Faking the Play (Hot Mess Harems #2)

2. Amelia

Chapter two

Amelia

“ W hoa, there.”

Big hands closed around my arms and kept me from falling, but did nothing to ease my embarrassment.

“I’m so sorry,” I said quickly, taking a step back. “I should’ve been looking where I was going but I wasn’t and I’m so sorry and I’m just going to—”

“Amelia?”

The deep voice rumbled through me, but this time, I realized that I recognized it. My embarrassment gave way to complete and utter mortification as I looked up—way up—into a pair of icy gray eyes that warmed as soon as our gazes met. Messy blond hair and absolutely massive muscles made up the six feet and four inches of Ryan Thompson, CSU’s star defensive lineman.

And one of my childhood best friends.

Which meant…

Someone cleared their throat.

Shit.

“If it isn’t Amelia Fine.”

To Ryan’s right stood a handsome man a few inches shorter, with reddish-brown hair and dark brown eyes. Twenty-one-year-old Ethan Blake, playboy wide receiver with a bit of a troublemaker streak. His dimples flashed as he smiled at me, but that smile quickly vanished when he saw my expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“Are you okay?”

The concern in Logan Carter’s voice broke me, and I burst into tears. This time, they weren’t just running down my cheeks. I was full-on bawling, standing in the middle of the sidewalk with three of the school’s hottest and most sought-after athletes staring at me.

“What the hell?” Ryan muttered. “I didn’t do anything. I swear.”

“Amelia, hon, are you okay?”

I’d always thought Logan Carter looked a bit like Clark Kent with his black hair and bright blue eyes, but that resemblance had faded when he—and his two best friends—had basically abandoned me once they became popular athletes in junior high. Now, he was right back to looking like Henry Cavill’s Superman as he swooped in like some hero.

If I hadn’t been a complete and utter wreck, I might’ve been pissed that he was finally deigning to talk to me again, but all I could do at the moment was wring my hands and babble a bunch of nonsense that didn’t even make sense to me.

“Those damn pictures…how? Who? No, I know who…but he couldn’t…he did. It had to be him. What am I going to do? Oh, no—Dr. Isenberg. He can’t think I’d…what if he believes I started…everyone saw them…” A bubble of hysteria rose in my chest, and I knew if I didn’t stop the words from coming out, I’d lose it right here on the sidewalk. Summoning all of my self-control, I pressed my lips together and swallowed the rest of the words before they could escape.

“We’re causing a show,” Ethan said quietly. “Let’s get her out of here.”

“Come on.” One of Ryan’s massive arms went around my shoulders.

The three of them led me toward the parking lot, which wasn’t in the direction of my dorm at all.

“Where are we going?” My question was muffled, but they understood me anyway.

“We’re taking you to our place,” Logan said. “I’m guessing you wouldn’t want all the attention we’d get if we took you back to your dorm.”

“We drove over this morning,” Ethan explained. “So we’re taking you to the car, and then we’ll drive to Quarry.”

Quarry. Right. The apartment complex not too far from the stadium. It didn’t surprise me that they lived off campus. Ironically, it actually wasn’t too far from my dorm.

“Okay.”

My agreement seemed to be some sort of signal for us all to just shut up and walk as quickly as possible. Before I knew it, I was bundled into the back seat with Ethan who, at six feet, was the shortest of the three, and Logan drove us back to their place. The drive was only a couple minutes, but I managed to pull myself together in that time, enough that I wasn’t a blubbering mess when I followed them into one of the buildings and down a hall to a massive ground-floor apartment.

If my entire world hadn’t been falling apart, I would’ve been a little more awestruck.

“Sit,” Ryan said as he led me over to an expensive-looking couch. “What do you want to drink?”

“I’m good.” I sat down because it seemed rude not to, but I didn’t want to overstay my welcome. “Once I catch my breath, I’ll go.”

“Here.” Logan held out a glass of ice water. “Drink this. Do you want anything to eat?”

I shook my head, but accepted the water. Sipping at it helped cool me down, but it also made my empty stomach remember that I’d skipped breakfast this morning because I’d been too excited about getting the books for my new position.

Shit. My books.

“My bag—” I started.

“We got it,” Ethan said from the kitchen where he was going through cabinets. “And you’re going to eat with us. Coach has us on this strict diet about when we eat and how much, especially before practice.”

“You have practice today?” I seized on the subject, hoping I could make small talk for a bit and then leave.

I should’ve known better.

“What happened?” Logan asked as he sat down next to me. “I’ve never seen you that upset before. I mean, you’re not exactly the type of person to get emotional in public.”

I didn’t tell him that I’d been just as destroyed when I lost their friendship. They’d never been mean to me after that, they just acted like I didn’t exist at all. Somehow, that had almost been worse.

“Lia, tell us.”

Hearing Ryan use that nickname cracked something inside me, and everything came pouring out. The looks in the store. The text from Jason. The pictures, and that accusation.

The crash of something in the kitchen at the end of my story had the three of us turning in that direction. Ethan gripped a frying pan so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Fury flashed in his eyes, and his normally smiling face wore an expression I’d never seen on him before.

“I’m gonna kill the fucker,” Ethan said quietly.

“One of Jason’s friends could’ve gotten his phone and sent themselves the pictures.” Even as I said it, I knew it was a lie. Jason used facial recognition to lock his phone. He’d mentioned it to his buddies once when one of them complained about his girlfriend wanting access to his text messages.

“You could go to the police about this,” Logan said. “There are a lot of prosecutors who want to start setting precedents about revenge porn.”

My cheeks flushed at his word choice, and I knew I couldn’t do it. “No. There’s no proof he did anything, and he’s smart enough to cover his tracks.”

That was the problem with dating a fellow academic. Intelligent people could be as awful as anyone, but it was harder to prove anything.

“You could go to the school about it,” Logan suggested. “He won’t get jail time, but there’d at least be a punishment of some kind.”

“That’s if they believe me over him,” I pointed out. “Plus, there’s that accusation about my professor—”

“Anyone who knows you knows that’s total bullshit,” Ryan said. “Even if you weren’t fucking brilliant, you’d never sleep with a teacher.”

“You’d never fuck anyone for a job,” Ethan said. Some of the anger had left his face, but he still wasn’t back to his normal smiling self. “We could be your character witnesses.”

At that, I couldn’t help myself. “You guys haven’t done more than say hi to me in seven years. How do you know I haven’t changed into someone who’ll do whatever it takes to get ahead? Even sleeping with Dr. Isenberg?”

Logan shook his head, a contrite expression on his face. “First, I’m sorry. We never should’ve dumped you like that. We might’ve been moving in two different directions back then, but it shouldn’t have broken up our friendship.”

“What he’s trying to say is that we were stupid little bastards,” Ethan said. “And we should’ve made this right a long time ago.”

“So let us help you now.” Ryan sat on my other side. “What can we do?”

Everyone was looking at me with such intensity that I took a large gulp of my water…and choked. As I sputtered and coughed, my hand shook, threatening to spill the rest of the glass. One of the guys took it from me and the other pounded on my back as tears flooded my eyes.

A memory surged forward of the last time we’d all been together, sitting around in the treehouse Logan’s dad had bought him as an apology for breaking a promise. For some reason, my stomach had been a bundle of nerves, and I’d done the same thing. Took a big drink and inhaled at the same time.

Despite the tears streaming down my cheeks and how rough my throat felt, for a brief moment, I felt safe.

And once I could talk again, I’d make sure the guys knew I’d forgiven them for everything that happened in our pasts. Even if we were only ever acquaintances from here on out, at least they’d be back in my life in some way.