Cruz answered, but I was focused on Zeke, who was still standing, eating his pizza, his gaze focused on me over his slice.

  “What?”

  Zeke took a big bite and shook his head, but he was still eyeing me.

  “Look elsewhere while you eat.”

  He gave me a brief grin before transferring his gaze to Cruz, and the same thing. He took another big bite.

  Cruz wasn’t as bothered, instead shifting back. He gave Zeke a chin-lift sort of thing. It was very manly. “You got a girl, Allen?”

  Zeke was still chewing and shook his head.

  Cruz motioned to me. “You wanting this one?”

  I almost choked on how blunt he was being. Zeke paused mid-chew, his eyes narrowing, but then he kept on chewing and shook his head again.

  Cruz gave him a faint smile. “You want me then?”

  Zeke started laughing, folding his head down and his shoulders were shaking. Cruz asked in a very casual way, but he waited until Zeke swallowed the last of his pizza before shaking his head. “Dude.” He was laughing and had to sit down.

  He nearly sat on AJ’s lap, who shoved him off until he landed in one of the other loungers. He fell in backwards, his legs rising up from the motion. The chair began to tip to the side from the momentum. Zeke was a big guy. He took in some air before he was able to talk. “You–”

  Cruz took his arm away from behind me and leaned forward, his arms going to rest on his legs. He pulled his feet down from the coffee table. “Guys openly stare at someone it’s either because they want to fuck ’em or they want to fight ’em. I went with the fucking first because I’m not getting the feeling that you want to fight. Am I wrong?”

  Zeke was still half laughing as he shook his head. “No. Sorry, man. Nope. Just drunk here.”

  Cruz settled back, easing down on the couch again and he pulled his blanket back over him. “Then what’s with the weird looking shit?”

  “It’s seeing Daniels all cozied up.” Zeke stopped laughing enough to give me a more serious look. “It’s nice to see. That’s all.”

  I shifted on the couch, starting to get uncomfortable.

  Cruz glanced back, studying me.

  I had no doubt he saw how that comment made me feel, but he turned back to Zeke. “How long you guys in town?”

  “Till Sunday.” His eyes slid my way. “Hoping to hang out?”

  I gave a nod. “For sure.”

  Gavin came back from the hallway, stopped short at seeing the empty pizza box. “No more pizza?”

  AJ started laughing, finishing his slice.

  Labrowski yelled from the kitchen, “I got more coming!”

  “Dudes!” came from top of the stairs. “Some of us are sleeping. We do have to travel for a fucking game tomorrow.”

  Cruz tipped his head back. He was about to yell when Labrowski came marching in from the kitchen, a towel in hand and another thrown over his shoulder. He went to the bottom of the stairs, took hold of the railing, and let out a holler. “WE’RE MAKING FOOD! IF YOU WANT A SLICE EITHER TONIGHT OR TOMORROW, SHUT THE FUCK UP! You have fans and earplugs for a reason.”

  He didn’t wait for a response. He marched back to the kitchen, and we heard pans being moved around.

  Cruz said, “He’s making two pizzas now.”

  Zeke started laughing.

  Gavin turned for the kitchen. “Oh, sweet. I’m starving.” He went into the kitchen.

  Zeke laid his head back against his lounger and rested a hand over his stomach. He heaved a sigh, but gave me a contented smile. “We stopped at Taco Bell on the way home too.”

  The door burst open again. This time, a guy walked in with a girl attached to him. Her legs were around his waist, her arms around his neck and their mouths were attached. They were trying to eat each other.

  Zeke snorted.

  Cruz grinned.

  The guy turned around. It was Barclay. The girl was… I shot upright, jolted. It was Kit.

  “Excuse us, folks.” Barclay said around her mouth, holding up two fingers in a salute. “Just gonna take this upstairs.”

  Kit was laughing as she pulled him back for a kiss, but she skimmed the couch and gasped. Her head went back, stiffening in Barclay’s hold. Her gaze collided with mine. “Mara–”

  I jumped to my feet.

