I avoided my room like it was the plague, and people were starting to notice. Believe it or not, I didn’t like to be the bearer of bad news, and I felt like a fucking dick after last Friday.
“I would rather not go back to my room tonight.” My face depicted exactly how uncomfortable I was feeling. “She drives me crazy.”
The nights were getting colder, and a cloud of air flew from my mouth as I referred to Claire. The team and I hustled to the locker room after leaving the bus, and most were heading to bed and talking about the parties they were going to head to tomorrow evening. The celebration parties for away games were held on the day after, and thankfully, we’d won. It was a disadvantage to play at another school’s rink, but as always, my worries left the moment the stick was in my hand and the ice was beneath my skates. NHL scouts were rumored to be at Heston U for tonight’s game, and if they were, they’d be impressed because I played a damn good game, putting up five points for my team. I could only hope it got word back to Tom Gardini, the man who owned the Blues and the only other man, besides my father, that I strived to impress.
“She’d drive me crazy too.” Dax bumped his shoulder into me and wiggled his eyebrows. “It would be hard not to crawl over to her bed in the middle of the night.”
I groaned as he snickered and walked off to his locker to put his gear away. The team incessantly teased me about rooming with Claire, and Coach consistently asked if she was becoming a distraction—which she wasn’t. Truth be told, it was frustrating that I was even allowing her to make me feel uncomfortable in my own room. She hadn’t even made eye contact with me since I told her I thought her boyfriend was cheating on her.
In fact, I was pretty sure she gave our table away at The Bex yesterday because she didn’t want to wait on me. Didn’t hurt my feelings, but it sure did hurt my teammates’ feelings because we had a male waiter instead.
“What exactly is she doing that’s driving you crazy? What happened to your rules?” Aasher asked.
I pulled my hoodie over my head and grabbed my bag before heading out to my car. It was late. The Bex was closing soon, so everyone was heading to their beds or trying to catch a puck bunny before crashing. I didn’t want to do anything but decompress after the game, but if Claire was in our room, I’d have to figure out a way to block her out.
“Yeah, we did,” I said. “But things between my little roomie and I are a little rocky at the moment. I told her I thought her boyfriend was cheating on her.”
Aasher paused mid-step. “Bro, what? Why would you tell her that?”
I shrugged. “Because I’m pretty sure he is.” I looked over to gauge his reaction. “Remember that guy that I said looked familiar at the party last Friday?”
The crease between his eyes smoothed out before he shook his head. “Nope.” That’s right, you wouldn’t remember because you were staring at Coach’s daughter all night.
“Well, I think it was Claire’s boyfriend, and she got all weird when I asked about him.” I started to climb in my car. “I saw him going up the stairs with some other chick before I left.”
Aasher shook his head as he began walking away. “I would stay out of it, dude. It’s not like you have a responsibility to her just because she’s your roommate. I mean, I live with Efrain, and I haven’t told his girlfriend that he beats off to anime porn every chance he gets. Not my business.”
An uncomfortable visual came to mind, and Aasher laughed loudly. “Now you get to know that information too. You’ll never look at him the same.”
I slammed the door and cursed Aasher the entire time I drove to the dorms. The visual of Efrain and his hand around his dick was stuck in my head, even as I rounded the hallway and laid eyes on my door.
I stopped in my tracks as the quietness of the hallway disappeared and then made my way to a giant red flag waiting outside my door. Fucking shit.
“No,” I snapped, making my way toward my room. Same shit, different year. It was only game two of the season, and the puck bunnies were already starting up? Last year, this occurred later in the season, but color me fucking surprised that they were starting up earlier.
The girl quickly popped to her feet and ran her hands down her tight jeans and crop top that showed off her flat belly. “I didn’t ask you anything.”
I chuckled, walking slower than normal. “Yeah. You did.” I brushed past her and put my key in the door. I peered down at her puppy-dog eyes that were a little glazed. Liquid courage? “How did you find out my room number?”
She laughed shyly. “It’s not that hard to find out.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Who told you?”
“It’s all over campus, Wolf. It’s not like you have security guards outside Dorothy Hall. You just wait for someone to walk in and then slip in behind them. There are only three athletic dorms on campus. Third one’s a charm.” The way her eyes twinkled after she explained herself made me think that she thought she was charming, but she wasn’t. She was desperate and sloppy, and that was only hot when I was too intoxicated to notice.
“Come on.” She slowly ran her finger down my arm, and my muscles twitched with annoyance. “I heard you haven’t experienced college until you’ve had a wolf in bed.”
“Sorry,” I said, wanting her to back up so I could get in my room without her trying to slip in. She seemed like she’d be one to try it. “Not tonight. You’re cute and all”—cue me trying to let her down easy—“but showing up to my room after I just played a game isn’t the way to my bed, babe.”
“But—” Her bottom lip jutted out, and I gritted my teeth, knowing this was going to be impossible to get out of, and the number of times I had to call security last year to remove my posse of…fans…from waiting outside my door was unjust. Look, jocks have feelings too, and we like our privacy, okay?
I turned toward her. “Will you please just leave? This is my senior year, and the last thing I need is a bunch of puck bunnies trying to weave themselves into my life through a quick fuck. Because no matter how many times you girls say it, none of you are just trying to fuck. You all get attached, and I don’t need that drama, alright? Especially not this year.” My unneeded explanation began to spike my blood pressure. “Pass it along to everyone else. I’m not getting mixed up with puck bunnies this year, got it?” I hadn’t totally made that decision until this moment, but fuck it.
