Page 10

Lily

“ A re you sure this isn’t too short?” I twist around in an attempt to see if my butt is hanging out of the short mini skirt Stella made me wear.

“No, your ass is not hanging out. You look beautiful. It’s the perfect balance of hot. It’s not too much, but just enough to leave them wishing for more. A guy could totally take you home to meet his momma in that.”

My eyebrows pinch together. Sometimes, I think Stella might have lost her mind. “There is no way I would wear this to meet a boy’s parents.”

“That’s not the point! The point is you look hot, but your ass is safe from playing peek-a-boo.”

I groan because I think she’s lying. I can feel the cool night breeze caressing parts it usually can’t caress. I yank at the bottom, pulling it further down my butt. The only problem with that is when I pull down on my skirt, my stomach plays peek-a-boo.

Stella picked my outfit for tonight, and much to my dismay, she went for an outfit that she would wear. I absolutely never would’ve chosen anything like this, and it was a direct result of my best friend’s peer pressure that I wore it at all.

It’s a short ocean-blue swing skirt with little white flowers all over it. She insisted I wear a white crop top that barely meets the top of the skirt. So now, every time I pull my skirt down, my belly button shows.

While I would think this is an incredibly cute outfit if she were the one wearing it, I am, and I don’t feel nearly as confident in my body as she does. Unfortunately, my protests meant little, and I caved. Now, I’m stuck wearing the most uncomfortable clothing I can imagine while being in an equally uncomfortable environment—a frat party.

I agreed to go about a week ago, and I’m nervous. My attire doesn’t help. We’re only a block or so away, and I can already hear the music, which makes my heart race in my chest right along to the beat of the bass.

I’m way out of my comfort zone, and Stella must sense my internal freak-out. Stella gently tugs on my wrist to urge me to a stop. She squeezes it quickly before releasing it to reach up and push my long chestnut hair off my shoulders. Once my curls, which she worked so hard on, are pushed safely aside, she puts both her hands on my shoulders.

“Look at me, Lily.”

My eyes dart up to hers, and I blink twice to clear the contacts she made me put in after doing my makeup.

“You look absolutely drop-dead gorgeous tonight, my friend. Every guy in this place will have to pick their jaw up off the floor when you walk in, but that’s not why I wanted you to dress up tonight.”

“It isn’t?” I ask, confused.

I choose to ignore the bit about being drop-dead gorgeous tonight because that’s Stella . My bestie looks incredible in a short, deep red mini dress that just barely covers her behind and knee-high black boots. Her long, raven hair hangs in loose waves like mine.

She shakes her head. “Nope. You want to know why I wanted to do your hair and makeup and for you to dress up?” I nod, and she smiles. “You deserve to feel pretty just because. You don’t need to have a reason to want to do your hair or put on some mascara and lipstick. I think you forget that sometimes, and tonight, I want you to feel beautiful because you are . Tonight is about us hanging out and having fun, not about stupid guys or some silly party.”

Her speech helps settle the anxiety running amuck in my stomach, and when I stop to really think about what she said, I realize I do feel pretty .

I love the way she did my hair and makeup, and even though I think the skirt is too short for me, it also shows off my curves in all the right places. My legs are hardly ever on display, which Stella always says is a travesty because they’re toned from all the yoga I do. Tonight, they’re also freshly shaven and feel silky smooth from the after-shower oil I used. I like the way they look, which gives me a bit of confidence I don’t think I would’ve found on my own.

Taking a deep breath through my nose, I blow it out through my mouth. “Thanks. I needed the pep talk.”

She smiles. “Good. Let’s go have some fun tonight, Lily pad.”

I square my shoulders, attempting not to touch the bottom of my skirt again. “Okay, let’s do it!”

She links her arm with mine and smiles even wider as we walk the rest of the way to the frat house.

Luka

The house is packed wall-to-wall with people, everyone drinking, talking, dancing, and having fun. The bass in the corner of the room makes the house vibrate with the loudness of the music. It’s hard to move around the house. This is one of the biggest parties of the year, and everyone shows up for it.

There’s a keg in practically every room, and the kitchen counter is covered in every kind of liquor I can think of, along with a slew of Jell-O shots in damn near every flavor. The fridge is filled with wine coolers, energy drinks and various juices for cocktails, and even bottles of beer, ensuring ample drinks for whatever your poison may be.

I’m still nursing a beer I picked up when I got here because I don’t plan to drink much tonight. After my study session with Lily yesterday, I spent the morning at practice before going home to try a few of the study techniques she showed me.

One of them is so damn simple that I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. She gave me a tennis ball because movement is apparently a huge component of my brain's ability to accept the information I want to learn. She suggested I toss the ball in the air and catch it while I listen to audio textbooks.

