Here's three! We meet three new guys here, and they're a touch... protective.
*
A Brutal Game
Kaitlyn sat down in her first class of the year with a positive mind set. She wanted to take in as much as she could. She'd already read Homer's Odyssey several times already which, granted, hadn't earned her many friends at school, but she couldn't wait to see what her professor would come up with about it. He strode in not long later, and the first thing Kaitlyn noticed was how handsome he was. She hoped all her professors looked the same.
'Good afternoon, class,' he said with a smooth, Spanish accent. 'I am professor Del Rio, and I'll be taking the class this year. Like you, it's my first time around so we'll see how we go…' He trailed off as he looked around room, settling his gaze on a girl sitting near the back. She was a few seats down from Kaitlyn.
He looked away and went about getting his things out of his book bag. Kaitlyn craned her neck slightly to get a better look at the girl. It was Rosa. She turned and caught Kaitlyn's gaze. She wrote her a quick note and passed it along for Kaitlyn to read.
Hands off x
Kaitlyn looked back, curious, and Rosa winked. She wrote a second note.
Wanna get a drink after class?
Kaitlyn agreed and turned her attention back to their professor, who had instructed them to pull out their copies of the Odyssey. The lesson was more of an introduction to the course, and he wanted to give them a taster of what to expect in the year. They discussed the writing, the author and the message for a while, before breaking off into two groups to quickly assemble an argument for a topic he'd given, and then put it to the other group. Rosa was in the other, winning, group.
'I didn't take you for a classics major,' Kaitlyn said as they gathered their things at the end.
'Nobody does,' said Rosa as she whipped her hair back over her shoulder. 'So where should we go? Downtown or to the bar on campus?'
'The bar?' said Kaitlyn, glancing at the clock above the door as they left the classroom. 'It's midday.'
'Ample time to start a martini. So, bar on campus?'
Kaitlyn chuckled. 'Sure, but I don't know how much I'll be drinking after the weekend.'
'For what it's worth, I'd have done it too.' She held a door open for Kaitlyn and they made their way out into the grounds. The sun was shining and Rosa retrieved a pair of expensive-looking sunglasses from her bag. Kaitlyn had to make use of her hand to shield her eyes.
'Mike's hot, and he's friendly.'
Kaitlyn agreed.
'He's got a bad reputation, but it's all just words.'
'Sure.'
'We should be allowed to do what we like, with who we like, and forget the consequences.'
Kaitlyn had a feeling they weren't talking about Mike anymore, and was taken back to the way Del Rio has looked at Rosa at the beginning of the class.
'Don't you agree?' said Rosa.
Kaitlyn nodded; she didn't want to get herself in too deep when she didn't know what she was really agreeing with.
They arrived at the student union building a little while later, and Rosa headed off to make a quick phone call. She left Kaitlyn at the bar to get them some drinks, telling her which bar tender to ask. One of them was apparently a friend of the Latina's and had no problem selling alcohol to underage girls. As she waited by the bar, Kaitlyn scanned the room for any sign of someone she knew. She froze when she saw AJ sitting in a booth at the back of the room. Luckily the girl hadn't noticed her. Kaitlyn kept her eyes forward and her head down.
'You look like you're avoiding someone.'
Kaitlyn looked to her left. It was the guy she'd seen AJ with a couple of days earlier. He didn't have a hoodie on this time, just a white t-shirt and some blue jeans. His arms were covered in tattoos of every variety. When Kaitlyn caught herself staring, she looked up at his face instead. He had a nice smile, even if it was a little arrogant.
'You know exactly who I'm avoiding, and you're only going to draw attention to me.'
'I'm avoiding someone too,' he said, leaning on the bar and ducking his head. 'Is it really that hard to find peace and quiet on a college campus?'
'Yes. Seriously, can't you avoid whoever it is somewhere else? She'll see me.'
'Why so scared?'
Kaitlyn tried to catch the attention of the right bartender but failed.
'I'm Phil,' said the guy next to her.
'Kaitlyn.'
'I know,' he said easily. She sent him a quizzical look and he answered. 'AJ's told me about you.'
