Page 31

31

Caleb

B reakfast is… something. Mom goes all out, even if I asked her not to. She must have gone out while we were all asleep, because suddenly, we’ve got bowls of fruits, pancakes, and juice. Penny’s enthusiastic even if she doesn’t have an appetite, though when her gaze flickers to Nick, she scowls.

“Be nice,” I tell her. I’m not sure why she’s pretending to not like Nick—I know that she does, because she wouldn’t have sent me home on New Year’s otherwise. Also, when she found out that Nick’s the reason she has a new nurse, Penny had hugged me and told me to thank him for her.

And now she’s pretending that never happened.

I grin at Penny. “You wanted to thank Nick, right?”

Penny flushes. “No! I mean… uh.” Her lower lip wobbling, she faces Nick and swallows. “Thank you. For the nurse. And for making my dumb brother happy, because I know he didn’t want to miss his games.”

“Hey!”

Nick, clearly not knowing how to respond, shoves a spoonful of fruit in his mouth.

Right after the feast Mom prepared, Nick and I head back to campus. I never thought I’d be thrilled to be back, even if it’s only been a few days since I left. It’s grown on me, I guess. That the team has a fighting chance to go all the way to this year’s conference championships has a lot to do with it.

The entire drive, Nick’s antsy in my passenger seat. He keeps tugging at his shirt and running a hand through his hair, and after the third time of catching him staring at my mouth, I figure he’s still worked up from my teasing last night.

I can’t blame him. I’m worked up too, and the moment we get to our room, I’m tasting every inch of him.

***

As soon as we step into our room, we drop our bags to the floor and I’m on him even before the door’s closed. I clutch his hair and kiss him open-mouthed, and he groans against me. Nick steps us both back to push the door closed, but not before someone calls out to him from outside.

“Hey! Nick!” A hand slams against the door and we both peel ourselves off each other. I scowl and adjust my pants, hiding my erection, and Nick blushes and does the same. Rhys lets himself in, and it takes all my willpower not to pick a fight with him.

Rhys looks between us with an arched eyebrow.

“What’s going on? You both look guilty. You two fighting?” he asks. “Thought you won’t be around for a while, Jennings?”

“Get lost,” I snap.

“Charming.”

I really, really wish Rhys gets lost, but I don’t think he’s going to budge. He sits on Nick’s desk chair, talking to Nick about something I don’t care about, and I drown out their conversation.

Plopping down on my bed, I take my phone out. I have a message from Maddox asking me where I am, and I tell him I’m back on campus all thanks to Nick. And him. Because I know he’s the one who gave Nick my address and Penny’s details.

After a few more minutes of Rhys not getting the hell out, I peer over at Nick, who meets my eyes with a sheepish smile. He scratches the back of his head and shrugs.

Maybe I should take matters into my own hands and tell him point-blank to go because I want to be fucked by my boyfriend? Nick might bust a vein, though. I finally listen in to their conversation and apparently, Rhys is inviting Nick to go bowling with Schultz and him.

Dork.

Rhys gets up and gestures for Nick to do the same. “Come on, Schultz needs cheering up.”

Nick turns to me. “Want to join?”

“I’d rather stab myself in the eye.”

“Caleb,” Nick says with a laugh.

“I have plans with Maddox,” I lie, and I know Nick can see right through me because the plans I actually had were to get Nick in me.

“So invite him along,” Rhys interjects.

“Ah? You want to spend time with me, Captain?”

He shrugs and I don’t miss the way he glances at Nick. “Sure. Might as well attempt to get along, right?”

Well, fuck. If Rhys is going to be the bigger person and attempt to play nice with me, then I probably should do the same—after all, I told Nick that I’m going to be the best boyfriend ever. I think attempting to be cool with his best friend is one requirement.

“Fine, I’ll tell Maddox we’re picking him up on the way.” Maddox has no choice now. He has to come along if I’m going to survive this.

We meet Schultz downstairs. He’s not his usual energetic and obnoxious self—he’s got a baseball cap drawn low over his eyes and his shoulders are slumped. According to Rhys, he’s having trouble with one of his classes and his scholarship’s on the line.

Rhys leads the way to his car and Schultz gets in the passenger seat beside him, and Nick and I get in the backseat.

“Have you found a tutor?” Nick asks Schultz. “I can help you out.”

Schultz shakes his head. “Nah, Nick, your grades are amazing, but you’re a terrible tutor. We tried that last year, remember? Nothing stuck— hey! ”

“My bad,” I say, pretending I kicked the back of his seat by accident.

The car turns the corner towards the street where Maddox’s dorm is.

Schultz peers out the window. “This isn’t the way to the bowling alley.”

“Quick detour.” There’s humor in Rhys’s voice. “Maddox is coming.”

That immediately perks Schultz up. “Seriously?”

Wait. Fuck. Being cock-blocked annoyed me so much I completely forgot my mission to never introduce Schultz to Maddox.

My mood takes a dive. Listen, I like Schultz, I really do… but the reason I refuse to indulge his crush on Maddox is because, as evidence shows, he’s a playboy who has a string of casual relationships.

Which, good for him.

Normally I wouldn’t give a fuck, and I know I shouldn’t interfere, but this is Maddox. I’ve never been reasonable when it came to him.

Though, don’t get me wrong. I’m not a total ass. I did actually ask Maddox the other day, very hypothetically, if he’d want to know if one of my teammates were into him. I’m not sure if he was so deep into the paper he was working on that the question didn’t register, but he shook his head absently, and that was that.

