For Three Seconds (Forbidden Sports Romance) Read online

  Whether I wanted it or not, I was about to collide with my past, and I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to face it. Audrey led me through their condo. It was cute, clean, girly, decorated. Audrey’s parents were well-off, so she had lived here since her freshman year. She’d come to the clinic I had checked into and offered me a room.

  I’d declined; I wasn’t in the state of mind to be anywhere near this campus. I told myself I wouldn’t run into him, so I was safe.

  “This is your room,” Audrey said as she motioned to the room that was on the first floor near the back entrance. It was painted an ivory color, with a full-size bed with a black comforter. “I’m so glad you’re here, Scar.”

  “Thank you. I’m going to get settled.” I gave her a brief smile, and she gave me a sad one.

  I didn’t tell her that it was I either lived with Nick or bunked with her. I wasn’t that much of a jerk.

  The days leading up to the first day of class came rather quickly. I made no effort to socialize with my roommates. The brunette who opened my door on move-in day was Kenia; she was pretty, but kind of a bitch. There was also Delia, who had pale lavender hair and some piercings, but she was sweet. Kenia glared at me and told me not to touch her shit, while Delia told me to help myself to her stuff. All three were gone a lot with cheer practice. I heard them leave in the mornings, and I tried to see if I missed my old life, but that was just it. I felt nothing. I hadn’t for a while.

  “Okay, that’s it. I’ve let you mope, I’ve let you get used to us, and now I am tired of it.” Audrey barged into my room with Delia behind her and Kenia at the door.

  I sat up from where I was lying on the bed, trying to remember how long I’d been staring up at the white ceiling, and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember.

  “I’m not moping,” I said.

  “Let me guess, your boyfriend dumped you.” Kenia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

  “Don’t be a bitch, Kenny.” Delia shot her a glare. “If that’s the case, he’s an asshole, and we should all hold hands and pray his dick shrinks a size or two.”

  All three of us gave Delia a questioning look. She shrugged it off.

  “Kappa Nu is having their welcome back party, and we are going.”

  My eyes went wide with terror. I couldn’t go to Kappa Nu or any party in Greek row. I knew Audrey wasn’t into the whole sorority thing, but my ex-best friend was, and she would be at one, especially if this was a welcome-back party. Gigi was all about drinking and partying.

  “Delia, bring your makeup kit. Kenny, grab her some clothes,” Audrey ordered.

  It was no surprise she’d been cheer captain back in high school. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were captain now too, which made me a bitch for not knowing. Some friend I was, huh?

  “I can’t go, Auds,” I pleaded, not telling her why I couldn’t show my face.

  Audrey sat on the edge of the bed. Her golden eyes shone with nothing but kindness, and I wondered why she was still by my side when everyone else had left.

  “I don’t know what happened, and you don’t have to tell me, but I’m a great listener. I don’t know if this makes a difference, but they won’t be there.”

  I flinched.

  Was I that obvious?

  Audrey reached for my hand and held it. “I want my old friend back. The one who was fearless and didn’t care what anyone thought of her. The one who always smiled, even if her world had fallen apart.”

  My heart thumped hard, and my throat constricted, making it hard to breathe. That was why I was here, right? I was here to live again. I was here to be normal.

  “Okay, just this once.”

  The words were barely spoken before Audrey pulled me into her room and treated me like her doll.

  Two

  The heavy beating of the party greeted my ears as soon as I got out of Audrey’s Mustang. The night was warm enough that I didn’t feel cold in my whoreish clothes. Well, I guess that was just me who thought I looked whoreish. There were girls with clothes far more revealing than what I was wearing.

  The white crop top was okay—a little see-through—and the leather skirt was a bit too tight because I was a little thicker than Audrey. Maybe I’d slouched off a bit when I quit dance.

  When we walked to the frat house, I started to panic, and I’ll admit they were the first people I thought about.

  “Hey.” Auds snapped her fingers. “None of that mopey shit. Tonight, you forget about all the bullshit and have fun.”

