Offside (Pro-U Book 2) (6 page)

Chapter 8

Jacob

The sound of Adele singing
Hello
in my ear woke me up, which on most mornings was pleasant, but something about this one made it more of an agitation.

"Hello already. Shit." I patted the bed, trying to find the source of the noise and getting more and more agitated with my failure to make it stop.

My head was pounding so hard that even the small amount of light filtering through my window left me dizzy. I pulled my pillow over my head and groaned as my door opened and someone came in and turned the phone off.

"Damn. Are you trying to wake up the whole house?" Micah pulled the pillow from my face and smacked me in the side of the head with it.

"Ouch! My head hurts," I barked loudly and ripped the pillow from his hands before launching it at him. "Get out."

"No. Get up. You set your clock so you could go visit your dad, remember?"

"How'd you know?" I turned onto my stomach and groaned loudly.

"Because I helped you do it after you puked your guts out, man. Someone spiked several of the drinks last night, remember?"

"Hell no, I don't remember." I ran my hands down my face as I sat up with the room spinning around me. "I'm gonna be sick again."

"Good. Come on. Get that shit out of you." He pulled at my arm and hustled me into the bathroom. I hit my knees as my stomach erupted and I gave myself over to the pain of vomiting. I couldn't remember shit from the night before other than Emily getting upset with Brody over being a whore and leaving before I got the chance to say much of anything to her.

"Goddammit." I groaned and pressed my face to the side of the toilet as nausea rolled over me. "What the hell did they spike it with? Rat poison?"

"No, a date rape drug. We need to do a better job of censoring who comes over here, Jacob. This could have been really, really bad. Hell, it might still be really bad. I don't think we've seen the worst of it yet."

"Meaning?" I reached for a towel behind me and wiped my mouth before trying to stand. "I need some toast or something. Shit."

"Meaning that a lot of people drove out of here last night. Who knows if anyone got in an accident or if they were raped or what. We need to be better stewards of this place, of this fraternity, before it gets shut down."

"All right man. Now isn't the time. I can barely see straight." I stopped by the sink to splash cold water on my face a few times. "What drinks were spiked? I only had beer to drink last night, and I'm pretty sure I popped the tops on all the beers I drank."

"No, you didn't. Several of the people handing out beers were popping tops for us, remember?" He reached for me as I stumbled a little coming out of the bathroom.

"I'm fine. Shit." I leaned against the wall and took a few deep breaths. "So you're saying one of our own guys spiked the drinks?"

"Or let someone else do it." He walked toward the stairs and glanced over his shoulder. "Come on. The restaurant opens up in an hour. If you wanna talk with your old man about summer league soccer, you're going to need to do it before then. You know he's short staffed."

I rolled my eyes and stood up. "How the fuck do you know more about my own business than I do?"

"I'm your best friend. It's my job." He jogged down the stairs. "Get some clothes on and meet me downstairs. I'll make you some toast."

"I love you," I called after him and stumbled into my bedroom, face planting on my bed and not moving again until he came looking for me.

*

"Seriously?" I ran my hands down my face and tried hard to figure out what the fuck I was going to do. My scholarship funds had run out earlier that spring after I'd put a few too many dollars in the kitty for booze and snacks for parties.

"Yes, son. Things aren't going really well, and to be honest, we're short staffed on top of all of it." My father shook his head and glanced back at the computer. "We need to figure out a way to get more of the students to come to this side of the campus. Mersky's is making a killing, and we only see students when you bring in the soccer team or your frat friends. It's not like you can do that all of the time."

"I don't get it." I stood up and began to pace the floor in front of his desk. "The pizza here is the best in the whole damn town."

"Agreed, but after that girl was raped behind the building a few months ago, no one wants to come over here."

"So we need to change the persona of the place and get some security guys."

"I like the sound of that, but before we go changing things, let’s talk about your situation. You're going to be driving to Mount Ida College four to five times a week and sometimes on the weekends. You'll need money for gas, food and for your uniform."

"And the tournaments." I stopped and crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm going to have to get a job."

"Use your scholarship money. There has to be some left, right?"

"No. I'm an idiot with money. You know this. You raised me." I started to pace again. "I'll just have to get a job somewhere."

"What about here? You come work for me, and instead of me giving you handouts that I don't have, I'll just pay you to help make pizzas."

