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“I’m late for lunch,” I say. “If this is about the power play, Peter already yelled at both of us, no need to rehash it.”

“It’s about your roommate.” He plants himself in front of me. “Quinn Mackenzie. You know he’s Lincoln’s, right? He’s obviously using you when my step-brother’s busy.”

I blink. The quad keeps moving around us. Someone laughs near the cafe doors. But I barely hear any of it. I come to a stop and face him.

“Say that again,” I say. Daring him to utter the words again.

“You heard me.” Blue’s mouth ticks up. He’s so sure of his words right now. “Your boyfriend’s not really your boyfriend. I’ve seen the way Lincoln looks at him. You’re an idiot if you think he doesn’t just let you fuck him because Lincoln isn’t around.”

I know Blue. Or I think I used to, and there’s something about Lincoln that makes him not think straight. I also know Quinn, and he definitely hasn’t ever been touched by anyone that isn’t me.

I poke my tongue into my cheek as I stare at him. I can tell by the look on his face that he thinks he’s helping me or saving me from something. But it’s the same shit he said on the ice before. And it just pisses me off.

“He’s not sleeping with Lincoln,” I say. “He never has.”

“I’m doing you a favor. Giving you a heads up.”

“No, you’re not.”

He obviously doesn’t clock my rising anger, because he opens his mouth again. I hit him.

It snaps his head back and knocks him on his ass in the grass, his bag slides off his shoulder, and one hand comes up to his jaw like he can’t believe I hit him. My knuckles buzz. A couple people have stopped. I don’t look at them, I keep my eyes pinned on my teammate.

“Figure out your shit, Blue,” I say, standing over him. I clench my throbbing fingers into a fist. “Whatever you’ve got twisted up about your step-brother, fix it with him. Stay out of my relationship. You come at me again with that stupid bullshit and I won’t just put you on the ground.”

He stares up at me, gray eyes bright and furious, blood at the corner of his mouth. He spits some onto the grass next to him, but he doesn’t climb to his feet and I don’t offer to help him up.

“Fuck you, Daniel.”

He says it to my back, but I don’t turn around as I leave him there. He can self-destruct all on his own, he doesn’t need me there to witness it. I shake my hand out and keep walking toward the cafe.

Quinn’s sitting at our usual table by himself. He’s watching the door when I come in. The second he sees me, his shoulders drop and then climb right back up again. As I get closer ,his eyes go to my hand.

“What happened?” he says, pushing away from the table and standing.

“Blue.” I flex my fingers. They are going to bruise, which will be a problem for practice tomorrow. “He ran his mouth about shit he doesn’t know anything about. I put him on the ground. He’s fine. Just full of shit.”

Quinn’s face does something complicated. Guilt, then fear, then a determined look that he gets right before he tells me something he is afraid to say.

“He stopped me, too, earlier…outside the science building,” he says.

“That fucker,” I say, half ready to turn around and go punch him again.

“He, uh…he said I was using you. But I’m not. I’m with you. You’re my boyfriend, and I don’t like Lincoln like that.” His face is red as he rambles. “I was going to tell you. But I wasn’t sure if texting it would make it worse.”

I huff out a breath. My fingers ghost over his cheek, and I smile for him. He relaxes slightly. “Hey.” I tip my head toward the chair and urge him to go back to his seat. “I know you’re not sleeping with Lincoln. I don’t need you to tell me that. You don’t need to build a case about it. I trust you.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, I do.”

He sits back down, his fingers holding onto my sleeve to make sure I sink into the seat next to him. “You punched him for me?”

I give him a lopsided smile. “How else will he learn his lesson?”

“That’s violence. And you’re hand—” He grabs my wrist and pulls my hand closer for his inspection. I look down at my knuckles as he examines them. They are red, and one is already turning a pretty purple. “You need ice.”

“Baby, eat, then we will worry about icing my hand.”