'Great. But there's two sides to everything –'
'I really don't care.'
Kaitlyn was taken aback by this and turned herself fully to face him. She got a good look at his cocky face and decided that maybe his smile wasn't even that nice. He in turn looked around at her and they stood in silence for a moment, figuring each other out; baiting one another.
'What do you want?' Kaitlyn asked.
'Like I said, I'm avoiding someone too. Same person, actually.'
'AJ? Aren't you together?'
He laughed. 'No.'
Kaitlyn felt offended at the laughter, but she couldn't put her finger on why. He poured himself a glass of water from a nearby jug. He offered her one too but she shook her head.
'Why are you avoiding her?' Kaitlyn asked, curious.
'Because I avoid people,' he said, before drinking his water in one gulp.
'What does that mean?'
Before he answered, he looked past her and decided to make a hasty exit. He grabbed his jacket from the barstool beside him and darted towards the door, mumbling a goodbye in the meantime. Kaitlyn watched his retreating back until it disappeared, then decided to take the plunge and look around at what she knew had driven him away. AJ was watching her from the booth, her eyes dark with something Kaitlyn's couldn't identify. Kaitlyn looked away and prayed for Rosa's quick return. When she finally arrived AJ had gone, and Kaitlyn decided that she could in fact use a drink.
Kaitlyn met her across-the-hall neighbours for the first time that afternoon. She heard repeated banging next door on her way back from the bar and had thought she'd better check it out. After knocking three times, she was finally answered by a guy who had a similar hair to her own. She pictured it as a movie; two long lost twins reuniting by chance, their only clue being their matching blonde and brown two-tone hair.
'Nice hair,' he said, as if on cue, though his tone wasn't particularly complimentary.
'I heard noises, just thought I'd make sure you're all alive…' She waited for him to give his name, but he didn't. He was joined at the door by two other guys. One was taller, of Samoan descent, Kaitlyn guessed, and he looked a little thuggish. The other was smaller than him, but broader than two-toned hair guy. He had an odd look on his face, one that Kaitlyn couldn't pin point. It was somewhere between eccentric and unstable.
'I'm Dean,' said the one with the concerning look. 'This is Seth,' he pointed to two-tone. 'And this is Roman,' he gestured to the Samoan, who Kaitlyn pictured as the heavy, cleaning up the other two's messes.
'Kaitlyn. Like I said, I heard weird noises –'
'We were working out,' said Dean, unwrapping black tape from around his hands and wrists.
'What were you doing?'
'What's it to you?' said Roman. Kaitlyn grimaced.
'Just curious as to what makes three grown guys grunt in such a way that I can hear it through the walls…' She knew the tone would pay off.
'We were kick boxing,' said Seth. 'And wrestling.'
'In there?' Kaitlyn pointed behind them at what looked to be a small dorm, but when the door opened further she saw it was in fact a student apartment. 'Wow,' she said, impressed. 'Do you guys pay extra for this?'
She wandered in without being invited but they didn't haul her out again, so she continued onward.
'No,' said Seth.
'Are there four of you?'
'There were,' said Roman. Kaitlyn stopped to wonder if they'd murdered the other guy, but knew it was very unlikely. Probably.
'He left,' said Dean, looking bored. 'Didn't like college so he dropped out.'
'Classes only started today,' said Kaitlyn, shocked.
'You smell like you've been drinking. Will you be next?' said Seth, smirking.
Kaitlyn decided it was time she left, before things got awkward, and pulled out her phone to text Maria as she'd planned.
'See you around,' she called over her shoulder.
'Bye,' said Seth, but the other merely grunted and Roman closed the door with a bang.
'They call them the Shield,' said Maria as she and Kaitlyn found a spot in the stands. Training was about to begin. Her boyfriend waved at her from the pitch.
'The Shield?' Kaitlyn repeated. 'Why's that?'
'Watch and you'll find out.'
Maria handed her a juice carton and they turned their attention to the pitch. The coach blew his whistle and the teams lined up, though it was only a practice session today. Kaitlyn spied John in the offensive line-up. Dean, Seth and Roman all stood opposite him, waiting for the quarterback to snap the ball.
