Chapter 2

Alex POV

"Does Miss Alex have a new crush, hmm?" Adam teased me as I walked back into the dojo for club.

I scoffed at him. "On who?" I asked.

"That really big guy you were just eye-fucking out there in the hall…" he smirked.

"You're ridiculous," I sighed and took a spot on the floor to stretch. Although, the more I thought about it, those guys were extremely attractive. Especially Jake. Tall, great body, deep husky voice…. Yeah, I was amazed that I was able to keep myself from shaking or getting all flustered around him.

Adam sat down across from me and, smirk still present, leaned in toward my face so he was able to whisper, "What would Heath think?"

I rolled my eyes. "Heath no longer has a say in my personal life."

"Mhm. And why's that?" he asked.

"Adam. He moved to freakin' London for med school! We both agreed to break it off and see other people," I informed him. Heath was great. And yes, I would always love him, but he was moving on with his life. I needed to do that, too. It helped, though, that we were able to stay best friends through the split.

Adam shook his head and sighed. "It's so weird, though. We all thought you two would be together forever and that you'd be married and popping out kids as soon as he graduated from Cambridge."

The floor suddenly became very interesting. "Yeah. I thought so, too. But London is far away. And med school is stressful. There's no way we would have been able to make it through the stresses of his becoming a doctor plus the added stress of never seeing each other. And all this coming from me. You know how much effort and faith I had in our relationship." I finally looked at him. "There's just too much against us right now."

"Maybe you guys will get back together in the future," he encouraged. "You know, after the whole med school thing and he moves back here."

I gave him a small smile. "Maybe. But what has you suddenly so interested in my relationship with Heath?"

He shrugged as we continued stretching. "I don't know. You two just always seemed so perfect together. And plus, he's one of my best friends. Because of him, I met you and you became one of my best friends. And Kayla loves you." I smiled full-out this time. Kayla was his girlfriend and she was an amazing person.

"What about Kayla?" the girl herself plopped down next to us to stretch for club.

"Oh, nothing, we're just talking about how much you love me," I grinned at her and she laughed. Kayla was a beautiful, bubbly blonde who was way too smart for her own good. And a fantastic martial artist, at that.

"Well, by all means, continue to talk about yourself when I just saw three gods walking out of this hallway," Kayla smirked at me. "Were they coming from here or were they coming from the wrestling room?"

I laughed at her. "They were from here."

"Well, damn, girl. I hope you're getting in on that. They are hot."

Adam scoffed and straightened up, looking at her. "Excuse me. Your loving and doting boyfriend—right here."

She smiled and kissed him. "I know, baby. And you have nothing to worry about. You're way hotter than them," she kissed him again, but winked at me while he wasn't looking and I held back a laugh.

"Okay, everybody line up," Mr. Chadwick instructed.


Jacob POV

I was working on my calculus homework when Embry walked into the room from his run. "Hey, man," he said as he pulled off his shirt and used it to wipe his forehead.

I didn't look up. I knew that I needed to keep up with the homework if I had any hope of passing the class. "Hey." These problems seemed like they shouldn't be that hard, but I was so confused. What the hell was a limit? And why did they sometimes not exist? I started digging through my notes to try and get some sort of grasp on it, but it didn't really seem to help. Meanwhile, Embry went down the hall to take a shower.

"The limit as x approaches infinity of the function x + 7 over 3x + 5 is… fucking hell," I muttered to myself.

As I was mentally flogging myself, Quil walked in. "Hey, man," he smiled.

"Hey," I grumbled. "Wait, where have you been?"

He kicked off his shoes and flopped onto his bed. "Trying to find my classes for tomorrow. It's weird not having the same classes every day. What have you been up to?"

"Turning my brain into mush. Seriously, who uses calculus?"

Quil sat up and looked at me. "Uh, well… you will with the degree you're going for…" he pointed out.

I scowled. "Fuck you."

He held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, you asked."

Just then Embry walked back into the room, rubbing his hair with his towel. "Hey. You guys want to go eat?"

He didn't need to ask us twice. Quil jumped off the bed and pulled his shoes back on while I dropped my pencil like it was on fire and stood up to pull on a pair of shoes. Fuck calculus.

"Do you guys want to try Holmes tonight? They've got a pasta bar and pizza and sandwiches for dinner," Quil asked.

"Sure, sounds good," Embry and I agreed and we quickly made our way from Hubbard over to the Holmes dining hall.

Walking in, we noticed that it was really crowded tonight. I guess the pasta bar was a crowd favorite. "We should probably try to find someplace to sit first, so we don't end up eating while standing," I suggested. Quil and Embry nodded their heads and started looking around. We were getting a lot of attention from the majority of the students in attendance. I guess three giant Native Americans were a bit odd to see there.

