Page 42 of Weak Side

I nodded at her and placed my hand on the doorknob. Claire didn’t show much vulnerability, but little did she know, I could see right through her, and so could her best friend.

I was halfway through the door when I heard Aasher say, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” And to my surprise, instead of going home, he followed Taytum down the hall and sat there with the rest of the team, keeping watch for the fucker that broke my roommate’s heart.

I peeked an eye open slowly, irritated that the sun was shining through the small window in my room. My body ached when I moved on my side, and when I fully regained my ability to see through the blinding morning light, confusion swept me off my feet. I was staring at my bed, which meant that I wasn’t on it. An empty pizza box and tiny bottle of vodka laid on the floor, and I now had an explanation to why I had slept inandwhy my head had a slight thumping to it.

My eyes shot to the slightly opened door that led to the hallway. I recognized my teammates' laughs, and a sense of relief went through me when I heard Claire’s laugh alongside theirs.

I slowly pulled myself up and stretched my arms above my head while cracking my stiff neck. Claire’s covers were messy beneath me, and it was warm where she had been lying. My laptop was still propped open on her desk that sat beneath her bed, but either the show we had binged had reached its end as we fell asleep or it had died. Recollections of the night weren’t blurry. There wasn’t enough alcohol in the small bottle to have gotten us both drunk, but we both took a few swigs to wash down the pizza.

Lifting my shirt over my head, I winced at the smell of her shampoo that lingered. There were very few times in my life that I had slept with a girl—and I meant that literally. There were also very few times in my life that, when I did happen to sleep over with a girl, I was the last one up.

I’d snuck out of girls’ rooms plenty of times in my first two years of college, and there were many windows that I’d jumped out of before school had started while I was in high school. But this? This was a first.

Claire and I were strictly platonic after our kiss. We sat together and ate pizza, watched the show she’d requested on her laptop, and took a few swigs of vodka before we both fell asleep on her bed. There was no mention of the kiss, and although every single brush of her skin against mine sent my thoughts into a frenzy, it all ended pretty innocently.

After pulling a new set of clothes on and taking a few swigs of water to wash the vodka out of my mouth, I opened the door to the hall and caught the sight of Claire leaning against the far wall with each of my friends surrounding her, like she was the second coming of Jesus.

Her smile was cheery, as if she wasn’t still mending a broken heart from her boyfriend sticking his tongue down another girl’s throat last night.Fuck, was that last night?

I latched onto her voice, mid-conversation, as I pulled the rest of my shirt down and wondered how she could seem so unbothered.The conceited guy I was down to my core hinted that it was our kiss that had mended her heart, but the righteous man my parents raised told me to keep that arrogant thought to myself.

“He asked for a refund.” Claire’s cheeks turned pink as her sweet little laugh filled the hallway. “But my boss quickly ran and got the cook from the back, and he escorted him out.”

“He asked for a refund?” Dax whistled. “This is why they should ban other teams from ever entering The Bex.”

Taytum snorted. “No way. Us girls need choices. We tend to get sick of the same flavor of Bexley U jocks.”

Ford acted hurt, but all attention turned to me as I leaned against the door frame and tuned in to their conversation.

“Well, hello, sleepyhead.” Dax smirked at me. “Leave it to our girl Bryant to get you to sleep in.”

“Your girl?” I questioned before flicking my eyes over to her. She caught my gaze for a split second before pushing off the wall and crossing her arms over her loose t-shirt. She looked down at her bare feet, and it seemed like she was hiding from something. When she brought her attention back up, the apples of her cheeks were redder than before, and it irritated me that she was acting all cheeky and comfortable with my teammates but was suddenly acting shy around me.

“Yeah, our girl.” Dax rammed his shoulder into Claire’s, pushing her off balance for a second. “We don’t keep guard all night long for just anyone.”

Claire’s hands went to her hips, and her crescent smile was infectious. Every one of my friends grinned at her annoyance with them. “I did not ask you guys to keep guard!” Her eyeroll made everyone chuckle. “And I’m not your girl.”

“But we’re your guys. You give us extra fries.”

Taytum pouted. “You give them extra fries too?”

Claire paused and looked around the small group that had formed around her. She laughed next and shrugged. “You guys tip better when I give you extra fries.”

“What?!” Ford squealed like a girl. “You only give us extra fries because we tip well?”

Taytum laughed when Dax put a hand over his heart. “I’m a little wounded. I thought you liked us.”

Claire’s expression softened as she peered up at Dax. “I do like you.”

“Is that so?” I asked, stepping forward and erasing the space between our door and the other side of the hall. I leaned beside her, resting one shoulder against the wall. “I thought you hated jocks.”

When our eyes caught, she inhaled a heavy breath. There was a pull in my core that had shifted to my gaze. I quirked a brow, waiting for her to turn away from me, but instead, she seemed to accept that I wasn’t going to let her act differently with me just because of last night. “Jocks aren’t so bad,” she mused. Then, she rolled her eyes, and I felt my lip curving.There you are.“I guess.”

“Sheguesses?” Ford scoffed, and we all fell into easy conversation again. Dax and I were chatting about grabbing some breakfast and then hitting the gym, and Taytum and Claire were mumbling under their breath, likely about Chad.

Part of me wanted to ask her outright if he had called her yet, but I knew it was none of my business. I was there for her last night, but that didn’t mean she and I were the best of friends now. She was still just my roommate…who kissedverywell.

“Claire.”

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