JAX (The Beckett Boys #2) - Olivia Chase Page 0,133
sex in some dead guy’s house.”
Jenna shrugged. “Probably not. You’re totally right. But Harton also isn’t going to let the football team continue to use Football House if there’s a risk of athletes getting themselves in trouble. So, do you want to tell everyone that you and Adams ruined everyone’s fun? Or should I? I mean, I feel like people will want to know that you’re the one who got the whole place shut down. They’ll probably turn it into a cocktail hall for alumni before or after games. You know, for fundraising stuff.”
Kiersten gasped and gave Piper a horrified look. Piper’s face contorted into something twisted and angry and, frankly, terrifying. Jenna smiled sweetly at her, then looked at me. “Ready to go?”
“More than ready,” I said, and followed Jenna toward the door.
“Oh!” Jenna said, glancing back. “By the way, Piper— I slept with Adams too, and eleven inches isn’t all that great when he clearly has no idea how to use it.”
***
Jacob’s injury was, to my relief, not as serious as it could have been. The Clemson game had definitely stressed it, but a couple of weeks later he was back in action and better than ever.
Jacob the conquering hero had finally returned.
The fact that he’d bounced back so resoundingly from his injury actually seemed to work in his favor, even, and rumors of him being a top draft pick filtered across the internet, the newspapers, the school. It made me smile each time I saw a new report, even though my heart continued to ache for Jacob.
A few times I caught myself thinking I might be starting to pull myself out of the hopeless pain I was feeling at being apart from him, only to be tossed back into sorrow when I saw someone that looked rather like him downtown, or even when I simply passed the alumni resort, or ate feta fries.
“Just text him. Don’t even call. Text. Send an emoji, for gods-sake,” Jenna groaned as she and I walked toward the sciences building one day. I’d continued to stay with her the past couple of weeks and it was a relief not to have to deal with my suitemates.
I shook my head. “No, no— I care about him, but it’s pretty obvious we aren’t going to work out.”
“Why do you think that?” Jenna asked, looking astounded.
I shrugged. “He knows where to find me. He could have tried to talk to me if he wanted to.”
“Did you consider the fact that maybe he was trying to respect your break up?” Jenna asked. “You’re the one who dumped him.”
I shrugged. “It wasn’t really that simple. I just wanted him to fight for me, but he wouldn’t even stand up to his parents on my behalf. Now that he’s playing again, now that he’s off the injured list, now that Adams isn’t breathing down his neck…if he wanted to try to prove to me that he still wants to be together, he’d find me. But he hasn’t. So it must not be that important to him.”
Jenna scowled. “Worst. You are the worst. Call him. Tell him that.”
I swallowed and admitted the truth. “If I call him, there’s a pretty big risk he’ll say no. That he’s over it. So…I’ll guard my heart, thanks. It hurt too much the first time, leaving him.”
Jenna nodded and sighed. “Alright. See you tonight for dinner?”
“Yep, see you there,” I said, and made my way into my anthropology class. I took my usual seat, by the front. I loved it, and sorely wished I could double major in the subject. But…that wouldn’t get me out of college in three years, and I had my long term plans to consider.
Plans that, without Jacob in them, seemed a little duller than they once had.
Class began, and I pored myself into the material, listening raptly and taking notes as quickly as possible on my laptop (no way could I manage to follow along writing longhand). The period was nearly over when the door in the back of the class opened. I didn’t pay it any attention, and continued to type until the professor stopped speaking.
“Can we help you, Mr. Everett?” he called out.
I froze, my fingers above the keys, my heart thumping. I turned my head slightly, just enough to look toward the door with my peripheral vision. It was Jacob— of course it was Jacob— standing on the steps, gray t-shirt, basketball shorts, tall and broad and every bit as gorgeous as I remembered him.