"Hey, Jake, isn't that Alex?" Embry nudged my arm and pointed over to one of the only tables that were not staring at us. Sure enough, that long brown hair and infectious smile was there. And it looked like she was there with her friends. "Think we could sit with them?" he asked.

"Only way to know is to ask," Quil said before he looked at me and laughed. "Em. Jake's fidgeting. He's nervous. He's actually nervous." Em looked over at me and joined in on the laughter before I scowled and punched them both in the shoulders. Hard.

"Let's go," I grumbled and they followed as we walked over to the table. Once we got there, I noticed her friends staring at us. I tried to say something, but the words got caught in my throat.

"Alex?" Embry asked. She looked over and smiled as soon as she saw us, her eyes lingering on me for just a second longer than they had on Embry or Quil.

"Hey, guys! What's up?" Her smile was so beautiful. It instantly soothed me and all my nerves just disappeared and I was able to speak again.

"We were just wondering if we could sit with you guys. It's pretty crowded in here," I gestured to the rest of the dining hall and she looked around.

"Yeah, it is. Of course you can sit here," she said and I easily returned her smile. I didn't know what Quil and Embry were doing. They were in the back of my mind at the moment.

"Awesome."

"Oh, um. Guys, these are my friends," she smiled and started pointing everyone out. The girl with shoulder-length dirty-blonde hair with bangs and blue eyes was Taryn, the girl with shoulder-length dark brown hair and hazel eyes was Shae, the tiny girl (even tinier than Alex) with long light brown hair and holding a guy's hand was Lexi, the guy whose hand she was holding with short dark hair and glasses was Steve and the guy with short light brown hair and green eyes was Peter. As they were being introduced, they smiled and waved in turn. "And guys," she turned to her friends, "this is Jake, Embry, and Quil," she smiled.

"Hi," we smiled and waved back.

"We should leave our stuff here, then, and go get our food," Quil said, suddenly returning from the void as he set his stuff down one seat away from Alex, obviously leaving that seat for me. I didn't need to be told twice. I set my keychain with my room key and ID down on the table next to her and she smiled at me before turning back to her friends as we walked over to the line for the food.


Alex POV

I watched as the boys walked away. Well, I watched as Jake walked away. And apparently, he had held my attention far too long for my friends' liking. Taryn and Shae looked at me with wide eyes and ambushed me with the questions, while Lexi, her boyfriend Steve, and one of our best friends, Peter, just watched the exchange happen.

"Who are they? How do you know them? How old are they? Do they take steroids? What do they do for workouts? Damn! What pantheon are they from?" their questions all kind of blurred together as one fast, mushed up cacophony of words. I had to sit there for a moment, staring at them, to try and figure out what they had said.

"What."

It didn't work.

They were about to start again, but I held up a hand and they stopped. "One at a time, please. I already have a headache."

Taryn went first. "Who are they?"

I shrugged. "They're just some guys in the taekwondo class that I help to teach.

"How old are they?" Shae asked.

"I don't know. I only met them today. We haven't really had much chance to converse."

"Are they gods?" Taryn asked completely stone-faced. She was serious.

"What, like Thor? …They could be. They're certainly built like Norse gods," I said and they seemed to agree with me wholeheartedly.

"Not all Norse gods are built like that. Loki's not," Shae pointed out.

"Shae, Loki isn't a Norse god. He's a frost giant," I reminded her.

"Oh yeah, that's right," she mumbled.

"What's taking them so long?" Taryn asked.

I looked around the dining hall and didn't see them anywhere. "Huh. I don't know," I shrugged.

"Well, I want the tall one," Taryn stated.

We all laughed at her. "Tar, they're all tall," Lexi pointed out.

"Exactly," she grinned and I shook my head.

"Well, as for the really tall one—I don't think he's yours to claim. He seems to be completely smitten with Ali here," Shae said and everyone's eyes immediately turned to me, causing my cheeks to redden a bit. "Which is good, because she needs to finally get over Heath."

I scoffed, "I am completely over Heath. We had a great relationship. Now we have a great friendship."

"An international friendship," Peter said.

Thanks for that, buddy, I thought angrily in my head. "Yeah. An international friendship. But! Technically, if you think about it, our relationship was international, too. He is Australian, after all," I rebutted.

"Yeah, but he was here. There wasn't an entire ocean between you two." Shae put her two cents in. I looked down.

Wow. Thanks, guys. You're so not helping. Suddenly there were three trays loaded with mountains of food on them being set down on the table, one of which was directly next to me. I stared at the massive pile of food and then looked up at Jacob. He caught my stare as he sat down and smiled at me. "You're going to eat all that?" I asked and eyed his food. There was literally some of everything from the menu on his tray.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "I'm a growing boy," he grinned, showing off his perfect smile.

