Page 30 of Fair Catch
That shut him up, all emotion leaving his face as he stepped back and removed his hand from the door.
“That’s what I thought. Now please, leave or keep it down. This is my dorm, too.”
I shut the door before he could respond, ignoring the chorus of oooohhh’s that came from the guys and the girls asking what my problem was and calling me a bitch. I couldn’t care less what any of them thought of me — least of all Zeke’s groupies.
I sat down at my desk, blowing out a breath and putting my headphones in again. Just as I finally read and comprehended the paragraph I’d been stuck on for ten minutes, the music in the living room got even louder, and some sort of chant broke out before I heard the distinct sound of glass breaking.
I ripped my headphones off again, letting out a scream I was certain they wouldn’t hear over their stupid partying. Then, I grabbed my bag off the hook by my closet and started shoving everything on my desk inside it, tossing it over my shoulder in the next instant and storming out of my room.
“Ah, you finally decided to join us?” Ramirez joked, trying to put his arm around me as I passed him. But I shoved him back, readjusting my bag as I reached for the front door handle. I jerked it open, pausing long enough to pin Zeke with a murderous glare.
He just smirked, tipping his plastic cup toward me.
I bit back the urge to growl and shove his head into the nearest toilet, slamming the door behind me instead and fuming all the way to the library.
Zeke
The NBU library smelled like rotting wood and mildew, but then again, I imagined every library more than a hundred years old to smell that way.
I wrinkled my nose at it, wondering how anyone could study in here as I passed tables full of students doing just that.
There was something oddly comforting about it, I supposed — the low lighting, the shelves and shelves of book spines soothing in their own way. I wondered if Riley loved it in here, if it gave her the same kind of joy a museum did. I certainly had never had a fun experience at any museum I’d visited. Then again, I’d only gone on school field trips, where I spent most of the time either fooling around with my friends or trying to find a corner to make out in.
I circled the entire bottom floor before heading up to the second, where I found Riley tucked away in the east wing corner with her headphones on, laptop open in front of her, flashcards and highlighters and pencils sprawled out around her. Her brows were bent in concentration until the moment her eyes flicked up to where I’d stopped in front of her table, and she sighed, shaking her head and looking at her laptop again.
“Go away, Zeke.”
“Shhhh. Don’t you know this is a library? There are rules—”
I stopped mid-sentence when she tapped the butt of her pencil against her right earbud, giving me a sarcastic smile that said I can’t hear you, asshole, nor do I want to.
Frustration warred with a smile I couldn’t contain, mostly because as much as I hated that her spitfire was always aimed in my direction, it didn’t make me respect it any less.
With a shrug, I pulled the chair across from her out and plopped down into it, pulling out my phone. I opened Instagram and scrolled mindlessly, waiting for her attention.
She glared at me. “Seriously? Go away.”
“It’s a student library and I’m a student. I’m allowed to be here just as much as you are.”
When she ripped her earbuds out on the next huff, I knew she, in fact, could hear me. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean you have to sit at my table when there are a dozen more up here. Besides, what about your little party?”
“It wasn’t a party.”
She scoffed.
“It was just some guys from the team, and they wanted to hang out with you, too, by the way.”
“Oh, right. And I’m sure all those groupies wanted the same, especially judging by their lovely pet names for me.”
She pinned me with a sarcastic glare and purse of her lips as I remembered how Jaylie and Victoria had called her a bitch. She must have missed how I defended her the next instant and warned them that if they said another word about her, I’d kick them out.
“I’m sorry about them,” I said honestly.
Riley rolled her eyes, but before she could put her headphones back in, my hand jutted out to stop her.
“And I’m sorry about how I treated you, too.”
She stared at me a moment, and then her eyes fell to where my hand was wrapped around her wrist.
