Resist Me

Chapter 18

West

The audacity of this bitch to think he could talk to my sister. It helped a little that I knew he wouldn’t be interested in her, but still. The audacity .

Willow kept asking if I’d go to the party. No matter how many times I told her no, she wouldn’t accept it. Apparently, she thought that since I was the quarterback, I should be doing all this extra shit. Sure, I enjoyed a good party or two, but I wasn’t in the mood. There were too many things going on right now for me to think about something like that.

“Who shit in your ravioli?” Brooks asked.

I looked down at my bowl with a frown. “The universe.”

While I took another bite, I looked around his apartment. It was much better than ours. Linc’s place was pretty nice too, but nothing like this. Brooks lived in a tall building closer to downtown. There was a balcony with a view of the water. Right now, I could see a ferry out there, which made me want to see what it was like. Open water freaked me out, though, so Kai would probably have to hold me against his chest while I screamed .

The image made me laugh. He could be so nurturing. He hadn’t definitively decided if he wanted kids someday, but if he did, he was going to be the coolest dad ever.

When I turned toward Brooks again, he was in the middle of eating a big ass pickle. I almost choked on my food at the thought.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

“Ass pickle. If I use that to refer to Kai’s dick, will he finally kill me?”

“Absolutely. I’m shocked he hasn’t done it already.”

I shrugged. “I’m ungovernable. He likes it. What about you?”

“Eh, you’re okay. Not my favorite crazy bastard, but you’re tolerable.”

“Mm. I was talking about what you like. Or who.”

He shifted in his seat. The bite he took of his pickle was bigger than the others and I was convinced he was chewing it slower. Brooks had kept whatever was going on under wraps. It just made me want to figure it out even more. Was it scandalous? Maybe he was boning a teacher. He seemed too smart to do something like that, but anything was possible.

After an insufferable amount of time, he shrugged. “I was in this casual thing for a while. I liked her, but I found out she had a boyfriend.”

“Well, that’s fucked up. Why didn’t you say anything about it?”

He chewed on his lip, staring at the pickle jar. I reached over and grabbed one. The dude was weird for this, but hey, I liked them too. There was nothing wrong with having the appetite of a pregnant woman.

“It was a couple of months ago,” he said.

My brow furrowed. “Okay, but you still have something going on.”

“Maybe. I don’t know yet. It’s… complicated.”

“You should bone her boyfriend. Payback.”

He didn’t respond to that. It was either suspicious or the suggestion was just that dumb.

“Do you lean more in one direction?” I asked.

Tapping his fingers on the counter, he seemed to consider it. “No, I don’t really consider things like that. Just depends who the person is, I guess. It can be difficult because some people aren’t into the details of my sexuality. ”

“How are they not into it?”

“Sometimes, it’s a trust thing. Maybe they see it as more reasons for you to cheat. Or it’s insecurity. They think you’ll miss the other side, you know?”

I hummed thoughtfully as I took a drink from my soda. “That sounds like more of a ‘them’ problem. If they want to be with you, they should be able to trust you regardless of your sexuality. Besides, the girl you were with cheated on her boyfriend, so it’s not like there are any guarantees either way.”

“No, I agree. Those are just the things I’ve heard.”

“People need to chill the hell out. Let’s like who we like and not overthink it. If someone thinks it’s icky who I have sex with, they can just stop thinking about who I have sex with.”

Brooks laughed before he screwed the lid back on the jar. “Sex is sex and it’ll be great either way. Well, unless they’re a selfish asshole.”

“No selfish assholes allowed. They don’t deserve good sex.”

After he put the pickles away, he leaned his elbows on the counter. He had that look on his face that made me feel like worms were slithering across my skin. When he was a lawyer, it would probably make all the criminals squirm. Honest to god, he might’ve been a mind reader.

“Has anyone been on your mind lately?” he asked.

“No, not really. I almost slept with a cheerleader, but then I found out that women can be just as gross as men.”

“Did she not shower?”

I snorted. “She was talking about how they rate the football team, which is fine, but she got all lusty with Lincoln, even though she knew he was gay.”

“Hm.”

“Then, she said the same thing about Kai, so I kicked her out.”

“Which one bothered you more?”

My head cocked. “What do you mean?”

He smirked around his Coke bottle. “Oh, nothing.”

“You said you’re not crushing on Linc, but I feel like you’re lying.”

“Not me, buddy. I don’t thirst for guys who are already enamored with someone else. ”

I leaned forward. “You annoy the hell out of me sometimes. You’re like that dude in Game of Thrones who had all the secrets and spies. He got burned to death by a dragon, you know.”

“I guess he wasn’t that good at what he did, huh?”

“Fine. Be cryptic. I’ll forget all about it when I leave anyway. My attention span is laughably short.”

“Just like your dick.”

He dodged a flyaway ravioli, which ended up splatting against the fridge. It stuck there for a minute before it fell to the floor. The glare he shot me was almost as good as Kai’s when I pissed him off.

*****

When I left my room, Sen was sitting on the couch in just a pair of sweats. He looked tired. With work and his new classes, it felt like I’d barely seen him.

“You eat?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Cooking sounds like an extreme sport right now.”

I chuckled and started opening cabinets. I wasn’t Gordon Ramsey, but I could whip something up. Oftentimes, my dad wouldn’t make dinner for us. If he did, I tried not to be around since he’d make me sit at the table to eat, which was too close for comfort.

After setting a cutting board on the island, I started to slice some chicken. My eyes raised to the TV, then dropped again.

“Think we can watch something else?”

“Sure. Marvel isn’t really my thing. It was just on.”

He flipped to Netflix and I refocused on the chicken. Turning around, I put it in a pan, then got some tortillas. How many quesadillas did I want? It was a hard decision. Probably ten. It was Friday, so I didn’t have class. If I went into a coma, I wouldn’t be miffed about it.

By the time I dropped a plate in front of Sen, I was starving. One day, I’d be able to afford ordering food every day. Or I’d have a chef. That would be cool, but it also felt pretentious. I was a pretty simple person. The only thing I’d really need was a pest-free apartment.

A door opened down the hall, then Willow showed up beside the couch. She stretched her arms above her with a big yawn. I saw her eyeing my quesadillas, so I put the plate in my lap and hovered over them protectively .

She dropped ungracefully into the spot between me and Sen. When she brought her feet up, they were entirely too close to me, so I shoved her legs away. The sneaky bitch used it as an opportunity to make me let down my guard. She snatched two whole quesadillas off of my plate and leaned as far away from me as she could while she took a massive bite of one.

I tried to grab them, but it made her slam into Sen. Instead of continuing the fight, she stood and raced back to her room with her spoils.

The little couch potato beside me snickered. “This is like a taste of your own medicine.”

“Oh, don’t you start. I made you food.”

“You’re a saint, West. If I was allowed to knight you, I would.”

With an unsatisfied grunt, I ate the rest of my quesadillas quickly so that she wouldn’t have a chance to come steal more of them. She was a wild, uncivilized animal.

Just as I was getting into the movie, my phone went off. The name that came up made me pause. Without reading it, I slipped it back into my pocket. I couldn’t pay attention to the TV now. A million thoughts were going through my head, so I caved and took out the phone again. It wouldn’t hurt to see what he had to say. Unless he wanted to compensate me for my fucked up ribs, I wasn’t going to respond.