Loud: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Male Romance) (8 page)

“I, uh, I just wanted to talk about chemistry class,”
I blurted out as a last resort.

“Oh. Well, we have to finish reading chapters one and
two by tomorrow morning. If you need any other information, you know where to
find me,” she replied.

With that, she hurried into her apartment and closed
the door behind her.

“Bye,” I said to the empty hallway before slowly
closing my own door.

CHAPTER
NINE

Brooke

“So what did he say?” Leslie asked the second I walked
through the door.

“Oh, uhhh, nothing. Or something. I dunno,” I replied.

“Huh? Why are you looking so flustered, Bee?”

“He, uh, he answered the door half-naked.”

Leslie's eyes widened and she let out a riotous laugh.
“So that's why your cheeks are all red, huh? So how did he look without a shirt
on? As good as I imagine he does?”

I grinned. “Better.”

We both laughed, then I changed my tone. I had to tell
her what else I'd seen there.

“So, that Melissa girl was there, too. And uh, he
answered the door only in a towel, soooo yeah…”

“Oooh.”

“Exactly.”

“Sorry, Brooke.”

“Why are you
sorrying
me? I told you I wasn't interested in him. Granted, he's hot and clearly has a
great body, but that's about it. I told you, I have to focus on my studies this
semester. Besides, he's with blondie and totally off-limits. Seeing that makes
it even easier than it was before to write off this ridiculous attraction.”

Leslie grinned. “So, you admit you’re attracted to
him.” She gave me her
I told you so
look. “Are you sure he's with her, though?”

I raised a skeptical eyebrow at her. “Les, come on.
He's in there
naked
with her,
alone
. What else could they be doing?”

I almost mentioned the noises I had heard, but stopped
myself. Leslie had been pissed enough the first time it had happened. If she
knew it had happened again, she'd go over there and make a scene, which I
didn't want.

“It might not be what you think. Don't jump to conclusions,”
she said.

“Well, it seems pretty damn obvious to me.”

“Um, might I remind you of the Brandt Lucas incident
our senior year? You said that was obvious, too. Just ask Emerson about it when
you're studying with him or something!”

I shook my head. “Oh my God, Les, I can't just ask him
about
that
! What am I supposed to
say?”

“Just
ask
?”

I put on my best male jock accent and tried to imitate
Chris as best I could. “Yo, Emerson, bro, are you like, bangin' that fake-tittied
Melissa bitch, dawg?”

We both burst out laughing at my silly impression.

“Regardless of what's happening with him and that Melissa
chick, I hope you let Emerson know how much we enjoyed the curry chicken. It
was pretty amazing, right?” Leslie said.

“Oh my God,
so
good! The man knows how to
cook.”

Something mischievous sparkled in Leslie's eyes. “I
wonder what other tricks he's got up his sleeve?”

“Come off it, Les, I'm not interested. Just forget
about it.”

“Alright, alright. For now,” she grinned and picked up
the TV remote.

We were halfway through an episode of
Mad Men
when
it started: a deep, intense thumping that seemed to rattle and vibrate
everything in our apartment.

“What the hell is that?” Leslie exclaimed, looking
around in surprise.

“I’m pretty sure it's bass,” I replied. “Sounds like a
car with a really,
really
insane
sound system.”

We paused the show and went out on the balcony to see
if someone had parked their pimped ride outside and had started an impromptu
block party on the street. However, the street was quiet. There wasn’t a soul
around. The deep thumping of music continued, though. We walked back inside,
wondering where the sound was coming from.

“Damn, that is
loud,”
exclaimed Leslie. “Like
seriously, what's going on?”

I thought I knew. I turned and walked into my room,
and as soon as I opened the door, the sound seemed to come through a lot
louder. Just as I had suspected, the music was coming from the apartment next
door.

Leslie followed me into my room and immediately came
to the same conclusion.

“It's Chris and Emerson,” she said, putting her hands
on her hips and shaking her head.