I gave his giant body a once over and then looked back in his eyes. "You'd better not grow anymore. You already make me feel like a dwarf."

The guys laughed. "Nah, you're not a dwarf. You're more like a pixie or a fairy. You're too pretty to be a dwarf," Embry said and I felt the heat rush into my cheeks again as I looked away.

Shae, Taryn, Peter, Lexi, and Steve were all watching me throughout the entire exchange and I could see exactly what they were thinking through their expressions that were mixtures of pity, happiness, encouragement, and sympathy. I didn't need this right now. I could not deal with all of those looks directed at me at the same time after they had been the second group of people today to bring up my ex-boyfriend. I know they didn't do it on purpose, but they had no idea how much they were hurting me.

"Excuse me," I said and started to get up, leaving my tray behind. "I'll be right back."

I could feel all eight pairs of eyes on me as I walked to the other side of the dining hall, pulling out my phone. It was just after eight at night here, which meant that it was just after one in the morning there, but he always said that I could call any time. The phone rang twice before his groggy voice came through.

"Hello?"

"Hey," I said. "Sorry I woke you." I bit my lip.

"Don't worry about it. I don't have anything important in my morning classes. What's up, babe?" He was more awake now and he definitely sounded concerned. I supposed he should be. I never call him in the middle of the night.

I took a deep breath. "Nothing," I sighed. "I just miss you. I needed to hear your voice."

"Alex. We've been best friends for years. You can't lie to me."

"I know," I breathed.

"I know you better than anyone. In every way," he said suggestively, causing me to laugh. "You know it's true," he chuckled.

I smiled. "Yeah, I know."

"So what's up?" he questioned me again, knowing that—even if I didn't want to—I would talk.

"Just—it seems my friends, and yours, have seen fit to make today the official 'Make Alex miss Heath more than she already does' Day. Adam wouldn't shut up about you before club and then Taryn and Shae brought you up and kept talking about you… and it's just getting to me, I guess," I admitted.

"Huh, that's weird. Why were they all bringing me up?" he asked. I could picture his face from the tone of his voice. One eyebrow raised, turquoise eyes looking confused, lips slightly parted….

"…Because of these new guys that we met." I mumbled.

"Ahh, is that right? Do you have your sights set on one?" he teased.

"No! At least… I don't think so…"

"Then one of them has his eyes on you," he stated. His tone left no room for argument. He knew he was right.

"Everyone seems to think so," I sighed.

"Do you?"

I thought about it. I supposed… Jake was awfully smiley around me and he did stare at me a lot. But maybe he was just a friendly person! I let out a deep breath. "I don't know. Maybe."

"Alex, you know I want you to be happy. We broke up so that you wouldn't be tied down to me when I'm all the way across the Atlantic."

"Hey, it was also so you wouldn't be tied down to me while you're all the way across the Atlantic going to freaking medical school," I smiled.

He laughed once. "Yeah, like I have time to date anyone. I barely ever leave the library except to go to class and eat. Sleeping is a rare occasion."

My eyes widened. "And I woke you up! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Al, it's alright. It's good to hear from you. I needed to hear your voice, too. So never, never feel bad for calling me in the middle of the night. Unless I have an exam in my 8am," He corrected.

I smiled and chuckled. "Okay."

"You're in the dining hall with your friends, aren't you?" it was a question, but it sounded like a statement. I did not understand how he always knew.

"Yeah," I mumbled.

"Go back to your friends," I could hear the smile in his voice. "We'll talk later and catch up with stuff. This weekend sound good? We can FaceTime."

"That sounds great, actually," I said. "Heath—"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks," I whispered.

"For what?"

"Doing what you always do. Making me smile. Everything."

"You're welcome, Al. I love you."

"I love you, too," I responded. "Now get some sleep!"

He laughed into the phone. "Yes, ma'am! G'night."

"Night."

I hung up the phone and went back to the table, feeling so much better than I had just ten minutes before.


Jacob POV

I watched, as did everyone else, as Alex stood up and walked to the other side of the dining hall and pulled out her phone.

"She's calling him," Taryn sighed.

"Calling who?" Quil asked.

"Heath," Shae said softly.

Heath? Who the hell was Heath? Cousin? Brother? …Boyfriend? I really hoped it wasn't the latter, but from the looks on her friends' faces, I assumed it was.

Great. So I had some competition for my imprint. I guessed I would just have to make her choose me.


A/N: Okay, so here's the next chapter! I think I'm going to try to update every Friday at the very least. Which means that if I don't update multiple times within a few days, then I'll update at least that one time a week. :)

I hope you all are enjoying the story so far, and if you are-then, please review! You'll get a sneak peek of the next chapter if you review... :D

And a big thank you to all of you who are following and favoriting this story!

Until next time!