As soon as he did John was away, ready to tackle him, but Dean, Seth and Roman came together as an immovable object, warding off any and all players that came for their quarterback. The coach called the whistle as the quarterback threw a pass to his receiver and they scored.
'That's impressive,' said Kaitlyn.
'Yeah,' said Maria. 'Christian always goes on about how much the team sucked before they came to the school last year.'
'Christian's a junior, right?'
'Mhm. See the quarterback? That's Cody Rhodes. Total player, thinks the sun shines out of his own ass.'
'They can't have sucked that much if he throws like that. John's awesome, too.'
'Two people don't make a team, and you're only as strong as your weakest member.'
'Deep words,' said Kaitlyn, smirking.
'Yeah, well, when you start dating a football player you'll pick it up, too.' Kaitlyn saw the way Maria was eyeing her and frowned.
'What?'
'Oh come on, we've been here ten minutes and you still haven't said a word about Mike Mizanin.' Kaitlyn hadn't even realized he was on the pitch, and as soon as she did she couldn't look.
Maria wasn't finished. 'Did you… you know?'
Kaitlyn scoffed. 'Hasn't Layla already been spreading the word about that one?'
'Even if she has, I want to hear it from you. I prefer the truth.'
'And who says it's your business?'
'No one,' said the redhead. 'But who else are you gonna talk to about it?'
'I have my cousin, although she's pretty judgy.'
'I meant here on campus.'
'She is here, it's Natalya Neidhart –'
'Natalya's your cousin? I thought you looked familiar when I saw you.'
'It's not a huge resemblance.'
'It's there though.' Maria smiled. 'I like Natalya, she's a good friend. But yeah, she can be judgemental.'
'You've been on the receiving end of it too?'
'Of course! What are friends for?' Maria giggled. 'When I started dating Christian last year she was telling me 'no, no, you can't do that, he's a bad boy,' but I went ahead and did it anyway. She was wrong about him.'
Kaitlyn nodded along. 'Sounds like her. She's just protective.' She fell into thought, and memories of their childhood flashed before her. Then it was middle school, then high school and everything that happened with AJ…
'Kaitlyn?'
'Yeah?'
'What happened with you and Mike?'
'Oh,' Kaitlyn paused for a moment to think it through. She liked Maria, and Maria and Natalya were friends, and Kaitlyn thought they could be friends too. She went for it. 'We had sex.'
'You did?' She didn't look too shocked; Kaitlyn wasn't sure how she felt about that. 'Was it good?'
'Good as a first time can be.'
'It was your first time? Oh sweetie if we'd have known we would have made Rosa shut up right away at the party.'
'No, don't be stupid,' Kaitlyn said. 'I wanted to do it.'
'Well good for you.' Maria gave her a smile that begged for more. 'So was it good?'
'He was… fine. He was great, I think, but by the time we actually got in to doing it I was pretty wrecked.' Maria pulled a face and Kaitlyn shook her head. 'That's not even the worst part; he doesn't remember it happened.'
Maria's mouth dropped open. 'What?'
'He left the next morning, apologizing for crashing out right after we got to my dorm. He remembers nothing.' Maria looked sympathetic but Kaitlyn went on, 'No, I'm fine. If anything this is better. There's no awkwardness. It happened and now it's over and I'm glad it happened. Now I can just go on and not be afraid of crossing that milestone anymore.'
'I thought you said you wanted to do it,' said Maria. 'You were scared?'
Kaitlyn shrugged. 'What's Layla's deal with Miz? She looked like she wanted to kill me when I went to him at the party.'
'They dated briefly last year, but she's not really over it. To be honest she could do a lot better.' She realized her mistake. 'I'm sorry.'
The whistle blew on the field again and both girls turned to look. John was lying flat on his back, each members of the Shield climbing off him, one by one. The coach made his way over and began lecturing them as someone helped John to his feet.
'Brutal game,' said Maria.
'Sure is,' said Kaitlyn, though her thoughts were far away from football.
Hope you liked it! Please review and come back for more! x
