Crushed (12 page)

Chapter 18

Neil

I was coming up on my fifth mile
when I spotted the wanker coming out of Claire's dorm. He was on
his bloody phone again. I couldn't help but wonder who he was
talking to. There was still something that didn't seem right about
him. Something was off.

My thoughts came back to Claire and
I wondered what they'd done last night. Did he kiss her? Did she
enjoy it? Did she moan and roll her hips against his like she'd
done to mine? Did he make her arch her back and lose her mind with
multiple orgasms?

I ran harder. I didn't need to be
thinking about that shit. It'd been two weeks since I'd slept with
a girl and it was getting downright depressing. I had no desire
anymore. The more I tried, the more frustrated I became. It didn't
help that every night I woke up with soiled boxers and -her- name
on my lips. She was haunting my dreams. It was fucked
up.

How could I get closer to Will
without becoming his friend? As far as I could tell the guy was a
loner. He was the kind of guy that you stayed away from. He had
danger written all over him. No doubt he was a loose cannon just
waiting to be set off.

I couldn't follow him around all
day, that would be bloody creepy. We had not one class together so
that was out. I stopped at the seventh mile and smiled to myself.
His room. Maybe there was something in his dorm that would give me
a clue as to what he was about. The only problem was, how did I get
in there? He had a roommate. Tse. He was the guy who did the music
at all the parties. I smiled wider.

I was going to throw a party.
Tonight.

That afternoon after I'd already
spread the word I went to find Tse. He wasn't hard to find, like
most people he was a man of habit. He was sitting on one of the
many grassy hills, large noise canceling headphones on his ears. He
was bobbing his head gently, his long black ponytail swayed softly
in the wind. The dude was Native American so the long hair worked
for him. He was people watching as he listened to his tunes so I
walked in front of him and waved.

He pulled off his headphones and
offered me a nod. "Sup?"

"Nothing really. I'm throwing a
party tonight in the woods and I was hoping you would be the one to
DJ for me. Everyone knows you're the go-to guy for that sort of
thing."

"Sure thing man, you know my rate?"
I nodded and pulled a couple of hundreds from my back pocket and
slipped it to Tse.

"Can I help you set up or
something?" Tse looked at me as if I had another head slowly
popping out of my shoulder. I laughed and shrugged. "Just trying to
be nice. I'm not hitting on you or anything." He snorted and a
small smile crept onto his lips.

"Sure, man. Come by my room around
six. You know where it is?" I nodded.

"Yep. See you then." I smiled to
myself as I walked away. Operation: Spy on Giant was well under
way. The pieces were falling into place. I would figure out what
that sneaky freak was up to before long. Hopefully before the night
was over.

*************

It was six on the dot, Tse opened
the door almost immediately after I'd knocked. His folding set up
ready to go. I also noted a crate with some vinyl records and a
couple of bottles of water near the door.

I nodded to the crate. "Is that
what you want me to grab?" He nodded back, his ponytail falling
over his shoulder as he bent down to retrieve it.

"Think you can handle it, QB?" He
grinned and I laughed.

"I can manage. Are you going to
carry that table - music - thing all by yourself?" I took the crate
from him as I nodded to the eight foot electronic table.

He shrugged. "It's not really that
heavy, just bulky." He picked it up and it seemed he wasn't
bullshitting me. If I were in his shoes I wouldn't trust some jock
with my precious music shit either. I held the door open for him
with my foot and reached down to grab the crate. I very stealthily
unlocked my phone and sent myself a text message. I looked out the
door and he was halfway down the hall already, people pressing
themselves against the wall to get out of the way of his musical
table.

"Hey man, I gotta make a call, I'll
be right behind you!" I called down the hall and he paused and
nodded to me briefly before heading away from me, towards the front
exit.

I let the door close and looked
around. It was clear whose side was whose. Tse's side was covered
with musical posters, CDs, more vinyl records, a guitar sat beside
his bed. The other side was very clean and sparse. Aside from the
school supplies necessary to go to class there was nothing extra.
No family photos. No posters. Nothing to identify that Will had any
interests at all. It was a little creepy and just reinforced my
suspicions of him. I quickly went to his bedside table and opened
the drawer.

I frowned. There was a nudie
magazine but... it only featured men and... bondage. This was not
right. What was he doing with Claire if he was gay? I had nothing
against gays. More women for me. And I had nothing against bondage,
if the girl was into that sort of thing, I guess.

I pulled out the magazine and
started flipping through it quickly, maybe it was a cover. Maybe
there was information inside of it. I mean who the hell would
browse through this unless they were into dudes? I cringed and
tried not to imprint the pictures on my bloody brain. I hope she
appreciated all the trouble I was going through for her. I would be
permanently scarred from these pictures.

Nothing. I shoved the magazine back
into the drawer and huffed. That was a waste. I got down on my
knees and checked under the bed. Nothing. I got up and went to the
desk and opened those drawers. Just office supplies. Very neat and
tidy.

I sat down in Will's chair and
growled. I know he's up to something. I slammed my fists down on
his desk and I felt something flitter to the floor, brushing my leg
on the way. I pushed the chair back and got down on all fours. I
grabbed the paper that had fallen and turned it over. It was blank.
I turned it over the other way. Still blank. I crumpled the paper
in frustration.