This afternoon, I laid on my bed, plugged in my earbuds, and repeatedly tossed that damn ball against the wall until the chapter was done. Strangely, I’m pretty sure it helped. I don’t know how, but my thoughts seemed less chaotic, and my attention span was longer.

How could something so damn simple help that much?

“There you are, man.” Rowan walks up beside me.

I’m near the back of the room and watching the crowd of eager college students chug beer and do shots left and right. Rowan and I live together just off campus in a small three-bedroom townhouse, so we rode together tonight. I’m the DD.

It’s mostly a sorority and frat crowd, but there are a few people who don’t belong to either. Rowan and I are two of those people, but we’re hockey players, so that’s an automatic invite for us, regardless of our lack of affiliation with a frat.

Stella is supposed to come tonight, too. She’s part of a sorority and lives down the street from this house. She said Lily may come, too. I don’t know how I feel about seeing her somewhere like this. She’s cool, and I think she can really help me, but I feel like it’ll be weird to hang out around her outside of our tutoring sessions.

Still, I somehow find that I’m excited at the prospect of seeing her, which makes no sense. She’s just my tutor, and I need her to stay firmly in that place in my life.

Acquaintances. Maybe friends, but definitely nothing more.

“Why do you look so deep in thought, bro? Tonight is about relaxing and having some fun after all the studying you’ve done.”

I shrug. Tonight is usually a night I look forward to. There are plenty of hot girls to choose from, and with parties like these, there is an unspoken rule that what happens at the omega parties stays at the omega parties.

It’s basically a free pass to do whatever the fuck you want to do with little to no consequences. Like Rowan said, it’s a night to relax and have fun.

I sigh. “I don’t know. I’m just stressed about all this shit with Coach and my grades. ”

Rowan nods. “I get it, but you can’t change any of that tonight, so why worry about it? You studied today. You did what you were supposed to. Give yourself one night off.”

He has a fair point, but that doesn’t change the tightness in my chest from the anxiety I feel. I take a small sip of my beer, hoping it will help, but knowing it won’t since I can’t actually drink.

“Yo! Rowan! Luka! Get your asses over here and play some pool with us!” Nash yells over the crowd, beckoning us to the pool table in the middle of the large living room.

You know you’re in a frat house when they choose a pool table over a couch. A bunch of the guys from the team stand around the table, drinking and shooting the shit.

Rowan’s eyes light up with excitement, and so do mine. What’s a little friendly competition between hockey players? Oh, yeah. That’s right. There aren’t any friendly competitions between hockey players.

We play to win —every time .

We walk over and choose a pool stick from the wall just to the right of the table.

“Rowan, Luka, and me on one team, and Axel, Brice, and Logan on the other,” Nash says.

My back immediately stiffens because I didn’t notice Axel standing in the back with a black eye and white tape across his nose, holding a pool cue. Had I seen him, I might not have agreed so quickly. Not because of our altercation the last time we saw each other but because he’s a fucking prick, and I don’t even want to share the ice with him, let alone a pool table.

However, I still smirk when he makes eye contact with me. I was pretty sure I broke his nose when I hit him, but it’s good to have the visual confirmation.

Serves you right, fucker.

If that stupid fuck thinks he can beat me at pool, then I guess I’ll have to show him a good old-fashioned ass whoopin’ in a whole new way. My hands actually vibrate with the need to dominate the game and show him just how low I think he is. Not just in pool, but everything else as well .

My animosity doesn’t purely stem from his stupid comment yesterday at practice. It comes from three years of this shithead thinking he’s better than everyone else on the team.

I’m about to prove his ass wrong… again .

“Easy, tiger,” Rowan warns.

I shrug him off because I’m completely in control of my emotions right now. I’m sure Rowan is worried I’ll go off and hit Axel again, but I wouldn’t do that. No, tonight, I’ll beat his ass in an even more humiliating way.

I thread my fingers together and extend my arms to stretch and pop my knuckles before looking at Nash. “I’ll break.”

Nash is the goalie for our team and a damn good dude. I consider him one of my closest friends besides Rowan.

“Go for it, dude,” Nash says as he finishes racking the balls. He grabs his cup of beer off the edge of the table and takes a drink as he gestures me forward with his free hand.

Axel doesn’t even miss a beat before pushing his way toward the table. We’re already drawing a crowd since, by now, most people have heard about our fight in the rink just yesterday. Fine. Bring an audience. The more the merrier, I say. Let them all watch me kick his ass again.

“I’m going first,” Axel loudly tells Logan and Brice.

I only smirk as I reach down and pick up the cool as hell white cue ball out of the corner pocket. It has a black design of a skeleton hand giving the middle finger. I place it just where I want it on my side and step back to measure up my shot.

