Page 3

Chapter 2

Keelan

18 years old | New Year's Day

R yker and Jenny are both late.

I’m standing outside in a robe at the edge of Austin's most famous natural pool, surrounded by hundreds of college students ready to take the plunge to welcome the new year–and my girlfriend is going to miss it.

“Plungers! Are you ready?” JR, the soccer captain with the megaphone beside me, yells out. Our fellow students in the crowd go insane. Probably because they're trying to stay warm. We had an unusually cold winter this year which makes this plunge that much more exciting.

I nudge him. “Jenny’s not here yet.”

He lowers the megaphone and says to me, “Well, we can’t wait all night for her, Landry. Some of us have parties to be at.”

It’s a school tradition that the head captains of each sports department are the first to take the plunge. Then, the rest of the student body will join in.

And thanks to a few of the upperclassmen losing their spots over a scandal on my own team, I'm now the unofficial Batties team captain.

“Wait! I’m here, I’m here!” Jenny’s voice calls out from somewhere in the crowd. People are moving aside to make way for her.

“Ey! There’s our girl,” JR says.

I shoot him a glare. Our girl?

“Sorry, I was trying to get Ms. I-don’t-do-school-activities out of our dorm,” she says in a hurry before going on her tippy toes and planting a quick kiss on my lips.

I look behind her for her roommate. “I think you might’ve lost her.”

She looks back, eyes searching the crowd. “Shit. She was just there!”

JR interrupts, “You mind if we get things moving, you two?”

Jenny relents with the toss of her hand, “Yeah, let’s just get on with it.”

JR pulls the megaphone back up to his mouth and goes into his speech.

“Tonight marks the start of a new year, people. A year full of possibilities. Big wins. New beginnings. And lots of wild nights that we probably won’t remember.”

The crowd whoops, and a group of his soccer buddies shake some beer cans and pop them open, spraying beer on everyone nearby. I roll my eyes before I shake the beer from my hair.

One of the soccer players looks over at me. "Sorry about that, mate."

He's wearing a number seven on the front of his t-shirt, and when he turns back to face his team captain, I see the last name on his shirt.

Bonner.

He might be the only respectable one in the group.

My own hockey brothers are all gathered around me, all but one–the only one I really need standing by me tonight.

The biggest rivalry at our school isn’t between other schools. It’s actually between my team and JR’s team. Hockey versus Soccer, or football, as some around the world might refer to it.

As a smaller, private University, we compete to be the best sports department in the school. Of course, we do that by winning in our own sports, but we all know that the rivalry runs deep.

Austin State College is the home of two of the biggest sports programs in the country that aren't American football.

And JR and I are the current poster boys for each.

I quickly pull out my phone to shoot Ryker a text. But a heavy hand lands on my shoulder as soon as I do, and relief washes over me.

“What took you so long?”

He shrugs. “Sorry, I didn’t want to be here,” he says, totally not sorry.

“Of course not, because there are people here. And you hate people.” I tease. JR is still giving the rundown of what’s about to take place, starting with the cheer squad to rile up the crowd.

Jenny gives Ryker a light shove on the shoulder. “Hey! Did you happen to see Rina back there?”

“Your friend with the glasses and sweatpants reading a book under the giant tree back there?” He points over his shoulder. “Yeah, I saw her.”

Jenny runs a hand down her face. “She’s worse than you, I swear.” She moves to go get her.

“You stay here. Your part’s coming up. I’ll get her to come,” I say.

“Really? Thanks, babe. I don’t know what else to do. She’s a tough nut to crack.”

“Maybe…" Ryker suggests, "Leave her alone?”

"Don't be ridiculous. If I left her alone she'd never leave the dorm room. I'm her only hope, Ryker," Jenny protests.

“Or not,” he says, hands up in surrender.

“Be right back,” I whisper to Jenny. She winks. And I make my way through the crowd over to the giant oak tree Ryker mentioned.

She's not easy to miss. Sitting on the ground. Knees up. Nose buried in her book.The only person around doing so.

“So,” I say, slipping my hands into my pockets. “A little birdie told me you have no interest in school spirit.”

She looks up from her book only briefly before returning her gaze to the page she’s reading. It’s from our English Lit class. I know this because I’ve already read it.

“What’s it to you?” she says snarkily.

I shrug. “It’s just… my girlfriend seems to consider you a friend. Crazy, I know. What kind of friend doesn’t come out to any of her events and refuses to participate in the things that are important to her, right?” I scoff sarcastically.

