Page 8 of Unforgivable

I wasn't even supposed to be at that stupid frat party, but Murphy made his law just for me and I was no stranger to unfortunate events. I always managed to get myself into the worst situations purely by accident. It was like my super power.

My annoying and unwanted lab partner had taken all of my notes to study for an upcoming test that I desperately needed. That led me to frantically calling him Friday afternoon to meet up somewhere to get them all back, to which he inquired for the forty-fifth time why I chose to write them down on paper instead of typing them up. After again explaining the link between hand writing notes and improved memory, he whined that he had a party at his fraternity that night and I'd have to come pick them up from there.

So that's what I did. I went up to the room like he told me, spent ten minutes looking for my notes in the least intrusive way I could manage, and then was promptly interrupted by horny Bonnie and Clyde. When all was said and done, I was driven from the room and left the party with no notes, a foul mood and a tender throat to boot.

“Look, if you believe it was necessary to turn him into his coach, then I'd trust your gut. It's not like you can take it back now,” Micah weighed in. I chewed on his words as we grabbed our lunches and made our way to a table outside.

“You're probably right. It's over and done with, and I just need to m—” My words cut off when I was thrown sharply to the side by a young man sliding onto the bench next to me. He had come in a little hot and practically barreled me over in his attempt to sit down.

“Oh my gosh! I've been looking for you guys everywhere!” He chirped, his smile comically large and eyes wide open. He kept looking behind us nervously, and I was getting a little weirded out. The bewildered look on Micah's face matched my own as we took him in.

The guy looked to be our age with windswept cocoa brown hair, light teal eyes, and pillowy lips. He was beautiful, like seriously so. Iwouldn't have been surprised if he had popped off of a magazine cover and declared “I'm a real boy now!” However, pretty Pinocchio to my right was clearly flustered about something.

“Um, hi. Are you okay?” Micah asked, concern creasing his brow.

The guy looked around quickly and turned back to us, the fake smile slipping off his face. “Not really. I'm so sorry to just crash your lunch like this, but I need your help. Do you see that hunky big dude behind us?” He gestured lightly with his head to a man who seemed to be searching for someone in the sea of students around us.

“You mean the young John Cena knockoff? Is he messing with you?” Micah asked quietly, trying to subtly keep an eye on him without tipping the dude off.

“Not in the super bad sense or anything. Look, he's my on and off again ex and he willnottake the hint that I am no longer buying tickets to his show, you know what I mean?” the pretty guy said sardonically.

“Oh, is he a theatre major or something?” I asked. Micah just blinked at me while the intruder laughed gently at me.Even his dang laugh is beautiful. What gives with this guy? Does he fart glitter too, or does he save that for special occasions?

“Oh my gosh, you are too cute! No babes, I meant he won't get the hint that I no longer want to date him. We've been on this merry-go-round for too long, and it's just way too exhausting. He needs to take a cue from T-Swift, you know? Oh shitzle, he's coming over…please pretend that we're friends and I was supposed to meet up with you? I'm Fin, by the way!” he rushed out in a single breath, the fake smile sweeping back over his features.

Fin's ex clambered over at that moment and I had to crane my neck back to take him all in. I didn't think men came in sizes that big. Must've been all the testosterone he ate for breakfast.

“Finlay, what the hell do you think you're doing? We weren't done talking,” Mr. Muscles ground out in a low, raspy timbre.

Fin swiveled his head nonchalantly and gave him a bored look. “Oh, we weren't? I must have missed that memo when your point got lost somewhere back on I-35. As it were, I found my friends and we're a little busy right now,” Fin retorted dismissively.

The dude was close to foaming at the mouth. He looked so pissed, but he glanced at Micah and me quickly and shook his head. “This isn't over, Fin. Wewillbe finishing this conversation later,” he gruffed before wisely deciding to move along and not make a scene.

When he was out of earshot, Fin let out a huge sigh of relief and graced us with a bright, genuine smile. “I'm sorry about all that drama, but thank you so much for being my saviors of the moment! Let's start over. I'm Fin, and you are?”

“Well, we didn't really do much, but we're always glad to be of service. I'm Rhys and this is Micah. We're roommates,” I said with a smile. Micah smiled and up-nodded Fin in response.

“It's an absolute pleasure to meet you both! I swear, I've got to learn that just because they make muscles that big doesn't mean I have to make it my personal mission to always climb them like a tree. Apparently, everything in moderation also applies to beefcakes because whew! I hit my drama quota with him about thirty minutes into that relationship, but I live for it so it's my own fault,” Fin chatted away in his lilting sweet voice as Micah and I just took it in stride.

I didn't really know what clued me in, but I was suddenly hit with the sensation of being watched. The hairs on my neck even did that standy-uppy thing you always hear about on true crime series. I twisted my head around to see if I noticed anything out of the ordinary while Micah and Fin carried the conversation.

I was close to chalking it up to caffeine-fueled paranoia until my gaze collided with a familiar face. One I hoped I could avoid for the rest of forever.

I could feel his stare like a physical thing as surely as I had felt his hand around my throat. He stood across the grassy courtyard with his arm around a well-endowed blonde who was laughing with the group surrounding them. His curly hair was a melt of dirty blond colors that was a perfect match to his tan skin. Seeing him now in the daylight, I noticed that there was something strange about his eyes.

Coming from me, that was pretty rich considering my own unique eye situation, but it threw me off that I hadn't recognized it that night.

One green. One blue.

Both vibrant and intense in their own right.

It would make him even more devastatingly hot than he already was if I hadn't sworn to hate him on principle. I couldn't be attracted to someone like that. I had to have standards after all. But looking at him now and feeling heat slink up my neck and onto my cheeks had my standards sinking lower than a limbo stick.

It took an embarrassingly long time to realize that I had been caught in a staring contest with Hawk…Callum…for several minutes. I blinked rapidly as awareness hit me and his stupidly symmetrical lips kicked up in a cocky smirk. Then he winked at me.

Winked.

That one flippant wink had my stomach…well, not fluttering exactly. It was more like a flitter. Whatever it was, the sensation was entirely unwelcome.

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