Consumed: A MMA Sports Romance (41 page)

“I agreed to let you come back to my
place. I never agreed to have sex with you. You’re right here. You’re in my
dorm. That’s the letter of the agreement.” Zack frowned and started to stand
up, before settling back on the couch.

“That’s kind of mean, Evie,” he said. “You
know what it means to go back to someone’s place.”

I shook my head. “No. I said you could
come back to my place. I didn’t say anything about kissing or sex or anything
else.”

Zack pressed his lips together and I could
see he was getting frustrated. If he started yelling at me, it would wake Jess
up for sure, and I at least could count on her—and maybe Alex, whoever he
was—to get rid of Zack. I almost wanted Zack to act like an asshole; it would
make it easier to get over him.

Instead, he took a deep breath and stood.
He started towards the door to the room and stopped as he would have passed me.
He leaned in and I thought he was going to try and convince me; instead he
kissed me on the cheek quickly and then left. I sighed, leaning against the
wall and closing my eyes. I wasn’t sure if I was more relieved or frustrated. I
took a deep breath and locked the dorm room door, going to my bedroom and
throwing myself in bed without even bothering to take off my clothes. I’d
figure out what I thought about it in the morning.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

The next day, I finished off my article
for the newspaper as soon as I got up; it didn’t help my jumbled-up feelings
about Zack that I had to finish transcribing the interview with him. I listened
to the tape again to make sure I hadn’t made any errors and the sound of his
voice sent hot and cold tingles through me. It was nothing, I told myself. Zack
just wanted to make me go on a date with him so he could get in my pants again,
though why he was so determined when there were plenty of girls on campus who
would be happy to oblige, I had no idea. I proofread my article twice and saved
it on a jump drive along with printing it out; that was the standard practice
with the newspaper and I could understand why; they wanted to make sure they
had a hard copy in case something happened to the digital version. It was
easier to re-type something than it was to totally re-compose it.

Before I went to my first class, I went
into the student union and found Lisa’s office on the other side of the meeting
room for the campus newspaper.

“You’re the first in!” she told me
cheerfully, taking the jump drive and the paper from me. She skimmed the
printed copy, nodding a few times. “I’ll read it in detail later, but it looks
like you hit all the high points.”

Before I could go, someone else rushed in
through the door to turn in their assignment, on their way to class. I grinned
to myself; even if it wasn’t perfect—I had no delusions that I would get it
exactly right the first time out—there was some accomplishment in being the
first person to turn in a piece for the edition.

I went to the dining hall and grabbed a
quick breakfast—cereal and juice—and managed to make myself a smoothie to take
with me to class. I had a long stretch from the morning to lunch; the first
week of classes I’d had to deal with a rumbling, roiling stomach halfway through
my second class of the day because I couldn’t eat much early in the morning,
but right around 10 I was starving. I managed to take notes, but the entire
time I was in class I kept getting distracted by thoughts of Zack. The date had
been genuinely fun; while I kind of hated the way he’d gone about convincing me
to go out with him, it had been nice—if a little weird—to relive our high
school relationship that way.

If he had just wanted to get into my
pants, why would he have gone to so much trouble? But he had clearly been
interested in getting me in bed; he’d convinced me to make the wager and had
almost insisted on it when I reneged on the spirit of the agreement. I was
conflicted. I still hadn’t gotten down to the decision of whether Zack was the
same he’d always been or if he’d changed into some gross type of guy who just
slept around and didn’t care about anyone since becoming a frat boy. I had to
clear my head. I’d just have to tell Zack no the next time he asked me out. I
couldn’t afford to get distracted with midterms coming and the need to keep my
grades up to make my scholarships—with the added work of writing for the campus
newspaper. I had to keep myself free of all distractions.

