Chapter 15

The sound of the dinning hall rang in the background like the impatient drone of a clock in a silent apartment; you couldn’t get it out of your head if you had nothing else to think about. Sitting at a table in the middle of the cafeteria all alone definitely took away much of my entertainment.

True to his word, Beck totally skipped practice on Saturday. The two of us ended up sleeping in until midday, only getting up to watch a movie and order takeout from a Chinese place near by. Sadly, today, also known as the ever dreaded Monday, I had to go to class so I couldn’t stay home in bed. What was I doing sitting alone? Waiting for Beck, my ever faithful servant, to get

Himself and I lunch since my hip was absolutely killing me. Even sitting here in these padded blue chairs was making me uncomfortable.

I thought being alone and bored was miserable, but I stand corrected. I knew that instantaneously when I felt a man’s presence behind me before I saw him out of the corner of my eye, taking a seat across from me at the square table. After confessing to Beck about my rape, this man was the last person I wanted to see. He’s half the reason I didn’t even want to tell Beck.

“What do you want, Alec?” My voice was less than amused, crossing my arms across my chest in annoyance and hostility. Sadly, the movement only drew his hazel eyes to my boobs under my navy windbreaker with the fancy Q on the breast.

“I uh, saw you get hit the other night. I wanted to make sure you’re okay,” the lanky swimmer spoke somewhat

Hesitantly, running a hand through his blonde hair.

“Well I’m sitting here so I’d say I’m pretty okay, but I’m starting to boarder slightly unhinged due to your presence,” I snipped back, not wanting to think about him. It was obvious exactly why he wanted to speak with me; he felt guilty and after seeing me get knocked on my ass and almost break down mid ice, Alec suddenly thought he had hurt a defenseless woman. I wouldn’t take his bullshit.

“Look, I’m sorry Danny. I didn’t mean to-“

“I’m glad you stopped wasting my time, though the same can’t be said right now,” my clipped voice retorted with a slight glare. I wished he would take the hint and leave already.

“New friends?” I heard Beck’s husky voice ask as a plate of steaming vegetables an chicken appeared in

Front of me. My attention focused on him as he removed his black backpack from the chair on my left and sat down, his superior muscles shifting under his long sleeve black shirt.

Beck’s judgmental eyes ran over Alec, observing every detail of the man in the way Beck usually does, never missing a single movement or wrinkle. That’s what made him such a prodigy at hockey; he could predict every move based on the direction of his opponents eyes or the twitch of a hand. “New boyfriend?” Alec asked in the same tone, seemingly trying to size up the captain of the hockey team. I resisted the urge to laugh because while Alec was a fit and tall swimmer, he was nothing compared to the equally vertically gifted, much stronger, and more alpha male typed Beckett Sampson.

“I’m not trying to sleep with your girlfriend, buddy,” Beck droned slightly patronizingly. I couldn’t hide my smirk.

I don’t think any girl would see much of a competition between the two. Then again, I’m a biased judge. “I don’t date my teammates. So what do you want? Because based on her face, this isn’t a very pleasant conversation.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I sent Beck an annoyed look before focusing my attention back on Alec, who was growing exponentially more annoyed at Beck’s presence by the second. “Thank you for the concern, Alec, but if you were really worried about my wellbeing you would have made better choices in the past. So I suggest you stop using me as your good deed of the day to feel good about yourself, and move along because frankly I’m not interested in anything you have to say.”

I would be lying if it didn’t feel good to finally snap at Alec while also somehow maintaining my dignity. He pursed his lips, maintaining his composure with a brief nod. “I wish you the best, Danny,” Alec spoke while

Standing up. His attention flickered briefly to Beck, who had already moved on to his food, ignoring the swimmer like he was nothing more than a bothersome fruit fly.

“Sure you do, Alec. Sure you do,” I muttered sarcastically, watching him retreat out of the dinning hall with his bag over his shoulder. It didn’t take long for me to glance back at Beck, who was already watching me.

“What’s his deal?”

“Trying to make himself feel justified,” I answered vaguely. “Anyway, what the fuck was that? Stroking your ego?”

Beck raised his black eyebrow questioningly, biting back his smirk. “I simply asked if he was your new friend. Besides, you weren’t looking too keen on his presence anyway. Who even is he?”

