Page 19 of Neo

“You should leave, dude,” Shane tells Bender.

“This is a Suns only event,” Bass adds.

“Ah, the little ice mafia sidekicks. What are you two, the Robins to his Batman?”

“You jealous?” I smirk. “You need a friend or something?”

“Oh, I’ve got a friend all right,” he says while grabbing his dick. “And her name is Vikki Dixon.”

I laugh to myself.

Bender tosses Vikki’s name around as if it’s supposed to mean something to me when it holds no gravity at all. Vikki is someone who is probably the closest thing I’ve got to an ex-girlfriend. She caught me freshman year when everything about campus was exciting and new and I wanted a beautiful girl on my arm to amplify my importance as a new member of the team. Plus, there was the added bonus that she was Coach Dixon’s daughter. A daughter who had influence with her father which therefore put me on his radar. But relationships are not my forte and even though one with her was beneficial for me, I couldn’t stomach it, so I stopped calling. A long time ago.

“If you’re here to flaunt your new girlfriend or something, I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time. I couldn’t give one shit.”

Bender’s smile sours a second too late to hide his disappointment. “Is that right? Not even a hot little number like Vikki? She did mention your emotional intelligence was about as tiny as your very small... well, you know.”

“You take a great interest in my dick,” I shoot back, leaning against the living room archway with nonchalance I was far from feeling. Shane and Bass chuckle for effect. “I didn’t know you cared that much about how much I’m packing.”

The atmosphere in the room shifts, and I can feel the coarse undercurrent of tension skirting beneath the jovial surface of the gathering. When you talk about a man’s dick, things can get nasty.

I catch sight of Violet, watching us from the taco table. Her eyes are wide, an indication she’s more aware of the situation than she lets on. But she holds her silence, her eyes flitting between me and Bender with an unsettling intensity.

“The fuck you say?” Bender replies, not liking that his hetero masculinity is being challenged in front of company.

“Maybe you can talk about other people’s dicks all you want where you come from,” I dig in, pushing off the wall and stalking toward him. “But when you’re in my house...” The words hang in the air as an ultimatum, and Bender meets my gaze unflinchingly.

“Well, if it’s your house,” he says with a nasty grin, “then why don’t you make me leave?”

As Bender’s words echo in my mind, and my left hand clenches, the wheels began turning in my head. He’s here for a reason, and it isn’t to flaunt Vikki around. Bender is smarter than that; he knows how to play people, how to get inside their heads and needle them until they snap.

“Maybe I will.” I return his grin with one of my own. But unlike his, which holds a gleam of malice, mine is cold and calculated. Bender’s smirk twitches slightly at my response before he turns away dismissively, leaving a trail of unease in his wake.

“Enjoy your party, Neo,” he calls over his shoulder, striding towards the taco table where Violet stands like a beacon in the crowd. My lips press into a thin line as I watch him approach her, his cocksure gait stirring a wave of distaste within me. But I remain rooted to my spot, determined not to let Bender’s calculated moves dictate my actions.

As Shane and Bass rejoin me, their faces a mirror of my own frustrations, the room fills with an uneasy silence. The laughter and chatter from before feel like distant memories, swallowed by the thick tension that now hangs in the air.

“Let’s just fuck him up,” Shane says.

“Please!” Bass chimes in. “The freshmen are itching for a fight. Let’s give it to them.”

I shake my head slowly. “Not right now. Not here.”

“You’re just gonna let him get away with this disrespect?” Bass continues incredulously.

I draw in a deep breath, unable to tear my gaze away from Violet, who is looking back at me when Bender says something to her. It could be a coincidence, but he’s targeted the one person in this room that will get a reaction out of me.

Dammit, I promised the higher-ups of VCU’s athletic department that we’d have no problems at this kickback, which has been planned for at least a month. The school doesn’t mind a little bad press as the bad boys of the college hockey world, but not too much of it. Yet now that I see the worry etched on Violet’s face, I’m afraid I’m going to have to break it.

What the fuck is he saying to her?

“I changed my mind,” I tell Shane and Bass. “But since he’s here alone, he’s mine.”

“Fine,” Shane agrees. “But if he as much even saysexcuse meto Kennedy, I’m jumping in.”

And before Bass can chime in, I’m across the room, with my hand around Bender’s throat, his face down on the table dripping in pico de gallo.

It’s a glorious feeling.

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