Page 4 of Project: FU (Longwood U #3)

NOLAN

I look up when a shadow falls across my bedroom floor. Elijah stands in the door, giving me an amused look.

“I’ve been waiting for you to tell me you told me so,” I say and turn my attention back to my schoolwork.

He comes into my room and grips my shoulders. His lips brush the shell of my ear, making me shiver. It’s been a really long time since I’ve fucked Elijah Vincent. I’m really frustrated that he has a goddamn boyfriend. I could use some Eli fucking right now.

“I’d never tell you that,” he says quietly. “I’m sorry she’s a piece of shit, Nolan. You deserve better than that.”

I sigh and close my eyes. Fucking Skye was epic. His body is so damn responsive. So sensitive. That’s an experience I wouldn’t mind repeating a few times.

But I don’t feel better. I don’t feel satisfied that fucking Kelsey’s gay brother is going to make her angry. It’s not going to stab her in the gut like I want it to.

Or better yet, through her fucking chest.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs. One of his arms wraps around the front of my chest, and he gives me a hug from behind. “I admit I’d have liked to convince you that you needed to get rid of her a long time ago, but then I was caught up in Edin and… I hate that she did this to you.”

“You saw the video,” I say.

“Honey, I think everyone’s seen it.”

I scowl.

“However, baby girl is pretending you’re oblivious to said video. I’m not sure she believes the video exists as she continues throwing a tantrum on the front lawn.”

I wince. “She’s not.”

“Oh, she is. Right now, in fact.”

I haven’t seen her since the morning the video made its way onto my phone. She left for class. Everything was normal. Then Kylen told me he needed me to see something, and he sent me the video.

He later told me that the bros had been arguing about who the best person to deliver the blow was. In the end, Kylen said it needed to be him or Kole. He’s right. I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to see me nearly meltdown as I watched my girlfriend get gang banged by a whole bunch of guys.

Once the twins left my room, I blocked her number. It was nearing the time she’d be coming back from cheer, and I knew she was going to lose her mind. Kelsey has always been about dramatics.

“Want me to get rid of her?” Eli asks.

“Where’s Mo? Can we convince Edin to let Mo kick her in the shin a few times?”

Eli smirks. “Believe me, Mo is already up in arms that this ‘ loser head ’ has hurt you.”

I wince, even through laughter. Loser head. There’s nothing like the insults of a nine-year-old. However… “How does she even know?”

“You know that girl is practically part of the squad, right?” Eli says as he stands up.

He moves to lean against the wall beside my desk, pushing his hands into his pockets.

“There are like three girls on the team who put up with Kels. The rest of us have always seen her for the snake she is. And Friday forgets Mo is nine and not nineteen, so he was sympathizing about how upset you must be and how hurt you probably are.”

I let my head fall back. “Great.” I just love being the topic of discussion. The humiliated guy whose girlfriend had a gang bang. What does that say about me?

“Come with me,” I say as I push my chair back and get to my feet. I know Eli’s behind me as I head for the front door. There are other brothers outside now, too. Not to mention the crowd Kelsey’s antics have gathered.

I stop at the window and watch her throw a fit, wondering how I never saw the truth behind her pretty smile. I never saw her tantrums for what they are. For how ugly and childish they are.

But there she is, literally screaming at Mercury to let her in. She has a right to know why I broke up with her, since I’m being such a coward and refusing to speak with her.

Eli’s hand presses to my back, reminding me he’s here. So are eight more of my frat brothers. I know they have my back. That’s what a frat is. A brotherhood.

When I see Kole stomping up the sidewalk, I decide I need to go outside right now or she’s going to throw down. I can already see her fists clenched and her eyes narrowed as she walks directly toward Kelsey.

“Rabid dog incoming,” Arek muses in his deep, dark, quiet tone that never fails to send a shiver down my spine.

I glance at him before I head for the door. Kelsey’s surprised to see me. Her voice cuts off mid-rant as I jog down the stairs. I’m not sure what she expects, but a small smile graces her lips, and this damn woman holds her hands out to me as if I’m rushing into her arms.

