It works for me. I just wish she'd appreciate it, too.

  "Hey." Leigh nudges me and points to a ridiculous formula she's scratched out on a piece of paper with that ridiculous engineering scrawl of hers. "You weren't paying attention."

  "I most definitely was." I shake my head, brow furrowed enough to look sincere. "You know how my head gets with numbers."

  "I know how your head gets when you aren't paying attention."

  "You say potato, I say vodka. Practically the same thing."

  She rolls her eyes at me but I can see the faint smile under it. She can't stay mad at me, no matter how bad she wants to. I say a lot of dumb shit and hardly ever consider her feelings the moment I open my mouth. It's something I'm working on, but has lent to plenty of situations where her lips do that twitchy thing and she packs up her books to leave before I apologize for being an ass.

  And she still comes here. Can't say no to me.

  It's something I love and hate all at once. As much as I enjoy our time together, there is always an undercurrent running through my head to remind me getting attached is a bad idea. I've never had to do this before because I've never had to worry about giving a shit.

  We don't feel like we'd normally fit together and I don't know why she's even bothering with me.

  "Explain this to me in sex terms." I say before she can launch into another speech about my GPA, because I certainly don't need another fucking reminder. "You know, something I can understand."

  "My football analogy last week wasn't good enough?"

  "I don't know how you could have attended this university for the last three years and still not know shooting a basket is a completely different sport. You are every girlfriend cliché in the sports community."

  "Good thing I'm not the girlfriend, only the tutor." She shoots back and rolls her shoulders like she's about to do some heavy lifting. "Okay, fine. These numbers are like when the girl is on top. You want them to stay, but not too long. You'll come early and no one wants that."

  I run a finger down her bare legs and wonder if she's wearing anything under the dress. "Where's the foreplay? We can't just jump right in."

  "Math doesn't like foreplay."

  "Math, I feel, really needs to get into oral."

  She blushes just a bit. "No oral here. Numbers to solve."

  "But you could add some in." Every time we'd been together, she never lets me venture down to get a real taste of her and it is now all I can think about. My fingers climb higher up her thigh. "Where in this equation is the clitoris? It needs to be licked."

  "I... don't think that's how math works."

  I place a single bite on her earlobe and watch her shiver. "Maybe math just hasn't had it done well enough to understand how important it is."

  She doesn't stop my hand from completing the journey to her pussy. It may as well be my fucking birthday because she's not even wearing panties. Sweet damp flesh waits for me and it only takes a gentle nudge to spread her legs.

  "I don't see how this metaphor plays out." Leigh says, trying and failing to keep her shit together.

  "That's because you keep trying to force it. The beauty is in just letting it happen. That's what you told me once about derivatives." I've got her between my legs now, head resting against my arm, eyes closed while I circle her clit with my thumb in the way she likes.

  "I don't think that's what I said."

  "Close enough." I whisper in her ear. "My turn to play teacher."

  "But your test—"

  "There's no way I'll focus now. I need you up on this table. On your knees." I pull my thumb away so she'll look at me. "Trust me."

  Leigh opens her sweet mouth to protest, but I instead slide in my thumb. She sucks it, tasting herself, and climbs uncertainly up on the table with a huff. I help steady her and flip the dress up over her smooth ass. The wave of her scent hits me and my pants immediately tighten up. I'd love to abandon this exercise and just fuck her senseless, but the need to taste her wins out.

  My thumb starts at her clit to loosen her up. The girl is already moaning and bucking under my touch, but I know how girls get when their brains interrupt. While she's caught up in the motion of my fingers, I slowly drag my tongue across her pussy from behind.

  I'm rewarded with the sweetest moan I've ever heard in my life. I unzip my pants to syphon off some relief from the tightness. Leigh gives me the same moan again when I lick her a second time. Each motion is slow and firm so I don't shock her into losing it, but she only responds with more moans and a small thrusting motion in her hips.

