Atwater hooted. “Dude. That means you’re the rebound fuck.”
Barclay was giving her another assessing look before shrugging. “I’m okay with that.” He swooped in, picking her up, and as she gave a little shriek, he took her upstairs. He said to Cruz, “Wake me up thirty minutes before we gotta go for the bus.”
Cruz nodded.
Labrowski came out from the kitchen. “First pizza’s done.” He took in the weirdness of the room. “What’d I miss?”
30
CRUZ
“You sure about this?” I asked Mara as she was waiting to help the guys to their car. Labrowski, who was sober, drove it to our house and she was taking it to the Alpha Mu house. From there, the plan was to get Miles into his car and she would drive that back to their place.
“Miles will wake up enough to transfer cars and we’ll all be good.” She moved a little closer to me, looking up at me. “When does your bus leave tomorrow?”
“We need to be at the arena by ten.”
“Thought you guys usually fly in the night before a game?”
“We do. This time’s the exception.”
She nodded, taking me in, lingering on my mouth.
Things had changed with us, but things had been changing for a while. I wasn’t really sure where to go, but I was going to let Mara take the lead, at least for a bit. Her face flickered before clearing up and she stepped backwards, away from me. “Sounds good. Get some rest. Gotta make sure you win tomorrow.”
Right. Win tomorrow. That’s how she was doing this?
“Yeah. Thanks.”
The guys were ready, waving from the car, so Mara took off. Atwater stepped up behind me, eating another slice of pizza before pointing at the car with it. “Thought she’d be staying tonight?”
Yeah…
I knew too much.
I knew about her mom. Had met her mom. Now I knew her friends. Saw her ex in person. Her old life and this life were together, and I saw it all. She was all the way exposed.
Was that right? Was I getting that right?
Most girls would eat this shit up, but Mara was different. She told me earlier she’d usually run from situations like this.
I sighed. “No, man. Not tonight.”
He grunted.
Labrowski had shut down the kitchen. All the lights were off. It was just Atwater waiting for me, and he started up the stairs. Everything was locked up.
It was after I came back from the bathroom before the text came through.
Mara: We need to stop, at least for a while.
Mara: I’m not hiding. I’m not running, but this is all new territory for me. I’m really sorry. This doesn’t mean I want to stop being friends, but… I need a breather so I don’t use sex to hide from life. If that makes sense?
I dropped to my bed, expelling a ragged breath.
Me: That makes sense. Talk later?
Her text came in ten minutes later.
Mara: Talk later.
We were both lying. We wouldn’t be talking later, and both of us knew it.
31
MARA
Cruz’s team won both games. Friday and Saturday.
Gavin’s fraternity threw a rager for one game, and a party for the other. I didn’t know the difference, but they reassured there was one. I went, which was easier because Blaise had gone back to Cain on Friday. Zeke stayed for the weekend, and so did Kit, but she hadn’t reached out to me. She stayed at the Kappa house except for Saturday. As soon as I saw some of the Kappa girls at Gavin’s frat, I took off. Zeke called to find out where I was that night, so he came over. Zeke fit in so well that if I hadn’t known better, I would’ve assumed he knew Skylar from high school. The two bonded in a weird way, that only strengthened when he stayed the night at our house that night. Skylar asked three times when he was leaving on Sunday because she wanted to make sure they exchanged numbers. Zoe had a perplexed look on her face the whole time, but she never said anything to me.
Sunday happened and we all went out for lunch before Zeke was taking off.
My roommates, all of them, and Gavin joined in.
Once we sat down, I glanced at the empty seat by Zeke. He draped a hand over it. “I’m taking off from here. I told Kit if she wants a ride, she needs to get her ass here.”
She came in a few minutes later, her bag in hand with a few other Kappa girls.
She skimmed the restaurant until she saw us. Her face tightened. She said something. The three other girls all looked our way, but there was no more room at our table except for the one seat. I watched as the hostess approached. They gestured to us, and before long, they were being seated at the closest booth to us, which was in the other section of the place.
Kit and one of the other girls came over. Her friend went to the far end of the table, waving at Wade, and Kit slipped into the empty seat by Zeke. “Hey.”
He was watching her. “Hey.”
The two stared at each other, like they were mentally having a conversation before Kit looked to me. “We didn’t talk all weekend.”
“You threatened me.”
“I told you I broke up with my boyfriend, and he cheated on me.”
Again. “You threatened me.”
“Far be it from me getting involved in chick drama, but–” Zeke stopped talking as Kit and I both looked at him. “What?”
Kit said, “You get involved all the time.”
I added, “You start it half the time.”
He grinned. “Both good points, but I want to point out that you took away Mara’s chance to be a friend by first threatening her. I know your man’s been cheating on you for a while, but I also know that you’ve been aware of it for a long time too. Got a feeling Mara knew too.”
Kit’s mouth opened as her eyes snapped my way. “Is that true? Did you know?”
I shrugged. “You caught him, like, four times this summer. Also, I always thought you were in an open relationship until Thursday night.”
Her face got red, and her eyes bulged out. She reached for a piece of bread and began shredding it to pieces. “Would’ve been nice if I knew this was the community outlook on my relationship.”
My stomach shifted. “Why was this latest cheating the final straw? Was it the final straw?”
“He fucked Ria and Penny. At the same time.”
I sucked in my breath. They were both from our high school friend group.
“Damn.” That was from Zeke.
Kit shot him a look. “Sorry, Zeke.”
He gave a disjointed nod, which made sense. He and Penny weren’t in a relationship, but the two slept together a lot. “No. I mean, nah. I never laid claim to her and vice versa.”
Kit let go of her bread, putting it on her plate. It was half torn up. “He fucked them both, for an entire weekend. They were there when I called him. Apparently, he put me on speaker so they could hear the conversation.”
That was the last straw. Not the sex. He let them hear what I knew Kit would’ve never shared with them. Our whole friend group was messed up. Sex was nothing to us, but real emotional sharing, that was precious.
“I’m sorry, Kit.”
Her eyes filled up with tears, but she brushed her hand over her face. “It’s whatever. Done with by now. About time too.”
I pulled my phone out.
“What are you doing?”