She doesn’t see Kole a dozen steps behind her, though I get to watch that fake innocent face morph into fury again when she realizes I’m rushing by her. I intercept Kole three feet from Kelsey. Kole’s fingers brush Kelsey’s ponytail, which just barely slips through her fingers.

“What the fuck?” Kelsey demands. “I knew you were?—”

“Finish those words,” Kole growls. “I dare you.”

“Dude, don’t think Nolan can hold her back. She’s humoring him right now,” warns someone who isn’t at all related to her. Which says a lot about Kole.

Kelsey’s smart enough to keep her mouth closed. For a beat. But she’s still furious. “What kind of nutless asshole just dumps their girlfriend’s shit all over the front lawn and then refuses to tell her why?”

“You dumped your shit,” Eli points out. He holds up his phone. “The entire world has seen that tantrum, woman.”

“I demand to know?—”

“Marion, Freddy, Adai,” I shout over her until she shuts up, and I continue rattling off the names of the football players involved in the gang bang. “Murray, Sam, Bruce, Jaxon, and Gordo.” Recognition flickered in her eyes as soon as I listed the fourth name. “That’s why.”

Silence fills the yard. There are a lot of phones out, filming the entire confrontation. I wonder if they see Kole vibrating with fury. I can sure as hell feel it.

Kelsey’s mouth opens as if she’s going to refute it.

There’s pleading in her eyes, and for a minute, I kind of want to see what she has to say.

What excuses does she have? Was she drunk?

Drugged? Because if those words leave her mouth, that’s a very, very big and dangerous accusation to put on eight guys.

Does she want to save face enough to tell that lie?

I’m confident that it would be a lie. She wasn’t the only one there. The guys weren’t the only ones there. The video began with her truth anyway.

I know the moment she decides her best course of action is the apologetic girlfriend. Tears fill her eyes, and her lower lip trembles. I roll my eyes.

This mad woman in my arms waits for my guard to drop before she launches herself forward. There’s chaos as the entire crowd jumps and tries to figure out how Kole appeared in Kelsey’s face, punching her and swinging her around by her hair. Kelsey’s high-pitched scream is worthy of a horror movie.

It’s several seconds of madness before a handful of the DIK boys peel Kole from Kelsey. The girl comes away with a handful of hair. I’m confident that she’s spitting fire right now. Do her eyes flash red?

She’s hauled inside. When I say it takes five big men to get her inside, I’m not exaggerating. Kole isn’t petite, but she’s still easily half the size of Richy, Evan, and D’Quan.

Kelsey’s face is red and swollen. There’s blood dripping from her nose and mouth. She looks up at me, truly playing up her unprovoked innocence.

Now would be the time to tell her I fucked her brother. But the words refuse to leave my mouth. There are cameras. There are witnesses. Skye is the victim in that statement. I won’t drag him into this.

Besides, I don’t want to hurt him. Already, fresh guilt is building in my stomach because using him like that was wrong. I like Skye. I was a shitty person to fuck him simply to get back at his sister. If he’d been on board with my reason, that’s different.

In the end, I decide not to say anything at all. I walk past her. I’m surprised when she doesn’t speak. Only one person does as I head for the door.

“You’re so good at playing the victim that you can’t see what real loyalty is,” Kylen says. “Maybe you should take a long look in the mirror until you recognize the piece of trash you’ve become.”

I want to feel good that she just had her ass handed to her.

I want to be shallow enough to find joy in the fact she’s going to look like she ran into a brick wall during cheer for a long time.

I desperately want to take satisfaction in knowing that I fucked her baby brother, which would piss her off like very few things would.

That last one leaves me a little lost. I’m not happy that I brought him into this, even if no one else knows but the two of us. That was crap.

And apparently, I’m not a shitty enough person to feel good that her tantrums and the truth are now going to live forever in infamy online. I can’t even find it in me to feel satisfaction with it.

I return to my room and drop into my chair. Eli is right behind me and retakes his spot against the wall facing me.

“You don’t feel any better, do you?”