  I wanted to ask about him, but I bit my tongue. “Okay, have fun.”

  It’d been years since I tasted alcohol. It wasn’t because I had a problem, but shitty things tended to happen when I got myself intoxicated.

  Audrey walked next to me, looking smoking hot in a white bodycon. She said as cheer captain, she needed to show up and make a statement. So that answered my earlier question, and I was happy she had that.

  There was a big black guy at the door smiling at all the girls. With some, he grabbed their hands and twirled them around. When we got to the door, his smile seemed to get bigger.

  “Audrey, baby, I missed you.”

  “Jeffrey, honey, I didn’t.” She gave him a smirk and patted his chest.

  When his eyes cast to mine, his smile seemed to come back. “You…I don’t know, but I would very much like to, preferably tonight…in my bed.”

  “Not going to happen, Jeff.” Auds pushed past him and dragged me inside the house.

  It was everything I imagined a frat house to be. Run-down couches, a big TV, and people were walking around everywhere with red cups, and a few of them with bottles in their hands. My hands trembled and got sweaty. I turned back to the door, but there were more people trying to come in.

  “Have you never been to a party?” Kenia asked, looking at me like I was a freak.

  “I have,” I said.

  “Then relax, because if you’re trying to blend in, that whole skittish vibe you have going on is making you stand out.”

  I nodded at Kenia and let Audrey lead me around. She took us to the kitchen, where she greeted everyone as we passed by them.

  I felt out of place, like I didn’t belong. It had been so long since I was out with friends, it felt…foreign. The curious looks I got were making me uncomfortable. All I wanted was for the night to be over and go back home.

  Once we were in the kitchen, Delia started grabbing bottles and mixing drinks. When they handed me a cup, I stared at it, but I didn’t grab it.

  “Oh, do you not drink?” Delia felt bad; I could hear it in her voice.

  To make her feel better, I reached for the cup.

  “No, it’s okay, it’s just been a while since I got drunk.” It wasn’t entirely a lie.

  “Don’t worry. We got you, girl.” Delia smiled and took a sip of her drink.

  I pretended to do the same, but didn’t let myself go.

  You need to live, Scarlett. It’s what your parents would have wanted.

  Maybe my shrink was right. Feeling confident that tonight wouldn’t be a disaster, I took a sip and almost spat it right back out.

  “Oh, we got a lightweight,” a handsome guy said, coming in behind Delia. He was handsome, like an Abercrombie & Fitch model. Warm brown eyes and hair, tall with a lean body.

  I smiled at him or more like grimaced.

  “Ollie, this is Scarlett. Scar, Oliver.”

  I waved at him, and he grinned.

  We waited by the kitchen for a bit while the girls talked to their friends, and I took it all in.

  I took too much in because next thing I knew, the girls were nowhere around me.

  Fuck.

  Audrey was long gone, and I had no idea where she left to. I was standing like a loser with a Solo cup in my hand when I got the urge to pee. Why did I agree to come to a frat party? Having had enough, I got up and started to make my way through the masses of drunk people.

  I was trying to determine where the bathroom was when I saw the sa
me guy from the door make a beeline for me. Yeah, I don’t think so. Turning around, I made my way back.

  “Hey,” I asked a boy who seemed as lost as I was. He was probably a freshman.

  “Are you talking to me?” He pointed at himself and looked around for good measure.

  “Uh, yeah,” I answered because there was no one else around us. “Can you tell me were the bathroom is?”

  “Um, there’s one right over on the other side of the house.”

  Nodding, I started to turn away to look for that bathroom.

  “Wait,” he said. Slowly, I stopped and turned around.

  “Yes?” I asked.

  I looked at him, and the more I stared at him, I wondered what he was doing in this place. He was a little dweeb-looking to be perfectly honest. He didn’t exactly scream sex and parties. Hell, who the fuck was I to judge?

  “Would you…mind… It’s that I need…underwear.”

  I stood there, so perplexed the Solo cup with my unfinished drink twitched in my hand. He did not just ask me that—what a dickwad.