  I didn’t want her to say anything about my mom. It wasn’t that I was worried about people knowing what she tried to do, it was about her getting to where I went to college. She already got to my high school friends, but here–I was still trying to keep her contained.

  Kit frowned. “Mara?” Her voice grew soft, and Barclay let her ease down from his arms. He stood behind her, his gaze taking me in.

  “Wha–” Kit shook her head, seeing Zeke and jerking backwards. “Zeke?”

  He grinned, slowly and a little mean. “Saw you all up in his space so I figured I’d catch a ride here with the rest of the hockey team. Get a front row seat to this show.” His eyes jerked my way. “Sorry. I should’ve warned you.”

  Kit had a boyfriend. I was guessing Barclay had no clue.

  Kit flushed, straightening her shirt and pants. She glared at Zeke. “I know all about the shit you and your boy have pulled. Don’t start turning r–” She clamped her mouth shut, seeing Zeke’s face flood with anger.

  He leaned forward. “Might want to rethink your position before slinging insults.”

  “What is going on?” Barclay asked.

  “They all went to the same high school.”

  Barclay nodded to Cruz.

  Atwater snorted. “Oh, damn. High school gossip is the best kind. Out with it! What’s all the shit?”

  Kit pointed at me. “Not one word or I’ll spread your shit all over the Kappa house.”

  “What a friend,” Cruz clipped out, standing up behind me.

  Kit flushed again. Her hand lowered a little, but she was still glowering. “Just–don’t say anything, Mara.”

  “Kit’s got a boyfriend.”

  Barclays’ eyes widened and he jerked to the side, away from Kit.

  All eyes went to Zeke, who had leaned back in his chair and gave a smug smile. His eyes went to Kit. “You got nothing on me, and if you threaten Daniels again, you got two new enemies at Cain.”

  Kit’s eyebrows dipped together.

  He clarified, “You know I’ll go hard for her. I’ve always had Daniels’ back. Things will just be extra-enemy-ish between you and me now.”

  Kit was losing some of her steam, but she turned to Barclay. “My boyfriend cheated on me. We broke up before I came here this weekend, and FYI, he’s the reason I came along.”

  Atwater hooted. “Dude. That means you’re the rebound fuck.”

  Barclay was giving her another assessing look before shrugging. “I’m okay with that.” He swooped in, picking her up, and as she gave a little shriek, he took her upstairs. He said to Cruz, “Wake me up thirty minutes before we gotta go for the bus.”

  Cruz nodded.

  Labrowski came out from the kitchen. “First pizza’s done.” He took in the weirdness of the room. “What’d I miss?”

  30

  CRUZ

  “You sure about this?” I asked Mara as she was waiting to help the guys to their car. Labrowski, who was sober, drove it to our house and she was taking it to the Alpha Mu house. From there, the plan was to get Miles into his car and she would drive that back to their place.

  “Miles will wake up enough to transfer cars and we’ll all be good.” She moved a little closer to me, looking up at me. “When does your bus leave tomorrow?”

  “We need to be at the arena by ten.”

  “Thought you guys usually fly in the night before a game?”

  “We do. This time’s the exception.”

  She nodded, taking me in, lingering on my mouth.

  Things had changed with us, but things had been changing for a while. I wasn’t really sure where to go, but I was going to let Mara take the lead, at least for a bit. Her face flickered before clearing up and she stepped backwards, away from me. “Sounds good. Get some rest. Gotta make sure you win tomorrow.”

  Right. Win tomorrow. That’s how she was doing this?

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  The guys were ready, waving from the car, so Mara took off. Atwater stepped up behind me, eating another slice of pizza before pointing at the car with it. “Thought she’d be staying tonight?”

  Yeah…

  I knew too much.

  I knew about her mom. Had met her mom. Now I knew her friends. Saw her ex in person. Her old life and this life were together, and I saw it all. She was all the way exposed.

  Was that right? Was I getting that right?

  Most girls would eat this shit up, but Mara was different. She told me earlier she’d usually run from situations like this.

  I sighed. “No, man. Not tonight.”