I shake my head. “I might feel worse.”

“Don’t tell me you feel sympathy for her.” His frown is severe.

“No. I just… I want to be able to lower myself to her level for just a fucking second and find pleasure in the fact her entire image has just been shattered. I want to be able to feel pride at the look of horror and guilt on her face when I made it clear how I and everyone else knew about her lying, cheating ass and the gang bang. I want to be ecstatic that Kole rearranged her face,” I hiss.

“But you’re a better person than that.”

“Am I?” I ask bitterly. I fucked her baby brother for entirely wrong reasons. I might have hurt someone. The wrong someone. I don’t feel good about that at all.

Eli slides my phone closer to me. I look at it, expecting to see a notification or something. The screen is off. I raise my eyes to his.

“Call Daddy,” he says, and I roll my eyes. The tightness in my chest says that’s exactly what I want to do right now. He nudges the phone a little closer before gripping my shoulder and leaving my room.

I hear the quiet click of the lock before the door latches shut, leaving me in complete privacy. For just a second, I let tears sting my eyes. I let the hurt over the girl I loved, the girl I thought I was building a college sweethearts romance with, wash over me.

It’s not the humiliation of the situation. It’s not the lies or the betrayal. It’s my realization that this was a one-way relationship. I loved her far more than she did me. If she did at all. That’s what stings.

Still, I refuse to let myself cry. I let tears fall, but I won’t let the well of sadness overtake me. She’s not worth the hurt I feel. That’s evidently clear. If she’s made nothing else obvious in the last several days, she has that.

I pick up my phone and leave my desk, dropping onto my bed as I dial my father. “Hey, sweetheart,” he answers in his big, gruff voice.

There’s no one else who can make me smile as much as Princess Daddy V. He’s big like a Viking, covered in hair with this deep voice. But everything about him is gentle and soft, including his body covered in pastel tattoos and decked out in soft, pretty pink, sparkles, and lace.

“Hi, Daddy,” I say, and for just a second, I’m a six-year-old looking up at Princess Daddy V like he’s the god who hung the heavens.

“What’s wrong, Nolan?” he asks.

How can he tell from two damn words?! “I’m…” I take a breath and wonder if I can get the words out.

“Not all people are going to treat you the way you should be treated,” Princess Daddy V says. I wince.

“Which twin called?”

He laughs. “Neither. At least, not to my knowledge.”

“Then who told you?”

“You just did. I took a guess.”

“But…” I shake my head. “How did you… know?”

“Two reasons,” he says, and I hear a door shut.

“I spent a very long time being disappointed in people and the way they treated me because of how I dress. I’m not a very bitter man, but I admit to losing a lot of faith in kindness.

I’ve learned to expect the worst in people and wait to be surprised when I find goodness instead. ”

I shake my head. There is simply no better man than my dad. All my dads are great, but when we’re talking about a truly good person, Princess Daddy V is the definition.

“And two… well, sweetheart, I think we could all read the kind of person Kelsey is. You just didn’t want to see it, and we weren’t going to push you away by trying to tell you.”

I scowl. “I hate how I’m the only one who couldn’t see she was a piece of shit,” I mutter.

“Nolan,” he chastises. “You don’t call people?—”

“She cheated on me, Daddy,” I whisper. My voice shakes. I squeeze my eyes shut as tears begin to overflow. The flood of emotion I’ve tried to lock inside fights to get out, and right now, it’s winning. “With eight guys,” I hiccup. “At once.”

Princess Daddy V is silent. Seconds pass as I try to push it all back down. “You’re right,” he says, his voice taking on a tone that I’ve never heard before. “She’s a piece of trash. The worst kind of person.”

Hearing my father agree somehow shatters the dam, and I roll onto my side and curl up, letting my tears fall as I press my face into the bed.

“I loved her,” I whisper. “How could I have been so stupid?”

If Princess Daddy V answers, I don’t hear it as I finally let it out. Just this once. Only right now. Then she doesn’t get another tear from me. But right now, I couldn’t stop them if I tried.