  I brought my cup up, ready to pour it in his head.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just that you seem nice. And I need to do this…all the pledges do. I know I can’t get one by hooking up.”

  I stopped with my cup midair.

  “You’re a pledge?”

  The guy smiled and looked at me sheepishly. “My dad is a legacy and one of the biggest founders. They had to take me in.”

  I brought my cup down. “What’s your name, kid?”

  He rolled his eyes at me. “Isaac.”

  “Freshman?” I asked.

  “That obvious, huh?”

  I was basically a freshman too, but I didn’t say that.

  “Let me go pee, and I’ll meet you outside,” I told him.

  The line for the bathroom wasn’t that long, for which I was grateful. It was weird when I slipped off my undies.

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I mumbled, but I needed to live a little, and Isaac needed to impress his new frat brothers, so it was a win-win, right?

  Before I opened the door, I heard laughter outside. I quickly recognized Jeff’s voice.

  “Didn’t I leave you on bitch duty?”

  “I…I’ll go back in a second.”

  “I-I-I…do you always have to s-s-t-tutter?”

  What a dick.

  “Jeff.” There was a warning tone to the other guy’s voice. He obviously didn’t like Jeff picking on this kid, but he didn’t want to get in the middle of it either. Pussy.

  “Listen, little fucker. You have until midnight to get some girl’s panties. If not, then your ass can start forgetting about—”

  I didn’t let him finish. I opened the door to the bathroom. This guy pissed me off, and he was a fucking douchebag.

  No one knew me. Here, I wasn’t another head case. Here, I was just some other girl at a party. Not an orphan or a cheater or a liar or a shitty friend. I was a nobody.

  I held my black lace panties from my index finger.

  “Here you go, Isaac.”

  Sure, my voice didn’t have to drop to a sultry timber, but I was mad at this guy for the simple fact that he was an asshole.

  Isaac looked at me like he didn’t believe I had just done what I did, but with shaky hands, he took my panties. I turned around to glare at Jeff, but the air left my lungs when I saw who was next to him.

  This. Was. Not. Happening.

  He was leaning on the wall but rose to his full height. The bored look he had on his gorgeous face turned into a scowl. He looked so different, yet the same. His face was still symmetrical, but there was a harshness that wasn’t there before, and he now had a neatly trimmed beard.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” He gritted out the words.

  Those were the first words Gavin said to me after three years.

  Could I blame him? No. Did I deserve them? Maybe.

  “You know her? She showed up with Auds.”

  I closed my eyes, wondering why Audrey had brought me here, knowing he was here. This was some sort of sick nightmare.

  Gavin’s eyes went from mine to the underwear Isaac held in his hands. The poor boy didn’t have the first clue about what was going on, but he was scared. Gavin snatched the underwear so fast from Isaacs’s grasp, and then he grabbed my arm and started dragging me back into the bathroom.

  My heart palpitated heavily. His touch—his touch brought it all back. It brought back the butterflies and the tremors. The feeling like I could finally breathe again, except this time it was laced with betrayal.

  Gavin slammed the door to the bathroom so hard it made me flinch. It was a miracle he didn’t break it off its hinges.

  He breathed heavily like a bull ready to strike, those silver eyes dark and penetrating. I backed away until I hit the sink. I knew I had nowhere to go. Our attraction had always been this way. Powerful enough to consume you.

  “Gav—” I started to say, but he cut me off.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” He repeated the same words.

  They tugged at me. They were sharp, and they cut me.

  “I go to school here now,” I whispered, but he heard me.

  His nostrils flared. Taking a step toward me, he didn’t stop until his hands were on either side of my hips, caging me in by the sink.

  His proximity was too much. I didn’t want to blink, or else I would remember the way he’d worshipped my body on prom night, how he’d kept telling me to give him one more.

  One more kiss.

  One more orgasm.

  And he took it all.

  “Did you come looking for round two?”

  “W-what?”

  “I remember everything about that night, Scar. Let me tell you something. Fucking you? It wasn’t that special.”

