Page 9 of My Ex's Roommates
I realized both Carter and Dylan were staring at me and raised my eyebrows at them. “What? I hope you’re not waiting on me to disagree with you. I’m fucking lucky I didn’t tent my pants last night. I think she would’ve come over the couch and strangled me.”
“New kink unlocked.” Carter joked. “Having Harper Monroe strangle me while shouting in my face. Sounds like a good time.”
Dylan groaned. “Shut the fuck up, both of you. We should be thinking of ways to apologize to her, not ways we want her to fuck us.”
I shifted my stance and groaned. “Don’t put those words together, man. These pants aren’t going to hide shit.”
He closed his eyes and tilted his head back. “I need the patience of a fucking saint to deal with you some days.”
Carter grabbed his helmet. “Can you imagine Jake’s face if he found out one of us screwed his ex?”
The thought brought a smile to my face. The truth was, I’d always found Harper hot but I wasn’t into the whole barbie thing. Seeing her as someone who had a similar upbringing to me and as someone with a healthy amount of anger took the hotness level to dangerous zones. I wanted to find out what else was under the pretty sweater sets. Fucking with Jake in the process would just make the whole thing sweeter.
“Silas.” Dylan grabbed the back of my neck. “We’re not going there. She hates us. We don’t like her, either.”
Carter grinned. “I don’t know, man. I kind of like her. Well, I like the angry woman who showed up last night. She was fun.”
I brushed Dylan’s hand away and rolled my eyes. “I’m not actually going to do anything. I still don’t think I could have a conversation with her without wanting to off myself.”
We made our way out of the locker room and down the tunnel to the field, still talking shit to each other. Carter and I took great pleasure in stressing Dylan out with what we might do. He was always so serious, so responsible that he naturally tried to take care of us. It was unfortunately for him that he’d chosen to be best friends with two assholes who didn’t mind making messes.
Carter was saying something about our plans for after practice when his voice trailed off and his face shifted into something that would give Dylan a headache. He looked mischievous as fuck. “Well, well, well.”
I followed his gaze and spotted Harper on the sidelines of the field, standing with Coach Hogan, Doctor Jenny, and a small group of people I didn’t know. She looked sporty in a pairof black leggings and matching jacket. Her hair was in a high ponytail that gave me filthy ideas and her eyes were focused on Doctor Jenny until she felt us staring at her.
She glanced our way and her face fell for a split second before she turned away again. She said something to Coach Hogan and he scowled at her before walking away from the group with Harper. I watched the two of them talk and hit Dylan to make sure he was watching, too. Harper had a similar posture to the one she’d had with us the night before and by the way Coach Hogan was staring down at her, wide-eyed, I had to think she was telling him off, too.
“She’s not.” Dylan took a step forward, like he was going to try to stop her, like it wasn’t way too late for that.
“She’s a goner. Hogan’s going to lose his shit any second.” Carter inched closer. “I want to hear every word he says.”
To our utmost shock, Hogan dropped his head and seemed to take a deep breath before he looked up and patted Harper on the arm. He even smiled. It was almost haunting to see the hardass coach who’d chew us up and spit us out before breakfast smile at Harper.
“What the fuck?” I had to pick my jaw up off the ground when the two of them walked back to their little group, both of them smiling.
Then Hogan looked over at us and his smile vanished. “Get on the fucking field and start warming up, assholes!”
Carter groaned. “Well, at least we know he didn’t get body snatched. He’s still our loving coach.”
I forced my eyes to leave Harper as we joined our teammates on the field. I could tell Dylan and Carter struggled, too, because the three of us were probably the worst we’d ever been during warm ups. With Hogan watching us fuck up, I already knew it was going to be a long morning.
10.
***Dylan***
The team was falling apart. The sun was high in the sky and it was fucking hot out but Coach Hogan was nowhere near finished with us. Every play was shit. I was throwing some of the ugliest throws ever. Carter hadn’t caught a single ball. Silas hadn’t even made it onto the field more than once and that hadn’t been pretty, either. Everyone was pissed off about what happened with Jake and the worse we looked, the more pissed we got. He’d left us in a bad way. I was captain of a losing team and the season hadn’t even started.
“On the line! Run the fucking play again! Do it right this goddamn time or you’ll be here until the fucking sun goes down!” Hogan was fed up with us.
I was fed up with us. I had to figure it out. I couldn’t let Jake kill our chances at a good season. I couldn’t let him win.The team needed something, anything, to come together and I needed to make it happen or-
Ben Crawford, the center, snapped the football to me but it was off center and I lunged to grab it so our side didn’t lose possession and as soon as I did, I felt a sharp pain in my inner thigh and went down. I didn’t see who it was but someone stomped on my left forearm as they dove for the ball and all I could do was lay there, hoping the pain would be gone when I tried to stand up.
Fear wasn’t something I liked to feel but it was coursing through me. I could see my entire season go up in flames and any hopes I’d ever had of playing professionally vanish. One bad snap and I was done. Jake won. I lost. The team, the university, we all lost.
“Fuck, man! I’m sorry. I let the ball go before time and I felt it going left!” Ben leaned over me, his helmet blocking out the sun for a moment. “You okay?”
I took his hand and grimaced when he pulled me up. The pain in my groin wasn’t the worst I’d ever felt but when I straightened my leg to walk it seized up and I went back down hard. Grinding my teeth together, I gripped my inner thigh and swore.