“But—”
“No,” I snapped. Fuck. I pulled out my phone, really not wanting to call campus security on this girl, but then the door opened, and Claire’s face came in between us. An idea popped in my head, and before I could stop myself, my phone slipped back into my pocket, and a grin spread across my face.
“What is goi—”
“Hey, babe.” My sly greeting made Claire pull back in confusion and maybe a little disgust. My arm went around her waist, and I tugged her in close. A swallow got lodged in my throat when I felt her bare skin against my hand, knowing I had accidentally slipped my grip underneath her shirt. She had on a pair of black-rimmed glasses perched on the end of her nose, and a blush spread across her face as quickly as I regained my composure. “Thanks for waiting up for me.”
“Wait, isn’t she your roommate?” The puck bunny slowly began to back away as defeat crossed her features.
“Yeah.” I stepped even closer to my roommate, who no doubt hated me at that moment. Claire began to move away from me the closer I got to her, but I dug my fingers into her side and breathed down into her space. “She’s my roommate…and other things.” Come on, Claire. Play along.
I stayed turned toward Claire but peeked out of the corner of my eye at the puck bunny. Embarrassment rushed to her face, but it seemed to sober her up. “Oh, I…I didn’t know.”
“No, that’s—” Claire’s panicked rebuttal needed to wait at least another five seconds until this girl ran off. I cut off her words by peering down and piercing her with a stare. My arm was a steel brace against her back, and my fingers spread out against her skin. Her lips snapped shut as she glanced up at me with surprise, and the goosebumps that rushed to her skin beneath mine made me pause for a second before I realized we were suddenly alone in the hall and the puck bunny had disappeared. I pushed Claire inside our room, and the second the door was closed, she flew from my grasp in a wrath of anger.
“What the hell, Theo!” Her hands went to her hips, and the blush on her cheeks grew redder with what I had assumed was anger. “Why did you do that? If that gets around campus, everyone is going to think we’re a thing!”
I threw my hands up. Shit, that’s brilliant. “Yes! That’s perfect. Maybe they’ll stop showing up here unannounced.”
“I have a boyfriend!” Claire’s tiny foot stomped against the floor, and that was when I ran my gaze down her body. How does she look so cute when she looks like a mess? Her brown hair was in a wild bun on the top of her head with a bunch of loose strands framing her face. She had on glasses that made her look a little nerdy, and she wore baggy, light-pink sweats with a BU Dance logo on the upper thigh and a loose shirt that was sporting her braless chest. “Stop looking at me like that.”
I snapped back to reality and met her eye. “Like what?” Surely she had no idea what I was just thinking, because I couldn’t even believe what I was thinking.
“Like you can’t believe that someone like me has a boyfriend.” I caught a few words that she mumbled after her utterance, and they closely resembled what I’d told her last Friday about her boyfriend.
I shook my head and walked farther into the room, trying to put some space between us. My head was swimming, and her response irritated me. “That wasn’t what I was thinking, Bryant.”
“Yeah, okay,” she scoffed. “Don’t do that again.”
“Don’t do what? Look at you?” I asked innocently, trying to ease up the tension that was currently collecting on my shoulders.
“Touch me and act like I’m your girlfriend or fuck buddy in front of these girls.”
I couldn’t help but smile. She was so riled up even her chest was rising, and it was confirmed—she did not have a bra on. “Okay. I won’t do it in front of those girls. But does that mean I can do it behind closed doors?”
Her nose scrunched up before she grabbed one of her millions of scrunchies from atop her desk and threw it at me. It hit me right over my heart, and I stared down at the purple hair tie before clutching my chest. “Ow.” I suppressed a laugh as her mouth twitched. She spun around, putting her back to me, and I bent down and put the purple scrunchie on my wrist just to irritate her even more.
Claire left a moment later with her shower stuff, and I smiled to myself as the door slammed behind her. There was something about irritating her that entertained me. It was invigorating, and I couldn’t help but laugh to myself as I lay in bed, waiting for her to come back to the room. Sure, there was still an air of friction between us, but it was innocently placed and a little bit comical.
At least now she was angry because I had used her to make a puck bunny go away and not angry because I pointed out the obvious with her loser boyfriend who left her alone on yet another Friday night. He couldn’t make it any clearer than that, right?
When Claire came back into the room with her damp hair and body wash that made my blood warm, I forced myself not to smile at her, even though the mischievous boy that still lived inside of me was clawing to come back out to play with her. What am I, twelve?
The lights were out a moment later, and we both lay in silence, and for the first time after a game, I actually felt tired. My breathing was beginning to slow, and my muscles were exhausted. The sound of her smooth breathing was kind of…comforting? Before I fully fell asleep, I turned toward her and tried to make amends.
“Hey, Bryant?”
Her voice was raspy, but I still heard an edge to it as she snapped out, “What?”
“Thanks.”
A breathy sigh was all I got, but for some reason, the next morning, when I woke up to run and caught a glimpse of her relaxed face and closed eyes, I turned off my alarm before it could go off, and I went back to sleep, not wanting to wake her up.