After lining up my chosen pool cue, I swiftly send the perfectly appropriate middle finger cue ball toward the triangle of other balls. It hits with a loud crack , successfully breaking the grouping and sending one into a pocket.

A toothy smirk pulls at my lips as I call out, “Solids.”

Without hesitation, I line up my next shot. The blue ball is close to the left-center pocket, and I realize this wouldn’t be an ass-beating if I didn’t show off a little.

I take my shot, banking the hilarious middle finger ball off the end railing. It hits at the perfect angle before bouncing off and heading directly toward the target ball. The room cheers as the cue ball narrowly glances off the back of the blue ball and sends it into the center pocket with a light thump.

Axel glares at me, his nostrils flaring as I laugh and move on to the yellow ball. It’s perched directly at the corner and one of the easiest shots to take, even by beginner standards. Before my last shot, I couldn’t hit it without hitting his striped, red ball, but now that the cue ball is resting only a foot or so away, it’s an easy sink.

My next shot accidentally sinks two balls when I hit mine that was touching one of his. The force of the hit sends mine into the corner pocket while his strikes one of mine and sends it slowly crawling toward the opposite corner. I stare in shock for a second. Honestly, I didn’t think it would go in, but it slowed to a near stop, teetering on the edge before finally tipping the rest of the way in.

Perfect.

The room erupts in drunken cheers as Axel stands there, getting more and more pissed as I go along.

I finally miss one, but I have only two solid balls left on the table, plus the eight ball.

Axel mumbles, “Fucking finally,” under his breath as I stand back and watch him line up his first shot.

“Man, Luka, you ain’t playing around tonight,” Nash says loudly enough for everyone to hear.

I wait to respond until the exact moment Axel pulls back on his pool cue to take his shot. “Nah, man. I’m just giving Axel a chance to prove to us that his balls aren’t the size of walnuts like that girl said they were.”

Axel pulls his stick back but fumbles when he shoots. He stands abruptly and turns toward me with a grimace on his face. It kind of looks like he needs to take a shit, and it’s turning redder by the second. I just smirk at him with my arms crossed.

It’s about time someone put this dickweed in his place. Judging by how quickly he shoved his way to the front of the line to play me directly, it was apparent that a broken nose wasn’t enough to do it.

“She never said that! ”

I shrug nonchalantly. “Look, man, it’s okay if they’re small. You can talk to a doc. I bet you could get on testosterone and fix that problem. Your levels must be practically chick levels. Might be why your voice is so nasally, too.” I narrow my eyes as a vicious smile pulls at my mouth.

Axel puffs his chest out, and everyone around us has stopped to listen in. The heavy bass makes it hard to hear anything, but they’re positively invested, many of them laughing at my ruthless joke.

“You seem to know a lot about testosterone. Maybe your ex-girlfriend was being honest. Sounds like you had a rather hard time making her happy.” He gives me a devious smirk, but he winces from the pain in his face. “Or should I say a rather soft time making her happy?”

Rowan lunges at him, but I hold him back. I expected a pathetic insult, but that one actually makes me laugh. My ex and I split on good terms, and I still have random girls ask me if I really broke her bed after she spent a couple of weeks in Paris with her family.

Yes. Yes, I did.

What my girl wants, my girl gets. She said harder, and I gave her exactly what she wanted. The large knob on the corner post of the headboard punched a hole in the drywall just a few minutes before I splintered the wood around the screws holding the headboard on.

It was a good time.

My laugh finally calms, and I’m about to decimate the fucker when a fiery voice comes out of nowhere.

“Why are you talking to him like that when it’s painfully obvious that you, sir, are lacking in far more than just manners and pool skills? Luka Russo is one of the most talented and smartest people I know. The only reason you’re an a-hole to him is because you have something to prove.”

I’m so blindsided that I don’t react right away. Stella’s eyes are wide in disbelief as she stares at her sexy-as-hell friend in a short-ass miniskirt.

My eyes can’t believe what they see when they roam over what she’s wearing. She looks hot as fuck in an outfit that hugs all her curves and shows off what I now see are killer legs. She looks nothing like the nerdy, slightly weird, and reserved Lily that I know.

Axel turns toward the five-foot-six bombshell not far from him. “Who the hell are you?”

There was an edge to his voice at first that suggested rage, but by the end of that short sentence, he’d apparently noticed exactly what he was looking at because that voice sounded a lot less angry.

I growl. “She’s nobody to you.” I storm over and pull her away from him and over to a dark corner for some privacy. She’s taller than usual because she’s wearing heels, but she still has to look up to meet my eyes.

She swallows thickly. “I’m sorry. I probably shouldn’t have done that.”