She shuts the book and stares at me. It’s dark, but I can tell there’s heat in her eyes. She’s trying to shoot lasers that we both know she doesn’t possess. It’s cute that she’s trying, though.

“Rina, would you please join us in taking off our clothes and jumping into a freezing body of water in nothing but our underwear so that my girlfriend can be happy and I can get laid tonight?” I beg.

“That entire statement is the reason why I don’t particularly like you, Landry.”

I put my palms together in prayer hands and give her my best rendition of puppy dog eyes.

She sighs, then stands up, brushing the back of her sweats with one hand, and pushing the book she was just reading into my chest. “I’m a damn good friend, okay? Don’t mistake my disinterest in participating in group activities as a failure to be there for people that I care about.”

“So you’ll do it?” I ask. “For Jenny?”

She lets the hand holding her book fall to the side. “ Only for Jenny,” she says.

“Cool,” I smile, motioning for her to lead the way. “I guess I'll finally see you lose those sweats,” I play.

She stops walking, and I bump into her. Looking back at me over her shoulders, she declares, “I seriously hate you.”

I put both my hands on her shoulders and push her to keep walking. “I’m no fan of you either, party pooper. I’m just trying to keep my girl happy.”

“Well, you suck at it. Because I’m not jumping.”

I laugh, still guiding her forward from behind. “Yes, you are.”

“No,” she says. “I’m not. I’ll dip my toes, but I am not swimming.”

“It’s called a plunge for a reason, Rina. You let go of your clothes and inhibitions and ring in the new year doing something carefree. And I think you could use a little shaking up in your world.” I attempt to shake some life into her shoulders as I say it.

She shrugs out of my hold and turns to me.

“I can’t swim,” she finally admits as we near the area where Ryker and the team are waiting. Jenny is now on the megaphone.

“Seriously?” I ask her. “Are you just saying that?”

“No, I don’t know how to swim, and I’m not about to start the new year by drowning so…”

“Fine, we’ll jump together. Ryker and I will be on either side of you to make sure you don’t drown. Okay?”

She groans.

I lean in so she can hear me over the chants that Jenny leads the crowd in.

“Let loose, Rina. We’re only eighteen once. We don’t get these years back.”

We reach Ryker just as Jenny and her girls finish the New Year’s cheer. The crowd bursts into applause. There’s more beer-can spraying from the soccer team.

Jenny hands the megaphone back to JR and comes up to us.

“Getting you to do anything fun is like going fishing with my bare hands,” Jenny says to her roommate, nudging her with her hip.

“Yeah, well. How can I miss an opportunity to get half-naked in front of my entire school?” Rina deadpans.

JR continues, “So with twenty seconds left until the new year… I invite you to shed those clothes and countdown with me.”

I quickly give Ryker a heads-up about flanking Rina, and he agrees as we toss our robes to the side and kick our shoes off, wearing nothing but our boxer briefs.

Jenny slips out of her warm clothes, her bright pink bra and panty combo impossible to miss, and wraps her arms around herself, giggling with her cheer squad as they all countdown.

“Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen…”

My eyes shift over to Rina hiding behind us. She takes a deep breath before taking off her glasses and then reaches for the hem of her ASC sweatshirt, pulling it over her head.

I don’t know what I’m expecting to see. But what I'm not expecting is that lacy red bra she was wearing when I met her to make a comeback. And this time, there's no wet t-shirt to leave things to the imagination. The color stands out against her tan skin. And the fabric hugs her breasts perfectly.

At this moment, I’m convinced I’ve never seen someone wear red like Rina can.

“Nine, eight, seven…”

I try not to watch as she reaches for the waistband of her sweats. I focus on my feet, but I can’t help myself when I see them drop to the ground in my peripheral. She steps out of them, and my eyes trail up her legs. She’s in a red thong. The kind that models wear on a runway.

The only thing she’s missing is a pair of wings floating behind her, although my man brain pictures them as she approaches me, and the countdown reaches one.

All the team captains and the cheer squad jump straight into the chilly water, splashing us as they do.

But I look at Rina, holding a hand out and trying my best to look her in the eye like the gentleman that I know I can be. Like the gentleman I hope I can be.

“Ready?” I say to her.

She takes in another deep breath, her cleavage pushing the edges of that damn bra.

In that split second, the thoughts in my head are not those of a gentleman. Rina quickly nods. I look over at Ryker, and he nods as the three of us plunge into the deep, cold water below us.

Into a new year.

Into the unknown.

And when we rise out of the water, freezing and instantly regretting our dumbass decision—it’s Rina’s laugh I hear that makes me think my next thought.

This was totally worth it.