“Ex boyfriend,” I muttered while

Rolling my eyes. “And no, you were one hundred percent sizing him up.” Beck was an outgoing and sarcastic son of a bitch. I knew that from the second Beck told me I had a nice ass in this same dinning hall. I had still hated him at the time, but I didn’t think he’d go as far as to publicly flirt with me. Though his sarcasm was ever present and it was a testament to his personality.

“I size people up on a daily basis. It kind of comes with the whole hockey thing,” he drawled sarcastically.

“We both know it’s because you want to fuck me and can’t stand the competition.”

Beck snorted to himself with a smirk, shaking his head slightly as he put his glass of ice water down. “It’s cute you think I find Alec threatening.”

Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow, resting my jaw on my fist. “Please, do tell what’s wrong with Alec

Besides my obvious distaste for him.”

“All I’m saying is you could have that skinny white guy who couldn’t hurt a fly or you could have this package of caramel law student that is literally twice the size, in more ways than one,” Beck smirked in a low voice so no one else could hear him. I tried to ignore his allusion to his dick size but my cheeks still heated up a bit and he was more than aware of it. “This is just a sign that your taste in guys has clearly evolved.”

“So you’re saying I want a man who can beat the shit out of someone?”

“No,” Beck defended, raising his hands up mockingly. “Maybe protective is the right word. Or you know, weighs more than a hundred pounds soaking wet.” Alec wasn’t that skinny; he was an athlete after all. But I wasn’t in the business of defending shitty exes.

“I’ll remember that next time I reject you for the millionth time and have

To find a new guy,” I quipped cockily, feeling proud of myself for some reason.

“Don’t even try, Sweetheart. If I wasn’t your hockey captain you’d be all over me. Good luck finding someone better than me,” Beck spoke, leaning back in his chair like he had just won this argument. I had to scoff at his cockiness, but in all honesty I was having a harder time believing it got better than Beck every day. The real test would be when we no longer saw each other daily, when there were miles between us. That’s when I would know if our friendship was something real or a front office schema forcing us together. I hoped it was the former, or else Beck was just another person that I convinced myself to think cared about me. That was too depressing to think about now, though.

Instead, I looked around the cafeteria in search of a guy. I was very pleased with the results when my vision landed

On an attractive man with rich blonde hair and strong features, sitting with three others in various versions of Quinnipiac soccer apparel. “What about that blonde? What if I went over and talked to him? I’d say he meets your ‘requirements’,” I joked with Beck as the man felt my eyes on him, turning to look at me from his friends. He sent me a charming smile as I sent a soft one back, deciding if I should actually flirt with this guy.

I mean, Beck was off the table so why not?

“The kicker for the third rate football team who’s barely passing math 102? Might as well go back to your ex at this point,” my attention shifted back to Beck.

“You know him?”

“He’s only sat in front of us in psychology for an entire semester. He literally asked us to explain logarithms. You really have a shitty memory, Dumbass.” Instinctively my attention went back to the kid to my left only to see him look away when Beck sent him the iciest glare I’ve ever seen. He could melt cities with that look, and trust me, I had seen a lot of guys who wanted nothing to do with me on the ice. Beck’s glare was an ‘I will legitimately rip your throat out’ glare. I scoffed for the umpteenth time and rolled my eyes while Beck shrugged and responded innocently, “what? I’m thinning the herd. Only the best for the queen.”

“At this point I’ll take any dick I can get. You and Sebastian are scaring away all the good prospects. I don’t appreciate it.”

“Any dick?” Beck repeated suggestively. “It’s a shame you’re injured, Danny. Because I could show you a real good time.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Keep talking, Beckett. I think you have a kink for

Beckett. I think you have a kink for rejection,” I shot back, stabbing my chicken with my fork pointedly.

“You are much more of a masochist then I am, if that’s what you are implying.”

“The sadist and the masochist. Sounds like a match made in hell,” I pointed out bitterly before taking a sip of my water, the cold liquid running down the back of my throat.

“Too bad the masochist wants to be an angel. It’s much more fun down here.”

“The masochist prefers employment post college.”

Beck exhaled in exhaustion, suddenly seemingly done with this conversation.

“Yeah, I know.”