Suddenly distracted, I reach out and lift one of her soft curls, running my finger through the silky strands before pulling away. “What did you do to your hair?”

She self-consciously reaches up and touches exactly where my hand just was. “Does it look bad?”

I shake my head as I scan her vibrant green eyes. I’ve noticed them before, but without her glasses, I can see so much more detail. They’re extraordinarily beautiful.

“No,” is all I say.

Her left eyebrow lifts, and she nibbles on her bottom lip. “Are you mad?”

“No.”

She huffs. “Can you say something besides, no?”

“Yes.” I smirk when my one-word answer seems to fluster her even more.

It’s cute and endearing that she waltzed right up to a bunch of hockey players who are twice her size to defend me when I’m the one who started the fight.

“Luka, could you please give me more than one-word answers?”

The anxiety in her tone has me snapping out of the little game I thought we were playing. I didn’t mean to upset her.

I reach out and take her hand. “You okay?”

Her brows furrow in what looks like confusion. “What? Am I okay? No, are you okay? Did I just commit a giant faux pas by acting like I know you? ”

Now, it’s my turn to be confused. That’s what she’s worried about? My friends, knowing we know each other? “What do you mean?”

A sigh escapes her. “I mean, are you mad that I just stormed up to one of your teammates and basically told him to screw off in front of all your other friends? Essentially, I just announced to everyone that we know each other. I’m so sorry. I forgot to ask during our last session if you wanted people not to be aware that we’ve ever met. I never assume that someone I tutor would be my friend outside of the tutoring. That’s gotten me into trouble before, so now I ask, but I forgot this time.”

Oh, shit . She really thinks I’m mad at her. I would never be that cruel to her or anyone else. We are all just people doing our best. Nobody is better than anyone else. Well, except Axel, that dude is a douche.

She is someone that I would be proud to call a friend.

“First off, that was the cutest fuck-off speech I’ve ever heard. Second, you can defend me whenever and wherever you want because that was epic.” I pitch my voice into a higher tone to mimic hers. “‘Obviously, you, sir, are lacking in more than just manners.’”

The tension in her face lifts and a cute giggle sneaks out. I smile and continue. “And lastly, we are friends, whether we’re at the library, getting a coffee, or at a party. You, Lily McKenna, are my friend .”

Her brows furrow again as her eyes flitter back and forth between mine, searching for something. “So, you aren’t mad?”

I shake my head. “Nope, not mad. Just tier-one friends, though. Only a slight promotion from acquaintances. I wouldn’t want you to think I was falling in love with you or anything,” I say playfully.

A sly smirk covers her too-beautiful face. “Never . Friends, it is.” She puts her hand out for me to shake.

“Friends.” I give her a wide smile as I take her small hand in my large one. I feel an acute zap when our palms touch, just like when she’d taken my hands at the library. The feeling catches me off guard and sends my heart racing.

“Russo, you going to get over here and finish kicking this pansy’s ass?” Rowan calls .

I look up to find him and Stella standing next to each other. Both their gazes are set on Lily and me in the corner. I know what Ro is thinking by the shit-eating grin on his face, but Stella looks more contemplative. Her eyes cut over to Lily’s and widen.

I look over to see what Stella is looking at, but all I find is Lily with a small but breathtaking smile on her face. Her cheeks are the perfect shade of pink.

“Wanna watch me finish kicking his ass?” I ask as I walk toward Stella and Rowan.

She snorts a laugh. “Make sure it hurts. He’s a dick.”

I laugh and shake my head. “Where did you come from, Lily?”

“I’m from Rochester,” she says seriously.

I stop and turn. “No, I mean, where have you been hiding all my life?”

Her eyebrows lift in surprise the moment my eyes widen. I’m just as surprised as she is. My question makes it sound like I’ve been missing her my entire life. Maybe I have been, flashes through my mind at lightning speed. I shake my head to dispel that alarming thought, but I’m too curious to hear her answer to take it back.

Her eyes cloud for a moment as she gets lost in her own thoughts before she shakes off whatever she must have been thinking about. She holds my eyes captive the whole time. “I’ve been right here, waiting for you to find me.”

I don’t know what she means by that, but my heart beats with a hard thud against my chest, and I have an indescribable, almost violent urge to pull her against my chest and kiss her. It’s the most visceral response I’ve ever had, and it takes every muscle in my damn body to hold me still.

It’s like her words unlock something deep inside me. An overpowering urge to protect her fills me, and a sense of belonging settles in. I don’t know how to react to it or what it means.

I relax my muscles and throw on an easy smile. Right here in front of everyone isn’t the time to figure out what the hell that reaction was or what her words mean. I take her hand and pull her over to the pool table, the electric tingling skittering up my arm the entire time my skin is in contact with hers.

What in the actual fuck was that?