She turns slowly, irritation plain on her expression as she looks from me to Jace and then back to me.
“Pass.” She lifts a single shoulder in a shrug.
“Oh, come on, Mais. I can’t just leave him here, and I can’t carry him by myself.”
“That sounds like ayouproblem,” she states flatly.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. She just told you.” Jace openly laughs, though his eyes remain closed.
“Shut the fuck up or I really will leave you out here.” I hiss down at him. “Please, Mais.” My gaze once again finds Maisie, and I take a brief moment to really look at her.
Short, ripped jean shorts. Fitted white tank that shows about an inch of her midriff. Her hair is up in a pony, hanging in big, beautiful curls that fall down the center of her back. I’m momentarily transported back to two years ago, when I had a handful of that thick hair twisted around my hand as I fucked her from behind.
I was pretty shitty to her afterward, though I’d neveradmit that to her. I had my reasons, even if they seem rather childish and trivial at the moment. But anyone in my situation would have been rather skittish around someone who openly pursued me. And she did, pursue me, I mean. Or at least, that’s sure as hell how it felt at the time.
“Why should I help you?” She finally answers after a long moment.
“Well, technically, you’d be helping Jace.”
“And why would I want to help Jace?” She cocks her head slightly to the side, her expression unreadable.
“Because he’s amazing,” Jace slurs, waving his hands in the air like he’s reaching for the sky.
“Because he needs help,” I say as if it should just be that simple. “Our apartment is just there.” I lift my chin to the off-campus apartments that stand about two hundred yards from where he’s currently on the ground, with little intention of getting up, it would seem.
She seems to think it over for a long minute before she lets out a frustrated sigh.
“Fine,” she concedes, crossing the space between us.
“Thank you.” I offer her a smile, which only further pronounces the grimace on her pretty face.
“I’m not doing it for you.” She dips down and takes Jace’s right arm while I take his left. Together, we hoist him to his feet.
He’s no more than standing before he shifts, all but falling into Maisie, who’s barely able to keep him upright before I step in, throwing his arm over my shoulder as I wrap mine around his middle. Maisie does the same on the other side, careful not to touch me, which is painfully obvious. And no surprise, but Jace is absolutely no help as we begin to move.
His head droops, lolling from one side to the other as we all but drag him toward the building.
“You’re a heavy fucker. You know that?” I grumble, a semblance of a snort the only response I get.
It takes us ten minutes to get him to the building and up to the second floor, where we share an apartment with two of our other teammates, Joey and Trev. Joey is actually the one who called me to come get Jace after he pulled out his dick and pissed off the front porch in front of several onlookers. Apparently, they were annoyed enough to call me to come scrape his ass off the front lawn, but not enough to leave the party themselves.
Normally, I would have been right there with them, but as of late, I find myself enjoying such things less and less. After over three years, it all just feels a little... pointless. The parties. The drinking. The waking up next to a girl whose name I don’t even remember. Being so drunk I don’t even know if I enjoyed myself.
“Here we are.” It takes me longer than it should to get my keys out of my pocket and even longer to unlock the door as I fumble with said keys while trying to maintain my hold on Jace.
Finally, I get the door open and we all but stumble into the living room, Jace’s dead weight nearly dragging both me and Maisie to the ground. By some miracle, we manage to get him to the couch before Maisie dips out from under his arm, giving me the brunt of his weight as I shift and drop him onto the cushions.
When I turn around, Maisie is already heading toward the door.
“You could stay,” I call after her. “Hang out.”
She turns toward me as soon as she reaches the open doorway.
“Don’t confuse my kindness with something else. We aren’t friends, Macallan.”
“That much you’ve made abundantly clear.” I cross my arms over my chest, not missing the way her eyes dart toward the movement for the briefest of moments. A hint of a smile tugs at my lips. She’s not nearly as unaffected by me as she would like me to believe. Of that much, I’m sure.
“Good.” She spins back around, stepping out into the hallway.
