Page 31 of For Three Seconds

I let her get away, with hopes that she would get better, and I hadn’t seen her again. The sick fucking game we’d been playing since we were kids went on. This time I was hurt. I told Nick what happened. I didn’t know if she’d tried killing herself or was just so drunk she almost drowned, but I wouldn’t be there to protect her anymore.

She gave me her body, and then she turned her back on me. I needed to get my head in the game, so I let her go.

“Yo!”

I jumped when Quincy yelled in my ear. He shook his head. Yeah, I was aware my head was not in the game, and he could suck me off.

“You good, man?” Ollie asked me.

“I’m perfect,” I told him.

Quincy left us for his class while Ollie and I made our way to sociology. We both needed the credit, and this was the easiest class we could find.

“Hey, Gavin,” I heard a female purr, and then a hand snaked through my arm.

I looked down to see Annie and gave her a tense nod. Ollie snickered. He knew I didn’t like girls touching me unless I was fucking them.

“Are you guys heading to socio?”

Ollie chuckled.

Great. I’d had enough of her trying to talk to me after or before practice when the cheer squad was there, but this was going to suck. When we made it to the class, I was trying to figure out how to ditch Annie when Ollie pointed to the front of the class.

“Isn’t that the chick from the party?”

My head snapped up, and all I saw were blonde waves. Wild, curly, in a bun on top of her head.Majestic.Scarlett sat all prim and proper, her notebook laid before her and a pen on top of it while she stared at the front of the class as if it held all the answers to her problems.

I didn’t think; I reacted. You’d think we were like magnets all this time, pulling toward each other, never able to connect, just a frustrating gravity with a pull strong enough to keep it near but not enough to make you fuse. There were only two seats behind Scarlett, and Ollie said goodbye to Annie, because I forgot about her the moment I laid eyes on the one thing I’d wanted most since I was a kid.

The class started to fill up, and Scarlett had yet to turn around. I was itching for her to do it. I’d told her to stay away because it gutted me to admit I couldn’t. Not when she was here at my school. I was king, and if we kept crossing paths, she would find out just how much I ruled it.

The professor walked in, and he gave Ollie and me a nod. As I said, we were treated like kings. Class started, and not once did she turn around. Did she not feel me staring at her? Was she immune to my gaze? My touch? I could have sworn I’d seen something in the bathroom.

As soon as class ended, I got up, ignoring Ollie’s amused grin. I walked out and crossed her path as she got out of her aisle so she could crash into me. I was an asshole, but as I said, magnets.

“You should watch where you’re going, Davis.” My words came out in a harsh growl.

She looked up at me, and her eyes flashed. I couldn’t decipher her emotions. Women got easier to figure out the older I got, but never Scarlett.

She opened her mouth, but before she could say something, Annie was there holding on to me like a leech.

“Next class, let’s sit together.” She smiled at me, ignoring Scarlett.

“I was busy, Annie,” I said in a flat tone, not taking my eyes from Scar.

She looked at Annie and smiled at me, but it was cold.

“Excuse you, asshole.” She pushed past me.

There she is. My fearless girl.

I didn’t notice the grin that came to my lips until I turned my head, and Annie was glaring at me.

“Who is she?” she asked.

“None of your business. We fucked, babe. I didn’t ask you to be mine,” I told her before I walked out.

Ollie shook his head at me. “That was harsh.”

---