I checked my watch. “It's getting close to midnight,
and it's a weeknight. This isn't right.”

“You're damn right it isn’t!” she announced, her eyes
fiery with anger as her quick temper took hold. “I'm gonna go over there and
give those two a piece of my damn mind!”

“Hold on, hold on. Let me go. You know how you get
when you're uh, a little…upset.”

“I'll rip their damn balls off!”

“Annnnd my point is made. I'll ask them nicely first,
okay? Just hold up. We don’t need to be rearranging people’s anatomy
unnecessarily.”

She was fuming, but she nodded her head in agreement.
It wasn’t the first time I’d had to step in and save someone from Leslie’s
wrath. It probably wouldn’t be the last, but it was a better idea to let me use
a more diplomatic approach.

I stopped off in the bathroom to check my reflection
in the mirror and then headed over. As soon as I got into the hall, the music
got a lot louder. I wondered if I shouldn't wait and let some other resident do
the complaining for me because, surely, someone else would be just as annoyed
by the music as we were. But when I heard Leslie shouting profanities from
within our apartment behind me, I knew it couldn't wait. If I didn't go now,
she would, and then we'd have World War Three on our hands. I inhaled a deep
breath and knocked.

The music was so loud that nobody heard me. I had to
resort to balling my hand into a fist and hammering on the door so violently
that it shook on the hinges.

After a few moments, the door opened and there stood a
shirtless Chris, bleary-eyed with drunkenness.

“Woohoo, one of the babes from next door has come to
join the party!” he roared.

The stench of beer on his breath was overwhelming. Behind
him in the apartment, some of the bimbos I'd seen with them before were all
playing what I could only assume was strip poker, judging from the cards
scattered across the coffee table and the state of undress some of them were
in.

“Uh, I did not come to join the party, Chris,” I said.
“I just wanted to ask if you could maybe turn the music down a bit.”

“What? I can't hear you, Lester,” he slurred.

“My roommate is Leslie, I'm Brooke,” I said, getting
annoyed. “The music, could you turn it down?”

Just then Emerson stepped out of the kitchen, wearing
only a pair of boxer briefs. He had a beer in his hand, and he looked a little
on the drunk side, too. I couldn't help but stare; he was built like a Greek
god. All the hours he’d spent at gym had paid off. However, now that I'd seen
it before, I was able to keep my eyes more properly focused. Being annoyed at
his obnoxious roommate helped, as well.

“Hey, Brooke!” he shouted. He seemed very excited to
see me. “Come on in! We're just playing some drinking games here! You'll have a
great time, c'mon!”

“Uh, no thanks, Emerson.”

“What?” he questioned, his face crinkled as if he
couldn’t understand me.

“I SAID, NO THANKS. LISTEN, COULD YOU PLEASE TURN THE
MUSIC DOWN?”

“HUH?”

That was it. I pushed past Chris and walked into their
place, squeezing past Emerson, as well. The girls all stopped their chatting
and giggling and stared at me in surprise as I pushed my way past them, too. I
headed straight for their sound system — a gigantic, expensive set of equipment
— and began searching for the volume button. The music was absolutely deafening
inside the apartment. It was almost like being inside an actual nightclub.

“HEY, THIS CHICK IS A DJ!” shouted Chris from the
door. “SHE'S GONNA SPIN SOME TRACKS! HIT IT, GIRL! THAT'S MY NEW DJ SETUP! I'M
LEARNING TO DJ, YO! SHOW US WHAT YOU GOT!”

I found the volume knob and quickly turned it down,
dropping the sound level by half.

“I am not a DJ,” I stated firmly, suddenly feeling my
cheeks starting to glow with embarrassment as everyone stopped what they were
doing and stared disapprovingly at me. “I just wanted to ask you guys to turn
the sound down a bit. The bass is going right through to our apartment next
door, and it's so crazy that it's actually making everything literally shake
inside our place. Please, guys, please just be a little more considerate, okay?
Both of us next door have really long days tomorrow and we need to sleep. I'm
not saying you can't party, but please, please just keep it down, alright?”