  When she rocks back against my face, I let myself loose within her, sucking and biting her in alternating strokes, fast and light, slow and firm. She needs to come before she knows what happening so she can’t think her way out of it.

  "Oh fuck." She murmurs from that sweet, sweet mouth and I steel myself for the heavenly cum to come pouring out.

  The lock on the front door jiggles.

  "Shit!" She gasps and nearly topples us both over as she pushes herself back off the table. We fumble back into the chairs, a book neatly hiding my raging erection.

  "Oh, hey guys." Sealy waves without looking up from her phone. "Sorry, I thought you'd be at the library."

  "I slept in late." Leigh says, burning bright red and looking oh so guilty.

  It takes everything in me not to burst out laughing right then.

  "Cool. How's it going?" She tosses her phone on the table and plops in a chair on the other side. "Oo, futures. How exciting."

  "Certainly is with the right teacher." I wink at Leigh and she smacks me across the chest with the back of her hand. She can't even look at me without turning three shades darker. This is incredible.

  "I assume she rewards you well."

  "She gives me a lollipop when I answer a question right."

  "You would like something to suck."

  "I prefer to lick them, actually."

  "I need to... excuse me." Leigh immediately jumps up from the table and scowls at both of us. It only makes us laugh harder.

  "Well good. She's so goddamn uptight all the time. She needs a good lay every now and again." Sealy restacks the books. "I wasn't going to come in when I heard her through the door, but I kinda wanted to see her face."

  "You could hear her, eh?" I lean back with immense satisfaction. "She seemed to enjoy herself."

  "I hate you both!" Leigh yells from down the hall.

  "This is why girls make such excellent teachers. Sexy as hell in a dress, brains good enough to match."

  Leigh comes back only pink around the edges. "My brain is twice as good, thank you."

  "It's all right. For a girl." I wink at her. I like watching her get all riled up when she defends herself and her clearly superior mind.

  She doesn't look like she's in the mood to play anymore, though. Leigh crosses her arms and frowns deep, the red looking less like embarrassment and more like anger. You wouldn't know she almost just came all over my face two minutes ago.

  "Come on, Leigh. We both know you're smarter than I'll ever be. I'm just kidding."

  She chews on her lip for a moment, bouncing between the stack of books and Sealy. She finally settles on the books and sits back down.

  "Fine. But you pay attention this time."

  I cross my fingers under the table. "Yes ma'am."

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  LEIGH

  "I kind of hate myself.” The wig Sealy threw on my head doesn’t want to stay put. "This is... a lot of maroon."

  "Where is your school spirit?" Sealy drags me through the parking lot, Whooping at every tailgate we pass. "How do you have none after this many years here?"

  "Three years here is precisely why I don't have any. Also, I look terrible in maroon."

  "No one looks terrible in maroon."

  "Well, call me No One, Polyphemus."

  Sealy rolls her eyes and side steps around a gaggle of blondes in tight-fitting maroon tank-tops. I can't make out what their shirts say, but they pass out small airline-sized bottles of liquor to everyone who walks by.

  "Here." Sealy snags an Absolut Vodka mid-stride. "You need this."

  "Absolutely." I tip it back and relish the burn before we cross into the stadium. "Get it? Because it's—"

  "I got it. Your jokes are terrible. Why does Heath sleep with you?"

  Everything in me runs warm. "My big brain."

  "You say brain, I say tits. Okay, follow me and do not get lost. They won't let you down otherwise." Sealy grabs my hand and launches us through the thick crowds of maroon and small pockets of burnt orange. "God, who would wear that shitty color?"

  I don't tell her that I like their colors better because I don't want to be murdered in the middle of the "friendly old Aggies". For the millionth time, I feel like a ridiculous outsider here. I could have gone to UT. That could have been my life in a bustling large city with ample intern positions to launch my career.

  "Remind me again why I came here?" I ask her over the swelling voices in the crowd. "Why did I pick this tiny town?"

  "Fuck if I know, but I'm glad you did." Sealy yells back.