Despite the smoothie, my stomach was
rumbling when I went to the dining hall for lunch. I got in line and tried to
decide which of the slightly unappealing lunch selections was the least
unappealing. I knew from experience that the least visually-appealing
selections tended to taste better, but the ugliness of some of the entrees made
it hard to believe. I decided on the eggplant parmesan, a salad, and some
fruit, reasoning that if I needed to I could get back in line. I tried to steer
my thoughts towards the rest of the classes I had for the day; I really had to
pay attention in math and American History. Stats was kicking my ass in spite
of Jess’ tutoring, and I had to keep up or I’d be hopeless.

I went through the entryway and into the
seating area; the first thing my gaze fell on was Zack, sitting with some of
his teammates—most of them members of his same frat—and a bunch of girls. I
only had to look for a moment to realize the girls were all flirting with him,
trying to get his attention. I clenched my teeth. I didn’t want anything to do
with Zack. He could flirt with as many girls as he wanted to. I certainly
wasn’t going to stand around long enough for him to possibly see me. I quickly
turned away and went blindly into the tangled mass of people at tables. I
spotted Jess with some of our friends from another class and sat down, trying
my best to be as unobtrusive as possible.

In spite of my best efforts, I couldn’t
help but notice that the girls at Zack’s table had spotted me. One of them
asked something I couldn’t quite hear—but the tone of her voice made it clear
she was laughing. They all started looking at me and laughing, and I felt my
cheeks getting hotter and hotter.

“Just ignore them,” Jess suggested, seeing
what I was seeing. “They’re stupid bitches, anyway. Ignore it.”

I couldn’t. They were clearly talking
about me—what they were saying I couldn’t tell, but it had to be hilarious to
them. I could only assume it was either to do with the spectacle I’d made of
myself before in the dining hall, or maybe they had heard something about the
situation before the interview. I tried to eat and not pay attention to it, but
it was impossible.

After a few moments, Zack turned in the
direction they were pointing, and I looked away quickly—but not too soon to
avoid seeing his eyes widen. Oh God, I thought, now I looked like some kind of
weird hung-up freshman. I looked straight down at my plate and tried to calm
myself down. I didn’t care about Zack. I would eat my lunch and go to the
library, or back to my room. If Zack called me, I would ignore it. If he tried
to talk to me, I’d keep walking or leave the room. I fidgeted in my seat. I
finally got the nerve to look up again after a moment; just in time to see Zack
stand up from the table he was sitting at. My heart was pounding in my chest.
No, I thought. Don’t let him come over here. Don’t let him do that. I chewed on
my bottom lip.

The rest of his friends were still
laughing and joking, and I swallowed down the lump of humiliation that was
growing in my throat. I’d just leave, I thought. If I wasn’t there to be made
fun of, they’d have to stop. But then if I ran away, they’d just keep doing it.
I knew from first-hand experience that bullies would keep picking on you if you
gave them what they wanted, and what the girls at Zack’s table wanted was
clearly to make me uncomfortable. I thought of my mom—what she would say.

“Sweetie,
if ignoring them won’t work, you might as well make them realize that if they
mess with you they’ll pay a price for it.”

I thought about it. Should I go over there
and confront the girls?

Before I could make up my mind, Zack
climbed onto the chair he had been sitting in, and then onto the table. The
girls—and even his teammates—were just as surprised as I was. Jess gasped and
asked me in a whisper what the hell was going on. I had no idea at all; I shook
my head numbly. Zack looked around the room as everyone went quiet, stunned at
the spectacle of the star quarterback standing on top of a table in the middle
of the dining hall. Zack looked down at his team mates, and then at the girls.
He glanced at me again and grinned slightly.

“Attention everybody!” he called out—not
quite shouting, but definitely making himself heard throughout the dining area.
“Can I have everyone’s attention?” I didn’t know how he could possibly have
more attention—everyone was looking at him, including the staff. Zack grinned
again. “I want everyone here to know something very important.” I shook my
head, shocked beyond anything I could ever imagine. What was he doing? “I want
everyone to know that I am stupidly, head-over-heels hung up on Evelyn Jackson.
She’s the only girl for me. No one else could ever compare with her.”