"Dad. You know that didn't work out the first time we tried it. I was eating more pizza than I was selling." I gripped the back of the chair in front of me and studied his face. He was tired. Beyond tired, and I would have sold my soul to give him back the years my mother stole from him. His entire youth invested in a cheating bitch that walked out on both of us and left him heartbroken and me in a place where the only person that wanted me wasn't blood. He was my stepfather, but that all changed the day he became all I had.

"You've grown up a little. I think we should try it again." He shrugged. "I'd rather have you here with me any day of the week. You know that."

"All right. I guess we'll try it. We need to come up with a few more ways to get people to start paying DeAngelos attention again too. I'll talk to the guys and see what we can come up with."

"Thank you, son." He turned back to his computer.

"Anything for you." I walked to the door and paused. "When do I start?"

"Tomorrow night at six. Don't be late or I'll dock your pay. No special treatment for you." He smiled but didn't look my way.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." I waited until I was outside of the building to let down my pretense. I didn't have time for a job and summer league in Waban. It was going to be too much. I'd try it for a while, but I knew myself. Between the practices, game time and working out... I was going to be mentally and physically fried. There was no way I could do the pizza parlor or my dad justice running on empty.

"Why? Why me? I don't fucking get it." I pulled my sweater over my head and dropped it in the stands as I jogged toward the empty track. The sickness in my stomach only grew worse as I pushed myself around the track over and over, sweat pouring down my face and dizziness setting in.

I wasn't enough. Not for him or the summer team or the frat house. I'd let them down by not being more diligent in checking who was taking care of the liquor for us. I trusted the guys in the house without question, and it was a mistake to do it.

I'd be lucky if I didn't have to pay dearly for it.

My stomach turned violently, and I raced toward the trashcan on the far side of the field, barely making it before I vomited. My sides hurt and head started to throb again. Fuck me for thinking I could push myself to do anything with drugs pumping through my system. It would be just my luck to get tested for drugs the next morning at practice and pop positive.

"Jacob?" The sweet voice that filled my ears ushered in a sense of longing that I couldn't handle at that moment, and yet there was nowhere to run to.

"Emily?" I glanced behind me to find her dressed in her cute navy and white cheerleading outfit. Her tanned legs went on for days, and the white ribbons in her ponytail made her innocence only stand out more. I was an asshole for wanting her.

The group of what looked like teenage girls behind her began to giggle. She jerked around and pointed toward the field behind us.

"Go to the other side and work on your technique. We'll have a quiz in a little while over the things we covered this morning. Get to it, and mind your own business."

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and let my eyes run down her back only to linger on the thick swell of her perfect ass. How badly I wanted to strip her down and run my hands all over her. She'd been almost prudish the night we'd slept together, only letting me take her to bed in the dark. I'd yet to truly experience her body, but her warmth? Oh hell yeah, I knew what it felt like to be tucked up against her. It's the reason I ached to have her again.

"I'm sorry." She turned back to face me and tucked a random strand of her hair out of her eyes.

"Don't apologize. I was just trying to jog away the drugs in my system." I slipped my hands into my pockets and worked to memorize the concern on her face.

"What? Did you smoke something last night?" She moved toward me, but didn't touch me. "You know your scholarships are tied to you keeping your body in tip top-"

"I was ruffied." I reached out and tucked that same wild hair behind her ear. "I'm not a total idiot. I try to stay away from anything I promised the college I wouldn't get involved in. Some dumb-ass spiked the beers last night."

"Oh." She glanced down and back up at me, stealing my breath. "I don't drink."

"Really? Not at all?" A smirk pulled at my lips and try as I may, I couldn't get it to leave me be.

"Not since that night." Her cheeks flushed pink. "Anyway. You okay or do you need some help?"

"I'm fine. You dumped that asshole last night, right?" I shouldn't have pushed my luck with her. After the way things went last night, I was lucky she was talking to me at all.

"No. It's not that easy." She brushed her hair back and shook her head. "You wouldn't understand."

"He's an asshole that slept with three other women."

"It was oral sex." She shrugged, but the hurt in her eyes said it didn't matter what he'd done. She'd have forgiven him anyway. Why? Why was she letting him run all over her?

Anger burned through the center of my chest, throwing my stomach into another set of flips.

"What? That's bullshit. He cheated on you and he's done it more times than most of us can count." I reached for her, but she stepped back.