Schultz says, “He’s the teaching assistant in my statistics class this semester. You think he’ll recognize me from class, or from when I run into you two?”

“No. Don’t hit on him, Schultz. I don’t think he’ll be into it.”

“We’ll see about that.”

I make a move to flick him, but Nick immediately pulls me back before I can.

Maddox is waiting outside his dorm, and I open the door and wave him over. He gets in beside me, sandwiching me between him and Nick.

I wave around the car. “You already know Nick, and this is Morgan… and. Ugh. This is Schultz.”

“Those are your actual names, or your jock names?” Maddox asks, and I wheeze.

Schultz turns in his seat. “You can call him Rhys, and I’m Ki—”

“Great, thank you.” I cut him off and push his shoulder to get him to look forward again. Schultz glowers at me through the rearview mirror at the same time that Maddox lifts his eyebrows at me.

***

Nick spreads his fingers against the small of my back. “Stop glaring. You like Schultz, right?”

If anything, I glare even harder. “I don’t like him right now.”

“Because he’s flirting with Maddox? What’s wrong with that?”

“He’s no good for him.”

“He’s flirting with him, Caleb, not proposing. He’s a good guy.”

“Not good enough for Madd, though.”

I continue to glare at Schultz, who hasn’t left Maddox alone since we got out of the car. They’re at the counter booking games for us, and we’re seated by an empty lane. Chatter and the sound of rolling balls surround us, and someone a few lanes down cheers as he gets a strike.

Schultz’s mood ricocheted from gloomy to… whatever this is as soon as my best friend appeared, and it’s grating on my nerves. I know Maddox can hold his own, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be intensely protective.

It’s kind of like how Rhys is with Nick.

“Let’s play two versus two,” Schultz says when Nick and I approach the group. “Me and Maddox versus Rhys and Nick.”

I scowl. He’s definitely messing with me now. “What am I, a centerpiece?” I look at Nick for backup, but he only suppresses a smile.

We end up taking two lanes to play, and my teammates seem surprised about how good Maddox is at bowling. It’s not a shock to me, though. My best friend’s spurned by competitiveness. It’s one reason we get along so well.

Nick keeps trying to distract me from giving Schultz hard stares, and Rhys only seems amused by the entire thing.

Maddox seems completely oblivious to Schultz’s flirting. That, or he couldn’t care less. Knowing him, it could be either of the two.

“You’re like an attack dog,” Rhys tells me when we’re in-between games and Maddox totally killed it. His score dwarfed all of ours, and Rhys and I are waiting by the seats as the other guys grab drinks.

I frown at Rhys. “As if you’re any better.”

He raises his hands. “Hey, I’ve backed off a lot. I permanently switched our names on the room assignments on away games, didn’t I?”

“Wow, thanks.”

“I kept the guys from going into the showers too, that one time you two were fooling around.”

This revelation would embarrass any other person—but I’m me, and I only give him a wicked grin. “I knew you were smarter than you let on, Captain. How long have you known we’ve been fucking around?”

“Weeks? Neither of you is exactly subtle about it.”

I lift my chin. “Does Nick talk about me?”

“When he’s not sulking about you, he does.”

“What does he say?”

“That you’re a pain in the ass.”

“Try again. He’d never say that.” Smirking, I add, “Besides, he’s the pain in my ass. Literally.”

He stares at me for a moment, then realization dawns on him and his confusion turns to horror. “Goddamn it, Jennings. I don’t need to know that.”

“Know what?” Nick sidles up next to us with a tray of sodas.

“That you top him,” Rhys says, and Nick jolts and almost drops the tray.

My boyfriend looks like he’s contemplating getting the hell out of here or wrapping his fingers around my throat. I hope it’s the latter.

“Anyway,” I point out. “That means you need to quit showing up in our room with no warning. You were almost about to walk into a porno earlier, you know?”

“Caleb!” Nick hisses.

Rhys shudders. “God. Fine. Never again.”

“Why are you like this?” Nick levels a stare at me.

I shrug. “Nicky, please. Did you think I’d change just because we’re boyfriends now?”

He huffs a laugh and shakes his head, and I can see the fondness behind it. “No.”

“Wait up.” Eyes wide, Rhys points between us. “I thought you were only fucking around. You’re actually boyfriends?”

“Yes,” we say in unison. Surprised at how sync we are, I turn to Nick and beam. We’re perfect.

My good mood is, unfortunately, short-lived because as soon as Maddox and Schultz make their way over, I overhear Schultz challenging Maddox to a bet.

Goddamn it. He’s figured out the secret to getting Maddox to agree to do anything—my weirdly competitive best friend never turns down a challenge.

“Come on,” Schultz says. “What? Scared?”

Maddox frowns. “I just beat all of you.”

“So you’ve got nothing to lose. If I win the next round, you tutor me. And if you win… what do you want?”

“Nothing. I don’t care about this bet.”

“Because you know you’d lose, baby.”

That makes me scowl. I hate it when he calls Nick that, and apparently, I hate it just as much when he calls my best friend that. Annoyed, I’m about to get up and interfere when Maddox lets out a loud scoff.

And just like that, I know Schultz is going to get what he wants.

“Fine,” Maddox says. “If you win, I’ll tutor you once. If I win, you stop staring at me all the time.”

“You actually recognize me?”

“Clearly. Your staring’s distracting, and I’d like you to stop.”

“He recognizes me!” Schultz turns to us, his face all lit up.

“You… you heard everything else he said, right?” Rhys asks with disbelief, and Schultz ignores him and pumps a fist in the air.