On the Sideline (BSU Football #3) - J.B. Salsbury Page 0,6
Lunchable and look down at my soft belly. I take two bites but it tastes like cardboard. Maybe I need to try one of those new diets all the girls are on. Keto or primal or whatever low carb fad is trending.
If I looked more like everyone else I could narrow my lack of romantic partner to my personality rather than my appearance.
Funny…that doesn’t make me feel any better.
Chapter Three
Loren
“Hey, is Riley here?” I ask the pretty, black-haired sorority girl who answers the door. “I’m Loren, she’s expecting me.”
“I know who you are.” She smiles in a way that says she’d be open to getting to know me in a much more intimate setting. “Hold on.” She turns around and I take a brief moment to check her out. She can’t be more than five-foot-three, her tiny shorts showing off a pair of yoga-toned legs and her cropped top showing a healthy sliver of abs and a belly button ring. What is it about sorority girls? They’re all gorgeous. Back at the farm we’d call that exceptional breeding. Who says money and beauty don’t go hand in hand? Even a layman could tell the difference between a prize-winning Arabian and a wild mustang.
I pull my eyes away just in time to see Riley skip to the door, a smile on her face, which is precisely where I keep my eyes in order to avoid staring at her tits. Although, even from my peripheral, I’d say the point of her skimpy top is that I do just that—stare at her boobs.
She throws her arms around my neck and the extra firm padding of her bra stabs my chest. That would explain their perkiness. “Come in.” She slips her hand in mine and pulls me inside, up the stairs, and toward her room.
The other girls eye me as I pass by, and I wonder if they’re all still whispering about the morning I left running out of Riley’s cousin’s room.
My feet hesitate at the top of the stairs and I count the doors down the hallway realizing my mistake. Third door on the left. Yesterday morning, I stumbled out of a door on the right. I eye that door knowing full well what kind of horror lies behind it.
“Want something to drink?” She flips on the lights.
“Whatever you have is fine.”
How did I not know I’d stumbled into the wrong room? Riley’s room looks ripped from the pages of Pottery Barn for girls. White furniture with all the overstuffed opulence that money can buy in every shade of pink. Hanging on the wall behind her bed, in big block letters, is her name. RILEY.
She hands me a pink LaCroix can and I wonder if she buys this particular flavor because it matches her room.
“In case you forget?” I say, pointing to her name on the wall.
Her eyebrows pinch together. “No, actually. It’s for guys who stumble into the wrong room.” She smiles sarcastically.
Ouch. I frown, and nod. “I deserved that.” I poke at a white chair covered in fur to make sure it’s not alive before I sit on it. Huh, it’s like sitting on a sheep dog.
She pulls out her white leather desk chair and sits across from me. “Don’t worry. I told my sisters what happened, that it was a mistake and you didn’t hook up with Bex.”
“Good, thank you.” I feared my night of bad judgment would taint my reputation enough that it would ruin my chances with Riley. We’ve been hanging out off and on, and although we’ve never been on an official date, now that football season is over, I’d like to try and see where things go. “I hope they believe you.”
She laughs. “It didn’t take much convincing. Bex is guy repellant, you’d have to be deaf, blind, and ugly to want to hook up with her.”
“Um, isn’t she your cousin?” Listen, I’m not saying Riley’s wrong. Bex is…a little scary. But where I come from you don’t shit talk your own family, no matter how fucked up they are. My cousin Ronnie got his front teeth knocked out by a mule and drinks his own urine for “health benefits”, but I’d never talk shit about him to an outsider because he’s blood. Family first.
She groans. “Yes.” She attempts to pop the top of her LaCroix but her long fingernails can’t seem to get the job done. “But she’s such a freak. The whole family thinks so.” She hands me the can.
Without her asking, I open