. Heaven knew TJ had enough enemies to start a brawl here or half of the places around town, but I had not expected to see Jett standing so close. He was shaking out his fist and glaring at TJ.
“Jett!” Tasha screamed through the music as she caught up to him.
And so itwashim. I gasped.Jetthad landed a punch on TJ?
He shouldered his way around Tasha and lunged toward TJ, who was climbing back to his feet. “You like putting your hands on people? Let’s see how you like it when I put my hands on you.” He gripped hold of him by the shirt and forced him to his feet.
TJ swung, missed, but clocked Jett as he came in with another swing with his other fist.
Crap. TJ binged on wrestling matches. I had to get Jett out of this. Students rushed in to witness the fight, successfully pushing me back as I watched Jett ram an elbow into TJ’s jaw. Maybe he liked watching those too.
A sharp, familiar-sounding whistle broke out as the music died. “Break it up, boys. Right now.” Yep, that was Mr. Meadows’ unmistakable whistle. I’d heard it a million times during play practice.
“Are you okay?” Another familiar voice came, this one from Ms. Tolken.
I tore my eyes off Jett as he smeared blood from his lip to tell her that I was just fine.Wait, maybe that’s not who I heard.
“Are you dizzy?” the woman asked. She looked different, but I couldn’t exactly say why. Eye makeup maybe?
“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, no. You look so pretty.”
Ms. Tolken gave me a smile, then quickly erased it. “Let’s go out into the hall and see what’s going on here.”
I nodded, propping myself onto my toes to see Mr. Meadows ushering TJ at one side, Jett at his other. “I don’t know what happened,” I said. The spin cycle had taken up residence in my chest, slamming ruthlessly against my ribcage as I tried catching my breath.
She stopped walking and turned back to look at me. “I know what happened,” she said, a hint of pride coating her words. “You were championed by Jett Bryant.”
“Championed?” I raised my brows.
Ms. Tolken held my gaze a moment more and nodded. “Let’s go.” With that, she led me toward the doorway, dodging the dispersing crowd as she went. I realized another change then; her polyester pants had been replaced by a pencil skirt, which showed off the woman’s curvy legs. Iknewshe was secretly a hottie beneath all that junk she wore.
Mr. Meadows had both guys on the floor, shoved up against the wall, separated only by the closed utility closet door. Both had red welts on their faces, but I had to say, it looked like TJ took the worst of it. Which had me worrying about Jett and his scholarship and his position as captain of the basketball team.
