Page 3 of Savage for You

School starts soon but no matter how much I protest, Talon refuses to let me be alone. So here I am, waiting for him to finish football practice so we can work out together. My aunt Valentina who is my mom’s twin has also been calling and texting me nonstop. I love her for it, but I just want to be left alone. Looking at her is still too hard especially when you see your moms face, but it’s not her.

Lucky for me, I get to work out in the athlete gym because my dad donated the funds to build this state-of-the-art facility, and his best friend Tyler McKenzie is the head football coach. So, I gladly took them up on that offer since it’s less busy than the student one. Walking into the gym I get my things in order to start my routine. Looking up at the sign on the wall, ‘Stonebridge University home of the Scorpions,’ I smile because I finally feel like I’m home.

Hearing my phone chime with a Chewbacca noise, I know it’s a text from Talon. His love of Star Wars is out of this world. No one would know he’s such a Disney nerd. He makes fun of my love for Taylor Swift and Harry Potter, and I make fun of his love of Star Wars.

Shrek: Hey Monti, you here?

Me: yep! I’m by the free weights, I just walked out the locker room.

Shrek: See ya soon pipsqueak!

Me: whatever Shrek.

I hate when he calls me pipsqueak. Just because I’m five-foot-two doesn’t mean he needs to remind me that I’m short. Not everyone is an ogre like him. Talon is six-foot-four and built like a Mack truck. He reminds me of George Karlaftis from the Kansas City Chiefs.

He walks in with a few other guys from the team, and I internally groan. I hate meeting new people. People suck. Gosh, life has turned me into someone I don’t even recognize anymore. It's hard when your life is turned upside down in the blink of an eye, and then the two most important people in your life turn out to be the biggest joke played on me. But I will not let what has happened to me jade me, despite how difficult it may be.

There are two other guys with him, and my god, the air in my lungs cease to exist at this fine man in front of me. Dylan who? He’s tall—maybe an inch or two taller than Talon. He has chestnut brown hair that is shaved on the sides and wavy longer hair on top that’s covered by a backwards cap. And just like that, here I’m imagining running my fingers through his hair as I gaze into his smoky gray eyes. A rare color, and here, in the presence of silver irises, I can’t bring myself to look away. They are mesmerizing.

His sun-kissed skin looks like he has spent years in the sun, but he looks to be mixed. You know when you see someone who has medium tan skin, but they can speak Spanish fluently? That’s what he looks like to me.

He has the arms cut out of the Stonebridge football t-shirt which shows off his muscular tattooed arms and chiseled abs because of how low the cuts are at the sides and black basketball shorts on. His hands are massive and when he turns his head I see a scorpion tattoo on his neck. He’s really freaking hot.

He looks like one of those guys from my romance novels who could toss me around in bed.

The back of his shirt says Savage.

Somehow, I manage to tear my eyes off of him and notice the other guy next to him, who looks like Michael Behring from the show All American—the one who plays Jordan Baker. Picture him but with a cross earring in his ear and has green eyes. He has just as many tattoos too. He’s just as tall as Talon and is wearing the same football t-shirt as the other guy and red shorts. This one says Cuiellette on the back of his shirt.

Talon clears his throat, and I’m taken out of my daze. But not before Talon catches my wandering eyes and smirks at me. Asshole. I roll my eyes.

“Hey, pipsqueak, this is Rocky Savage, he’s our QB,” he says as he points to the one with Savage on his back. Then he points to the one who looks like Michel Behring’s doppelgänger and says, “This is Xander Cuiellette.”

I awkwardly wave and say, “Hi, I’m Montana, I’m Shrek’s cousin. But you can call me Monti.”

They both laugh so hard, but Talon glares at me while I give him my best innocent smile.

“I like her,” Xander says as he’s laughing. Then he adds, “She’s funny.”

I shrug my shoulders and smile up at him.

Rocky just looks me up and down and licks his lips like he sees something he likes and isn’t even ashamed of the possibility of being caught. When he sees me looking at him, his eyes light up and he smirks at me. Is it hot in here?

“Yeah, she’s real fuckin’ hilarious,” Talon grumbles. Then he gives me that look, the same one he did when we were kids, which means he’s going to tickle me. So, I take off running, but he catches me and tickles me till I say sorry.

“Dick,” I say while laughing and trying to catch my breath at the same time.

I finally catch my breath, and Rocky’s still there just looking at me. I don’t know why but I don’t mind being under his gaze. It doesn’t feel creepy when he looks at me, it makes me feel powerful even though I doubt that he’d go for someone like me, he probably has so many other women after him. Pulling my gaze away from him, I turn to my cousin to see if he’s ready to workout.

I go to my punching bag, well not mine but the one I have been using since I started working out here. I pull out my headphones and put on my gloves. The punching bag has become my solace. With that, I turn on Little Girl Gone by Chinchilla on my playlist and start punching the bag to get all of my anger out.

I’m punching this bag while picturing my ex-best friend's stupid face when she smirked at me, and my ex-boyfriend's face when he looked like a deer in the headlights when he got caught. I cannot believe they did this to me.

I continue punching the shit out of the bag. I loved him for so long and he did this to me. Hitting and hitting, drowning in my hate when all of a sudden, this scent hits me. It pulls me out of my red haze and instead, puts me into a whole other one. It's one I haven’t smelled before, but it smells amazing like ocean air, but also sweet persimmon. I don’t realize he’s standing behind me, and almost hit him. Rocky.

“Whoa there, million-dollar baby! It’s just me, Killer,” he says to me.

I turn around and lift up my eyebrow repeating what he said, “Killer?”

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