  I couldn’t help but flinch.

  He backed away, holding my panties in his fingers before he gave me an evil smirk and walked out of the bathroom.

  I needed to get the fuck out of here; I couldn’t handle it. I wasn’t prepared to see him. Even if I had been, I don’t think I would have handled it any different.

  When I stepped out of the bathroom, no one was there.

  Gavin Dunn could still make my world stop. Of that, I was sure.

  Once outside, I closed my eyes, and I brought it all back: that night, and everything else in between.

  Gavin

  I sat in the corner with some chick on my lap as I watched her leave. It took everything in me not to run after her.

  I wanted to kiss her and make her forget. She didn’t remember, but I did. That’s why her words cut like a jagged knife.

  Her body was still the stuff wet dreams were made of. She had curves and lots of them. That fucking skirt should be illegal. I wanted to curse all of my brothers for looking at her, but I couldn’t blame them.

  Scarlett was not meant to be mine. I’d known that all along. She’d told me on countless occasions, but as soon as our lips touched and we were skin to skin, everything that was said ceased to exist.

  “You okay, man?” Quincy asked.

  He was my teammate and friend, and he knew I was anything but okay right now. He was my quarterback, and I was his wide receiver. He was used to knowing my tells, and right now, my body screamed that I was anything but okay.

  “Yes,” I lied because opening my mouth to say the truth wouldn’t do anyone good.

  I could feel his eyes boring into me. Surprisingly, he let it go.

  I looked at the door again once I was sure I wasn’t dreaming and that the pain I felt in my chest was real. Scarlett fucking Davis was back, and I hated her for it, because seeing her again opened a wound in my chest that I wanted to go away. Seeing her again reminded me of everything that happened after she left.

  PAST

  Senior Year, high school

  Three

  My hair didn’t care that today was the first day of school—my light curls were a mess. Not in th
e sexy way most celebrities wore them either. The only thing I had working for me was my eyes. I loved wearing kohl liner because it gave them more of a shape, and they didn’t seem upturned but more exotic. If you asked my friends, a lot of them said I had cat eyes. I thought they were my best feature. My skin was pale, and my lips weren’t pink like Gigi’s but a rosy shade, broader and fuller. A lot of the time, it looked like I had an RBF (resting bitch face). My nose wasn’t too perky either. Where Gigi was soft, I was a little harder. I blamed my cheekbones. Gigi had a cute angel face, graceful. Mine was not exactly square, but not dainty either.

  “Scarlett Davis, girl, you were gone the whole summer.” Dylan (yes, Gigi’s first kiss) put an arm around me while he hugged me from the back. He also used the opportunity to look at himself in the mirror.

  One summer without seeing him, but he looked the same. Shaggy brown hair, still rocking skinny jeans and band T-shirts.

  “Hey, girlfriend, what’s shaking?” Gigi came running down the hallway and jumped in between Dylan and me so she could hug me.

  I felt a little guilty for not answering her last night; instead, I let it go to voicemail, then texted her. She didn’t push it after what’d happened last year. I knew she wouldn’t. I almost dropped out of school so I could help Nick, but he didn’t let me. He wouldn’t hear about it. I tried to make it easier for my brother and told him I would go live with our grandparents. They didn’t live too far away, but it was another school district, meaning I wouldn’t see my friends, and Nick, being the cool brother that he was, knew how big of a deal that was to a teenager, mainly since it was senior year.

  I wasn’t a typical teenager, and last year I found out how some things were more important than high school drama. If I could, I would have changed it in an instant just so that I could have my mom and dad back. I would gladly give up everything important to me so they could be here.

  “Am I interrupting something?” Gigi cooed, but Dylan and I just ignored her.

  We were used to this behavior from her; I think she wanted us to work. Sometimes, I felt like she needed it to work. It sucked for her that Dylan was gay, and so far, other than his family, the only person he trusted with this secret was me. He knew I was trustworthy. Knew I was like a freaking tomb when it came to secrets. Unlike Gigi, I could keep my mouth shut.