Click.
Air filled my lungs as I took a deep breath. It was as if I hadn’t taken a breath for the entire phone call. Why hadn’t I anticipated this? What was wrong with me?
Maybe I didn’t let myself anticipate it because I desperately wanted to go home for the summer and have a mom waiting for me. I should have known better.
Why did I always hope for more? She’d never given me more, but I still had this lingering hope that maybe someday she’d love me.I’m so stupid.
Theo barged into the room a moment later. I shook the agony of the phone call out of my system and put on a happy face for him.
“What’s up, fucker? You ready to get crunched tonight?”
Theo approached, doing his bro-shake thing, which still terrified me. No matter how many years I spent playing sports, the bro-shake was an enigma that my gay ass just couldn’t comprehend. Each guy had his own version of the bro-shake, and somehow, every other guy knew exactly what to do. How?Was it genetic? Was it ingrained in the DNA of straight males?
“I’m ready, Big Boy,” I replied. The hockey team was co-hosting a party with a sorority on campus that night, and everyone was looking forward to it. I hoped that the party would distract me from the dread of summer.
Theo threw himself onto his bed. He’d just gotten back from the gym, so his muscles were bursting as he sprawled out on the mattress. “Just know if you see the sock on that doorknob…”
He started thrusting his hips up and down, his hands gripping the waist of the invisible woman he was pretending to fuck.
I couldn’t suppress my eyeroll. “Dude. You say that before every single party, and I’ve yet to return to a sock on the doorknob. Stop pretending like you’re a ladies’ man. You’re a big goon, and you’re going to bed alone tonight.”
“Yo, fuck you, Red! Just you wait, a sock will be on that doorknob tonight. I hope you have a place to stay because this room will be…” he started thrusting the invisible woman again, “occupied.”
I grabbed the pillow from my bed and started smacking him with it. “Stop thrusting your hips like that! You’re an idiot!”
Theo grabbed his pillow and started hitting me back. “Don’t start fights you can’t finish, fire crotch!”
Theo released an all-out assault with the pillow. I darted to the far corner of the dorm and hopped onto my desk, careful not to crunch the laptop I spent a summer saving up to buy. The pillow smacked the ceiling as I raised it above my head and smashed it over Theo’s head as he ran toward me.
This is good. I need this.Nothing pulled me out of my slumps like Theo and hisbuffoonery.
“You won’t win this round, Big Boy! I have the height advantage now!” He raised an arm, attempting to deflect my blows. Theo tossed his pillow, then wrapped his free arm around my thighs and threw me over his shoulders. “Put me the fuck down,” I screamed. His hand came down hard on my ass. “Ow!”
Theo tossed me on my bed and started twisting his knuckles into my thighs as he held me down. What came out of me was a mix of laughter and wails as he dug his knuckles into my sensitive skin.
“Are you gonna calm down, or do I need to teach you a lesson?” Theo started cackling now that he’d gotten the upper hand.
“LET ME GO!”
“Say you surrender, you redheaded slut!”
“NEVER!” I screamed back. Honestly, I did this shit on purpose because I liked the way Theo manhandled me. I could have fought back harder, I was a hockey player too after all, but I enjoyed being at his mercy.
“You asked for it.” His big hand gripped my thigh. He called it “the claw,” and it hurt like a motherfucker.
“OW! OKAY! I SURRENDER!”
Theo released my thigh and walked away. “Good. Now, get up, dude. It’s time to party.”
Jesus, why did I love this man so much?
Chapter 9
Theo
The puckbunnies of Kappa Delta were sizzling that night. I fucking loved having parties with them. The sororities on campus were chock full of baddies who could make a man fall to his knees, but the honeys of Kappa Delta had a serious case of hockey fever.
I had my eye on Abigail, the redhead who annihilated Davis last fall. Goddamn, I had a thing for redheads. It was May, so she wore this cute little sleeveless number that showed her incredibly sexy stomach. The freckles on her shoulders matched the ones on her cheeks. I wentnutsfor freckles.