Blood flooded into my face. I heard a
clattering noise and looked down to see my fork tumbled onto the table. I felt
hot and cold all at once as Zack pointed to me; every eye in the dining hall
was turned on me. I swallowed, my heart pounding in my chest, my stomach
feeling like it was shooting up into my throat.

It was a joke. It had to be. Zack was
getting his revenge on me for dumping the plate of food on him. I was seething.
After a moment of stunned silence everyone in the dining hall began to laugh—a
few people at first, and then everyone. I stood up without knowing what I was
doing. Jess grabbed at my arm to try and stop me but I pulled away, grabbing my
tray and running away from the table as fast as I could. I don’t know how I
managed to keep everything on the tray, but I was moving through the dining
hall, everything around me a blur, and I slammed my tray into the dish chute. I
didn’t even go around to the main entrance; the thought of everyone still
laughing, still thinking how ridiculous I was, sent me to the back door. I
slammed it open and dashed through it, finding the cement path and running
around the circumference of the dining hall until I got to the main route. My
eyes were stinging, my cheeks were burning. I kept my gaze on the ground at my
feet as I found my way back to the dorms by memory. I swiped my ID card once,
twice, three times. Finally it pinged and the green light on the reader came on
and the door unlocked. I snatched the door open.

I didn’t even bother with waiting for the
ancient elevator to get to the ground floor. I ran through the hall to the
stairs and yanked the door open. I ran up the stairs, ignoring the stitch in my
side and the ache in my legs as I went past the second floor, third, fourth,
all the way to the fifth. The stairs were on the opposite side of the hall from
my room. I walked through the hallway, barely holding myself together; someone
might see me. They might not already know about what happened in the dining
hall. The last thing I was willing to do was to give people another reason to
find out about what Zack had done. I dug my keys out of my pocket and fumbled
with them, dropping them before I managed to unlock the door.

I let the door slam behind me and it
wasn’t until I’d thrown myself onto the couch, face buried in the cushions,
that I realized that I had left my backpack at the dining hall. I hadn’t even
thought about it while I was making my retreat. I had had to get out of
there—nothing was going to stop me. I groaned. Not only had Zack humiliated me
in front of everyone, but now I had to figure out how I was going to get my
textbooks back.

I had to assume that Jess would bring them
back to the dorm. She was flighty but she would definitely have noticed that
I’d left empty-handed. I screamed into the cushions until my throat felt raw
and I started coughing, hot tears flowing from my eyes as I thought of how much
I had been humiliated. I lifted my head from the couch and slammed it back
down, grateful that it was well-padded. I did it again and again. I was so
stupid. I had let Zack mix me up; I had let him get in my head. I should have
never gone to the stupid party with Jess, I should never have let Zack kiss me,
I should have never let him take me back to the frat house. I should have known
better. Zack was no better than any other guy on the planet, even if he had
been there for me when my mom first got sick. He was just another asshole who would
take advantage of me and then embarrass me for my troubles.

I sat up on the couch after a while and
started to calm down. Jess would grab my backpack; I didn’t have to go back for
it and face the prying eyes and smirks of my classmates. I could live down the
humiliation. I’d lived through far worse than humiliation and come out of it
okay. I could get through it. I would bury myself in my work and I wouldn’t
even give anyone the satisfaction of remotely showing I’d ever cared about
Zack. I’d just pretend like it was some stupid thing that didn’t matter at all.
I took deep breaths and decided to wash my face.

Thirty minutes after I had stormed out of
the dining hall, I heard a knock at the main room door. I was confused—and more
than a little alarmed. If it was Jess, I’d have to apologize if I had
accidentally locked her out. Sometimes she forgot her keys, which was
understandable—and usually neither of us was very far away. I’d also have to
apologize for making her haul my books back up to my room, and for running away
the way I had. If it was someone we knew, I didn’t know whether or not I should
answer it. It could be someone who wanted to rub salt in my wounds and tease me
some more about Zack’s display. It could be someone who somehow had managed not
to even hear about it, or someone who had but wanted to comfort me. I stood in
the common area for a long moment staring at the door, hoping that whoever was
on the other side of it would just go away and leave me in peace.