  We take a series of hallways and staircases until we hit a brightly lit tunnel much quieter than the rest of the facility. It was like walking into a bomb shelter. Huge signed posters of pro players are framed and hung up in between closed doors. The whole place reeks of old sweat socks.

  "Lovely." I shudder.

  "You ever notice how they all smell vaguely like another dude's sweat, even right after they shower?" Sealy leans in conspiratorially. "Clark does."

  "Maybe Clark is busy rolling around in another guy's sweat before he comes to roll around in yours."

  "Rude. But also probably." Sealy stops mid-stride and I nearly trip over her shoes. "Hey, I need to step in here real quick to talk to Coach Hemsley. If you follow this hallway down to the end and make a left, there will be a bunch of signs pointing you to the locker room. That okay?"

  "Sure. I'll see you." I wave, not sure what she needs but anxious to keep moving.

  I don't like being in big hallways alone and would rather she stayed, but I'm also eager to see Heath. I want him to see that I can get all dressed up and excited for a game. He's given me plenty of shit for not coming in the past weeks or saying I didn't have enough school pride when I do. I wore the t-shirts and yelled all the chants. It was plenty.

  Familiar fuzzy bubbles well up in my stomach after I round the corner and hit the locker rooms. I really want a close-up view of his butt in those pants. But now, I’m not sure whether I should knock or just walk in? After a minute of waffling, I crack the door open.

  "Nah, bro, you earned that shit." Someone says. I freeze by the door, not sure where to go, listening for Heath's voice. "You took her home and tried to keep her. Never works."

  "I thought she was different, man. You can't fault me for that shit." Someone else answers. Not Heath. "I should just stay away from blondes. They are all the same."

  "Not the same. You just find crappy girls." Clark’s deep voice is instantly recognizable. "My blonde is fine as hell and a real badass."

  "Clark finds the gems in all the shit." There's my Heath. I slide around the lockers, but stop to listen to him brag about me to all his friends. It's like a once in a lifetime opportunity to catch the guys in their native environment. "Gotta be envious of the man. He finds what none of us can.”

  Everyone laughs, but I can't move. Envious of Clark? Envious of his blonde girlfriend? That he can’t find? I know we have an agreement to not be anything serious, but I thought that's what he wanted. That's what we wanted.

  I force myself to chalk it up to bullshitting his friends. There's no sense in turning crazy over the stupid shit they say in here.

  Right?

  "Heath can't score a girlfriend anyway." I immediately recognize that voice. Jack. Holy hell I hate that guy so much. Even his voice makes me queasy. "He pretends he's not interested because he can't follow through. Bet his dick don't work right."

  "Don't you worry about my dick." Heath throws back easily. "It gets plenty of workout. I just don't need some chick around all the time to make it happen."

  The air in my lungs turns to cotton. That's how he views me? Something easily picked up and cast aside? One of many he can resort to when he feels like shit? And holy hell, I'm not even worth bragging about in the locker room? I know I'm an unknown, but this campus has tens of thousands of students. Surely, surely, I'm worthy of something.

  "Heath is a ramblin' man whose only real love is football. You slackers know that." Clark says. "Can't no one hold him down."

  "It's the dream, boys. It really is." Heath brags.

  I can't stomach anymore of it and slip out the back door. This was such a terrible idea. I know the nature of our agreement and can't honestly expect anything else out of him. He says all sorts of ignorant things to make me upset and can't even mention me when guys are talking about who they screw, so I'm clearly worth nothing to him.

  All these things I think I already knew, but to have them confirmed is more painful that I expect.

  "Sorry!" Sealy says, sliding next to me. "I'm trying to organize that thing for Clark's birthday in two weeks and needed the Coach's help. Did you go in?"

  I want to tell her what happened and run far away, but can't put words together because my brain still doesn't want to process what was said. So I shake my head.

  "Come on, scaredy cat." Sealy links her arm in mine and knocks loudly on the door. "Hello, boys! Special delivery!"