  He grunted.

  Labrowski had shut down the kitchen. All the lights were off. It was just Atwater waiting for me, and he started up the stairs. Everything was locked up.

  It was after I came back from the bathroom before the text came through.

  Mara: We need to stop, at least for a while.

  Mara: I’m not hiding. I’m not running, but this is all new territory for me. I’m really sorry. This doesn’t mean I want to stop being friends, but… I need a breather so I don’t use sex to hide from life. If that makes sense?

  I dropped to my bed, expelling a ragged breath.

  Me: That makes sense. Talk later?

  Her text came in ten minutes later.

  Mara: Talk later.

  We were both lying. We wouldn’t be talking later, and both of us knew it.

  31

  MARA

  Cruz’s team won both games. Friday and Saturday.

  Gavin’s fraternity threw a rager for one game, and a party for the other. I didn’t know the difference, but they reassured there was one. I went, which was easier because Blaise had gone back to Cain on Friday. Zeke stayed for the weekend, and so did Kit, but she hadn’t reached out to me. She stayed at the Kappa house except for Saturday. As soon as I saw some of the Kappa girls at Gavin’s frat, I took off. Zeke called to find out where I was that night, so he came over. Zeke fit in so well that if I hadn’t known better, I would’ve assumed he knew Skylar from high school. The two bonded in a weird way, that only strengthened when he stayed the night at our house that night. Skylar asked three times when he was leaving on Sunday because she wanted to make sure they exchanged numbers. Zoe had a perplexed look on her face the whole time, but she never said anything to me.

  Sunday happened and we all went out for lunch before Zeke was taking off.

  My roommates, all of them, and Gavin joined in.

  Once we sat down, I glanced at the empty seat by Zeke. He draped a hand over it. “I’m taking off from here. I told Kit if she wants a ride, she needs to get her ass here.”

  She came in a few minutes later, her bag in hand with a few other Kappa girls.

  She skimmed the restaurant until she saw us. Her face tightened. She said something. The three other girls all looked our way, but there was no more room at our table except for the one seat. I watched as the hostess approached. They gestured to us, and before long, they were being seated at the closest booth to us, which was in the other section of the place.

  Kit and one of the other girls came over. Her friend went to the far end of the table, waving at Wade, and Kit slipped into the empty seat by Zeke. “Hey.”

  He was watching her. “Hey.”

  The two stared at each other, like they were mentally having a conversation before Kit looked to me. “We didn’t talk all weekend.”

  “You threatened me.”

  “I told you I broke up with my boyfriend, and he cheated on me.”

  Again. “You threatened me.”

  “Far be it from me getting involved in chick drama, but–” Zeke stopped talking as Kit and I both looked at him. “What?”

  Kit said, “You get involved all the time.”

  I added, “You start it half the time.”

  He grinned. “Both good points, but I want to point out that you took away Mara’s chance to be a friend by first threatening her. I know your man’s been cheating on you for a while, but I also know that you’ve been aware of it for a long time too. Got a feeling Mara knew too.”

  Kit’s mouth opened as her eyes snapped my way. “Is that true? Did you know?”

  I shrugged. “You caught him, like, four times this summer. Also, I always thought you were in an open relationship until Thursday night.”

  Her face got red, and her eyes bulged out. She reached for a piece of bread and began shredding it to pieces. “Would’ve been nice if I knew this was the community outlook on my relationship.”

  My stomach shifted. “Why was this latest cheating the final straw? Was it the final straw?”

  “He fucked Ria and Penny. At the same time.”

  I sucked in my breath. They were both from our high school friend group.

  “Damn.” That was from Zeke.

  Kit shot him a look. “Sorry, Zeke.”

  He gave a disjointed nod, which made sense. He and Penny weren’t in a relationship, but the two slept together a lot. “No. I mean, nah. I never laid claim to her and vice versa.”

  Kit let go of her bread, putting it on her plate. It was half torn up. “He fucked them both, for an entire weekend. They were there when I called him. Apparently, he put me on speaker so they could hear the conversation.”