"It's not your decision on whether or not I give him another chance."

"Do you have no fucking self-respect at all?" I hated myself the minute it slipped from my lips. She was a good woman and deserved a good man. Why couldn't I have said that instead?

"You don't know shit about me." She turned and walked past me, leaving me with the scent of her shampoo filling my lungs and an ache deep inside of me.

I didn't know shit, but I sure as fuck wanted to.

Chapter 9

Emily

"How dare he," I mumbled under my breath as I walked toward the group of overly excited teenage girls. My sister moved out of the crowd and dropped the shit-eating grin she'd had plastered to her face for most of the morning. It was a good thing she was as good of a liar as she was. It would come in handy for fooling the rest of the world and getting her way.

"I heard something earlier about a cheerleading scholarship. Is that true? Is there one?" She reached out and grabbed my hand while bouncing on her toes like an overly excited girl her age might do.

"Yeah. There are several organizations that give out scholarships. We have one or two here, but good luck getting them."

"One of the girls mentioned that the coaches are watching us this summer to see if anyone might be a good candidate."

"Really? That's news to me. I'll ask Coach Rhodes about it the next time I get her alone. Get back in line and push off the balls of your feet when you do your jumps. You're not getting the height that some of these girls are getting. It's fine when you're performing alone, but it's more than obvious when you're in the group cheers."

"Okay, I will." She turned and walked back toward the group only to pause and glance back. "I'm sorry about this morning."

"Me too." I nodded and tried not to let my heart ache over the hope that we could work things out. We'd worn out the word sorry for so long, and so many times, that it held very little meaning anymore.

"Emily. Come over here for a minute." Coach Rhodes motioned for me to join her. Her long blond hair was in a high ponytail and she looked about ten years younger than she was. Her uniform was pristine, but instead of the short skirt like most of us wore, she had on matching joggers.

"Yeah coach?" I jogged over and stopped in front of her and Coach Diaz.

"You know Coach Diaz, right? He's the head coach for the soccer team here at Providence."

"Yes, ma'am." I extended my hand toward the handsome Hispanic guy that everyone seemed to respect. I'd heard a lot of good things about him, and seen his team in action multiple times over the last three years. "I'm Emily Campbell. Nice to meet you."

"You as well, Emily." He glanced around the field. "Are all of these girls on the cheer squad? Some look so young."

"No, this is our high school youth camp. We use it to train the girls at the high school level and to help our girls grow in their leadership skills." Coach Rhodes reached over and tugged at my wrist. "Emily here is going to be trying out for cheer captain soon, aren't you?"

"I think so." I forced a smile and kept my eyes on my coach. I wasn't sure what the purpose of introducing me to the head soccer coach was, but Rhodes always had an agenda - good or bad.

"Excellent. I'll leave you two be. Don't keep her too long Carlos. She has a group of unruly teenage girls to whip into shape."

He chuckled and turned his attention back on me. "Better you than me."

"Right?" I crossed my arms over my chest. "What can I do for you, Coach Diaz?"

"Firstly, we'd like to talk to you guys about having a smaller segment of your squad come to our soccer games this fall and help us liven up the crowd. I know it won't be like the football games, but if we could swing it a few times, I'd be grateful."

"Depending on what the schedules look like for our previous commitments, we can do that."

"All right. I'll e-mail your coach a list of our games for the fall, and you just make sure we get brought up at your planning meetings. We can meet sometime later this summer and talk about any dates that you'll be able to join us."

"Okay. I like the sound of that. I love soccer."

"Awesome." He slipped his hands into his pockets and glanced around. "So the other issue I'm having is that one of my players got pretty sick last night at the Omega House party. He mentioned a few people that were there, and your name came up."

"What? I didn't drink or smoke or anything." Fear raced through me. I knew I shouldn't have gone to that damn party. It was going to be the end of me and Brody, and now it looked like I was going to hang for something I didn't do to top it all off.

"No, of course not. I know you're known around here as a great girl, an upstanding student and such. The word on the street is that Jacob Wright brought in some type of date rape drug and slipped it into the beers at the party. Do you by chance know anything about that?"

"No. I saw Jacob this morning and he was deathly sick, so I can't imagine it was him." I tilted my head to the side, studying the coach. I couldn't tell if he believed Jacob to be a villain or not. Either way, I didn't like it one bit.