  There's some rustling behind the door and then Clark appears, a large grin on his face. Sealy jumps him and kisses him like they are in some foreign film, and I stand there awkwardly, looking for Heath behind him. He finally pops out just as Clark and Sealy break for air. A big smile erupts over his face and I want nothing more than to hope that everything I just heard was all an act anyway.

  "I was just telling the guys about you!" Heath scoops me up in a hug and kisses my forehead. "Look at you, all marooned out!"

  That sound? It's my heart slowly shattering. Which is confusing because my heart should have never been involved in the first fucking place. But I'm a big girl, so I force a smile all the way into my voice.

  "Well, after all the shit I got over the past few weeks, I felt I needed to prove you wrong. I can have just as much spirit as the rest of them."

  "You always surprise me." He kisses my forehead again and pulls away to throw a look behind him. It may as well be a dagger in my side at this point. "Where are you sitting?"

  "Fifty-yard line, first row. Won 'em at work." Sealy grins up at Clark. "Can't wait to see my man out there in action."

  "I'll make sure to wave when I'm on the sidelines." Heath promises. "You'll look for me?"

  "Of course." It all feels like a terrible lie.

  "We gotta go. See you out there?"

  "Good luck!"

  Sealy throws her arms around Clark's neck once more. Heath squeezes my hand and disappears into the locker room. The difference is enough to pour ice into my heart.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  HEATH

  "Great game tonight, Heath!"

  "Way to kick ass, Davis!"

  We're swarmed in the middle of Northgate, a sea of maroon, with what feels like the whole city around us. Some guys were worried no one would give a shit because our long-standing feud with TU died many years ago after conference redraws, but the Aggies fans don't let us think twice about it.

  It's sort of like football heaven and I love every fucking minute of it. Half the band is playing on street corners, rallying the fight song. The other half are split up around campus to keep the party going. Cheerleaders lead the crowds from bar to bar, where the booze flows freely, and a half dozen costumed Reveilles roam the block.

  The guys are pushing me to do another set of Jaeger bombs, but I just need a minute to stand here in the middle of the chaos and remember what this feels like for the rest of my life. Pro games are going to be wilder, louder, and come with a lot more money. But there ain't no fans like Aggie fans in the stadium.

  One day, when I'm old and gray, I'm going to look back on this memory and know it was the start of everything.

  Except.

  "The fuck are you doing out here?" Aidan yells at me over the brass kickin' another round of the War Hymn. A girl hangs on his arm and stares up in this weird admiration even though the asshole spent half the game with the trainers over a tweaked ankle. "Everyone's looking for you!"

  "You found me, so I must be somewhere." I rub the back of my head and look around. Something is missing in the center of this maroon explosion and I can't quite place it. It should feel perfect. It's almost perfect. "I'll be there in a minute."

  "There's a line of chicks waiting to buy you a drink, so hurry along little doggie." Aidan slaps me on the back and disappears back into the throng of people. Still a bit of a limp, which means he's going to be out for at least a week, maybe longer.

  My own ankle hurts in solidarity. If there was a way to make my bones steel, I'd do it tomorrow. Maybe Leigh could engineer some up with her fancy space engineering degree.

  Leigh.

  I pull up to full height and scan the crowd. She's what is missing and has been this whole time. I haven't seen her since before the game. Every other home game, she's been here to celebrate, even if she didn’t go to the game. Trying to find a girl in a maroon wig in a sea of Aggie colors is damn near impossible, but that doesn't stop me from trying while I shoot off a quick text.

  She's probably looking for me in the middle of this chaos. I send her the name of the bar the boys are at and head back inside. For the Jaeger bombs.

  "Davis, get your ass over here pronto!" Jack slams his palm against a table in the back corner. He's surrounded by people, riding the wave of football mania despite being a half-assed player. Ever since Leigh told me about the bullshit he pulls in class, my tolerance for him dropped to almost zero.