Keeping Casey (Keeping Him #1) - Amy Aislin Page 0,5
from the juniors—because Ethan was here. It was Casey’s damn good luck that it was one of only a few colleges in the country offering an archeology major.
Getting a notebook and a pen out of his bag as the chair of the anthropology department set up her PowerPoint at the podium, Casey stuck a hand out to the student to his left. “Hey. I’m Casey.”
The brunette barely glanced up from her phone to give him a limp handshake and a wan smile. “Jessica.” She immediately went back to her phone.
Okay then. Message received.
Turning to the student on his right brought him nose-to-ponytail with the back of their head as the student chatted with the person on their right. Glancing around, he found people on their phones, small groups in conversations, others reading through club flyers.
As a tall guy wearing headphones sat in the chair in front of Casey with a nod in his direction, he couldn’t help but wonder why he felt so removed from it all.
Why was it so hard to make friends with his fellow freshmen? He suspected the reason was two-fold.
First, he’d gone through a trauma many people his age hadn’t experienced yet.
Second, he’d been adulting since high school graduation. He had a sense for what real life was like, and it was hard to relate to other students who were here to party, smoke pot, and experiment with their sexuality. He never would’ve expected the maturity difference between eighteen years old and twenty to be so large.
The one person Casey had befriended was his roommate—and that was out of necessity more than anything. Who wanted to be at odds with the person they’d be rooming with for nine months?
As the chair of the anthropology department started her presentation, Casey consoled himself with the fact that he’d always have Ethan.
Chapter Two
Ethan could’ve used another swim after practice—to help him relax and to soothe sore muscles, but mostly because swimming was good for his rheumatoid arthritis. He’d never been a big swimmer outside of occasionally hitting the beach in the summers back home. Since his diagnosis a year ago, however, it’d become part of his exercise regime and he applied everything his physiotherapist in the juniors had taught him.
Stepping into jeans and a T-shirt after his shower, he soaked in the vibe of the locker room. Anticipation of their looming first game danced thick in the air, trash talk echoed off the walls, rock music pumped from the speakers, and laughter was thick with an undercurrent of friendship.
His locker was sandwiched between Theo Castellanos’—his roommate—on one side and Brant Harkrader’s on the other. Together, the three of them made up the Mountaineers’ freshmen contingent this year, all three of them recruited from the juniors. Perhaps it was why the coaches had grouped their lockers together.
Theo was cool. Quiet, soft-spoken, generally pretty affable. And the man could cook. Liked to as well, meaning the Mountaineers at the House were always well-fed, and the seniors who roomed together in a townhouse nearby often stopped by to partake.
Harkrader, on the other hand, wasn’t just quiet—he was broody, a constant sneer on his lips, a chip on his shoulder the size of this athletic facility. Ethan tended to avoid him for the most part, but living in the same house sometimes made that difficult.
Shoving his wet towel into his gear bag, he tugged his backpack out of his locker so he didn’t forget to take it home later. Only two weeks into the school year and he already felt like he was drowning in course readings and assignments. To the point where he’d spent the time before practice sitting in front of his locker and reading through his next chemistry lab assignment when he should’ve been getting into the right mental space.
He wasn’t sure what he’d do with a biochemistry degree when he graduated. He was good at math and science, though, so it had seemed like the right choice.
“Hey, guys.” A hand landed on his shoulder from behind, making him jump. “Awesome practice today,” added the team captain, Cole Britton, giving them each a fist bump. Ever-annoyed Harkrader could barely muster the enthusiasm to respond.
Britton was part of the reason Ethan was at GH—he’d personally given Ethan a tour of the college and talked up the Mountaineers when Ethan had come by for a visit after being recruited. Plus, his other teammates spoke highly of him, and a month into his stay at the House, Ethan could see why. The man