"One of the new softball players is putting up some pretty rough allegations, other than him spiking the drinks."

"Have you spoken with him?" A cold chill ran down my body. Jacob might be a whore, but he would never hurt anyone. The night we'd spent together proved that.

"No. He's next on my list, but I wanted to try and check out the story before laying the situation before him. He's got a lot going on, and the kid’s had a pretty rough life."

"And this girl is claiming rape?" I didn't mean to blurt it out, but by the sad look on the coach’s face, she was doing just that. "No fucking way. I was with him last night. How could he have been with her?"

The coach’s eyes widened a little. "Really? What time?"

"I got to the party at eight, and I went home this morning around four or five, maybe? I would rather you not say anything as it was a total mistake to sleep with him, and I don't want to lose my boyfriend. He cheated on me last night and like an ass, I retaliated." I glanced around, not quite sure of what I was doing. Lying for Jacob was one sure way to get my own ass in hot water.

What if he
had
raped someone? No way. I couldn't believe that if I wanted to.

"All right. Thanks, kiddo. College is a bitch. Just keep your head above water and you'll be fine." He turned and paused, then turned back around. "And Emily... thanks."

I nodded, getting the meaning loud and clear. He knew I was lying, but he had his alibi.

*

"This can't be real, right?" Natasha glanced over at me as we sat in Mersky's later that day, sharing a burger and basket of fries. She'd treated me to an early dinner seeing that there was no way I was going to eat otherwise.

"It's real all right." I plucked the paper from her fingers and read over the list of clothing items we needed for the fall. The total at the bottom was just under a thousand dollars, and with only two months to raise the money, it looked like there was no way I was going to be captain of anything, much less
on
the cheerleading squad.

"What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know. I would normally just give it to Brody and be done with it, but I can't. I gotta get out of there." I folded the paper up and picked up another fry. "He wanted sex this morning and fuck me if I didn't give it to him. I'm going to hell."

"Going? Shit. You're in hell." She grabbed the drink that sat between us and took a few long draws as she glanced around. "I would say you should get a job here because you have the looks to do it, but this place gives me the creeps. I mean, look at the freaking outfits. People are wearing next to nothing."

I glanced around and nodded. "This is true. I can see the top of everyone’s boobs. Why are we here again?"

We shared a laugh as the waitress appeared beside us.

"Anything else for you girls?" She gave us a fake smile and put her hand on her hip as if inconvenienced by our mere presence.

"Yeah, are you guys hiring?" Natasha asked.

"Um, no." She started to clean up our mess. "Ready for your bill?"

"Yeah, thanks." I turned back to Natasha as her eyes narrowed a little. "Hey. Let it go. It's not that big of a deal."

"It is a big deal, but whatever. You need to go get a job at DeAngelos. They have decent uniforms, and Mr. DeAngelo is a great guy."

"I'll think about it." I knew Jacob's dad owned the place. Everyone knew it. "What do you think about Micah Sanders?"

"That was a quick change of subject." She snorted and pulled out a twenty, throwing it down on the table.

"I know, but he mentioned you at the Omega party last night. Really just in passing during one of our conversations, but he's such a good guy."

"Yeah, that's part of the problem. Good guys are usually pussies. I'm not interested. I'm honestly trying to just keep my focus on basketball and my grades. He's incredibly cute, but not my type." She got off her seat as a group of girls moved into the both behind us, talking way the hell too loud.

"It was the party of the century, and Jacob was in rare form." One of the girls giggled.

"Did you get to sleep with him?"

"No, but I tried."

"Me too!"

"He's a fucking animal in the bedroom. He fucked me up against the glass wall to the back door about a week ago, and I could still see the ass smudge when we were there last night. I'm in love."

They laughed some more as my burger rose back up into my chest. How could he take so many random women to his bed? Was he that starved for affection, or were women just toys to be used and thrown out?

"Let's go." I walked toward the door as my phone buzzed in my purse.

"You need to get that?" Tasha lifted her hands toward the air and bounced around a little.

"Yeah. It's Brody." I lifted the phone to my ear as it stopped ringing. "Oh. Never mind." I smirked and walked to her car. The text that came through a few seconds later had him apologizing again and letting me know that he would be with his parents until Monday and the apartment was mine.

The only request...
keep it clean and don't touch my shit.

And this was the man I originally hoped to marry. What a joke.