It must have been caught in the
desk somehow. I crawled out from under the desk and stuffed the
paper into my pocket and put the chair back where I found it. I
looked around to make sure everything was mint. It was. He wouldn't
be able to tell I'd been snooping. I grabbed the crate with the
records and quickly left, jogging until I reached the edge of the
woods where I spotted the back of Tse's table as he disappeared
between the trees.

Chapter 19

Claire

My phone buzzed with news of Neil's
party in the woods. Part of me was curious to see who showed and
who he showed up with. Another part of me was annoyed that he'd
sent me the invitation at all. I thought I'd made it crystal clear
how I felt about him. Maybe he saw me mentally undressing him when
we bumped into each other at the library.

He had looked so good in my mind. I
shivered involuntarily as those dirty thoughts of him being sweaty
and deep inside me rolled through my mind's eye. I deleted the text
message and then started one of my own. While most of the limited
student body was going to be dancing in the woods I could
experiment with Will.

He had stopped me yesterday from
going down on him but I had figured he was probably just
embarrassed. I'd heard my neighbor next door going at it with her
boyfriend and he'd probably heard the same thing.

Claire: Most everyone will be at
the party tonight. R U going?

I sighed softly as I looked around
my room, mentally making a list of things I needed to do. I heard
my phone ping when I added my fifth item.

Will: Only if U R. Did you want to
go?

Claire: Not really. I was thinking
maybe we could b alone. It will b very quiet on campus.

Will: :-D Where u now? Where did u
want 2 b alone? The library? The fountain?

I blushed as the thoughts of me
going down on Will in either of those places raced through my
mind.

Claire: I was thinking ur place
this time. Will ur roommie b there?

Will: No. He's DJing at the
party.

Claire: Ur place then?
2nite?

Will: Sure. Don't eat. I'll get us
something.

Claire: K. Sounds good. :-) C u
tonight.

I grabbed my laundry and headed
towards the campus laundry facility. Instead of having laundry in
each building we just had one big laundromat. As I opened two
washers to shove my clothes in I looked around and groaned softly.
Neil was here. He was sitting in front of the dryers and was
fiddling with his phone. If I stayed away from him he probably
wouldn't even know I was there.

I slid my card through the reader,
poured in the soap and then quietly shut the lids. I heard his
voice and looked up to see him standing next to me, his hand on the
washer next to mine, his hot body leaning towards it.

"Claire-bear. It looks like you
might need another washer." He reached across me, his bicep
brushing my breast. My nipple puckered at that light, seemingly
innocent touch. I sucked in a breath and exhaled quickly as I saw
his hand picking up my panties.

I snatched my panties from him and
stuffed them back into the basket. "I do but they're all full.
It'll have to wait." I could feel the blush on my face.

He leaned back, giving me back my
personal space, a smirk on his face. "Did you run out?"

"That... is none of your business."
I was gritting my teeth. He made me so angry sometimes. Why was he
talking to me like we were old chums? I was still very hurt by his
indiscretion with Justice. Most of the time I could protect myself,
I'd been doing it for years by focusing on other people. But that
night he should've protected me. It was the right thing to do,
especially if he had cared about me. But he didn't, not outside of
the bedroom. He wasn't capable of those feelings.

"Testy. I do hope you're coming to
my party. You need to relax a little." He kept his hands to himself
and I was grateful for that. But I watched as his eyes took in my
body.

"I'm not. I'm going to be hanging
out with Will... at his place. But he will probably relax me just
fine. Thanks for your concern." He snorted and I frowned at him.
Did he think I was joking? Making it up? I turned to him and put my
hand on my hip. "What on Earth do you think is funny?"

"You thinking Will is going to
relax you. He's not into people like you." My heart felt a pang.
People like me? Good girls? He thought I wasn't good enough for
Will. He probably thought I was not good enough for him either. He
rubbed his eyes with the fingers of one hand and then pinched his
nose. "Claire, I didn't mean it like that." I searched his aura.
Turquoise and bright green. The bright green was always there. He
was trying to protect someone. Me or Will or himself? I wasn't
sure.

I shook my head and stopped him
before he could say more. "Whatever. Did you want something?" He
stared at me for a minute, I saw the turquoise shimmer and then
fade, a dark cherry red came into his aura. He was getting angry.
Good. I tried to hold back my own smug smile.

"Not a damn thing. Just thought
maybe you'd want to know that your lover boy is into dudes." I
stared at him, gawking. He had some nerve. He was so angry he'd
throw around false accusations like that. Did he think I'd dump
Will because he told me a lie about him?

"That's ridiculous. Neil, if you're
trying to win me back you're not doing a good job. In fact you're
doing a real shitty job." He snorted again and I clenched my fists
at my sides.

"If I were trying to win you back,
love, I'd already have you." He was still angry with me but his
words were probably true, I didn't need to search his aura to see
that. The fact that he didn't want to win me back stung. I grabbed
the rest of my dirty laundry and turned away. He grabbed my arm. "I
just don't want you to get hurt." The turquoise flicker was back
and I narrowed my eyes, searching his face again.

"I didn't know you cared so much."
I turned my nose up a little. He didn't care when I wasn't there
when he woke up after homecoming. I wasn't sure he was capable of
caring the way I needed him to. I saw him flinch and I thought it
was probably for the best that he continued to keep his
distance.

"Harsh. I've cared about you for a
long time. That doesn't go away just because you don't like to play
the way I do." He smiled softly, knowing the remark would bite at
me.