  That was the last straw. Not the sex. He let them hear what I knew Kit would’ve never shared with them. Our whole friend group was messed up. Sex was nothing to us, but real emotional sharing, that was precious.

  “I’m sorry, Kit.”

  Her eyes filled up with tears, but she brushed her hand over her face. “It’s whatever. Done with by now. About time too.”

  I pulled my phone out.

  “What are you doing?”

  I hit send, then turned my phone around to show Kit and Zeke.

  Me: Brian, a heads-up. Ria fucked Kit’s boyfriend with Penny all weekend long. Kit told me. Thought you’d like to know.

  “That’s very messy of you.” Kit grinned.

  My phone buzzed back as I shrugged.

  Brian: Thanks for the heads-up, but I knew. Got a steady girlfriend now. Not Ria.

  I chuckled, showing Kit and Zeke the phone again.

  “Right on. Good for my boy.”

  I asked Kit, “How’d you find out?”

  “Saw that they were at his college for the weekend and got suspicious. You’re the only one that doesn’t keep in touch. Everyone else is hooked in on a group chat and they tell us where they’re partying. Also, I’m not counting Blaise because he hated everyone except you two in school. But anyways, I called around, finally got his roommate on the phone and threatened him. His girlfriend is a Kappa, and the roommate spilled the beans. Told me everything. They made a video.”

  “Wait. What?” I jerked upright.

  “His roommate sent it to me.” Her shoulders slumped even farther down. “I watched it. He was fucking Penny when I called, and he put me on speaker as he finished. You can see Ria cracking up in the background, but he stuffs a pillow over her mouth.”

  “Is there sound?”

  She shook her head. “One good thing about the whole thing, but no. No sound, just video.”

  “Um–” Zeke held up a finger.

  “I’m not sending it to you.”

  Zeke pouted.

  “I deleted it anyway, all of it. The roommate said it was just the one copy. I don’t think Ria and Penny know, but I’m not releasing that. That’s just messed up.”

  “True.” Zeke shook his head, sighing. “That sounds hot, though.”

  “What are you guys talking about down here?” Wade came to our end, pulling an empty chair over from another table and flipping it around. He dropped down, resting his arms over the back as he straddled it.

  Kit looked around, but her friend had rejoined their booth.

  “Yo, man.”

  “Yo.” Wade gave Zeke a chin-up nod.

  “Zeke,” Skylar called for his attention, so Zeke tuned in her way.

  Kit was saying to Wade, “I was just telling Mara about how I’m newly and really real single now.”

  Wade’s grin was slow as he glanced between us. “What does ‘really real’ mean versus just being single?”

  I snorted a laugh.

  Kit shrugged, seemingly appeased by now, “Just a relationship that was on and off and now it’s very, very off. Permanently.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s whatever. I didn’t lose too much on him.”

  “Ah.” Wade’s eyes filled with understanding. “One of those types of relationships.”

  “Yep.”

  “And you?” His question was directed at me.

  I sucked in my breath, knowing these questions would be coming, but I wanted to keep the conversation about Kit. “What about me?”

  I’m none of your business. I’m no one’s business.

  “You and the hockey player? You guys a thing now?”

  I frowned, lifting a tight shoulder. “It is what it is.” Totally not an answer, but that wasn’t a question I had plans to answer.

  Wade frowned.

  Kit’s eyebrows slammed down.

  “I knew before the pictures came out.”

  “What?”

  “Saw him leaving your place one night. It was obvious what he’d just done.”

  I frowned. “He saw you?”

  He nodded. “I said something to him.”

  “What’d you say?”

  He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. He told me it’s none of my business and he was right, it wasn’t. Isn’t. But couldn’t help picking up on weird tension with you lately. You and him okay?”

  Kit started laughing.

  Wade threw her a weird look.

  “Sorry.” Her hands went up, but she couldn’t stop laughing. “Mara doesn’t do personal. You don’t know your roommate if you’re asking about who she’s fucking. Mara never wants anyone to know anything about her life, which made me feel horrible when I found out about your mo–”