Chris looked like he was about to say something, but
Emerson jumped in before he could.

“I'm sorry, Brooke,” he said, looking genuinely
ashamed. “We've, uh, we've had a few drinks and I guess we didn't realize how
loud the music was. We'll keep it down.”

The girls were all staring at me with naked hatred in
their eyes. I was now the bitchy, no-fun neighbor, for sure. Not that I cared,
but I couldn't take their stares for a moment longer. I hurried out of the
apartment without another word.

“Wait, Brooke!” Emerson called out after me, but I was
done.

I stormed back into my apartment and slammed the door
shut behind me.

Inside, Leslie was waiting not so patiently.

“How did it go?”

“Well, the music's quieter now, right?”

She glared at me with that knowing expression of her.
She knew how upset I was.

“Oh no, were they jerks about it?” she asked.

“No, well, Chris kinda was. Emerson wasn’t. But those
girls they had in there — you know, the same group of airheads who were at
their party before. Jeez, Les, they looked at me like I was the devil
incarnate. They gave me these cold-hearted, bitchy stares, like
I
was the one in the wrong.”

Leslie gave me a hug. “Aw, don't let the idiots get to
you. They were being complete assholes. It's a good thing I didn't go over
there because you can bet a can of whoop-ass would've been opened, especially
if any of those dumb bitches had dared give me the hairy eyeball. I've got half
a mind to go over there right now anyway and hand out a few ass-whoopins.”

“No, Les, let it go. I've taken care of it. The music
is down, and I don’t think they’ll turn it up again. We don't need any more
conflict tonight. Let's just go to bed.”

“Alright, if you insist.”

“I do.”

We both went to our rooms. I got ready and slipped
into my bed, still feeling a little awful from the confrontation. I turned the
lights off and fell asleep to the muffled thumping of dance music faintly coming
through the wall next to me.

***

When I walked into chemistry class, the chair I had
planned on making my usual seat was taken. The one next to it was open, however,
so I walked into the lecture hall and sat down.

I didn’t recall seeing the guy sitting in my seat in
this class on Monday, I had scoped everyone out since I was one of the first
ones to arrive the first day of class. I’d have remembered him. He was really
good-looking. Not as striking as Emerson, but like my neighbor, this guy looked
like he worked out regularly. He had short-cropped, dark blond hair, a bit of
rough stubble on his face, and the black-rimmed glasses he wore gave him an intellectual
air, which I had to admit I found quite alluring. He glanced across at me as I
took my seat and smiled.

“Hi,” he said. “Sorry, did I take your seat?”

“Um, yeah, actually you did. But it's okay, this
seat’s fine.”

“Sorry about that. I just transferred into this class,
and didn't know if people had regular seats or what. I'll move, it's fine.”

“No, no, you can stay. Nobody sits in this chair, so
I'll just stay here.”

“I'm Garrett, by the way,” he said with a smile,
extending his hand to me.

I shook it, noticing immediately how strong and firm
his grip was.

“I'm Brooke. Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, likewise. So tell me, Brooke, how are you
enjoying this class so far?”

“Well, we’ve only had one class, but the professor is
awesome. She's totally got a knack for explaining difficult concepts in a way
that makes them easy to grasp. But I don’t know if you can go by me. Since I
was a kid, I've always been fascinated with chemistry, so I might have an edge
in understanding it.”

“Nice. When I was little, I used to mix all sorts of
things together in jars, pretending they were beakers on Bunsen burners. My dad
was pretty stoked about it because he's a physicist, but Mom wasn't too pleased.
Probably because she always had to clean up the mess afterward.”

 
“Yeah, I'm sure
she wasn't too happy about that.” I chuckled, then let out a yawn. It was early
and I hadn't gotten enough sleep. Emerson and Chris had kept their party going
until the early hours of the morning, and the music, although turned down, had
still come through my wall and woke me up a few times.

“Late night last night?” Garrett asked.