Beg You to Trust Me (Lindon U #2)(114)

When Grandma Meadow and Ma peek their heads in, they both smile. At me. At the girl with a towel draped around her shoulders as I help her brush and dry the newly dyed strands.

And I can’t help but smile back, probably for the first time since break started.

I ask, “Doesn’t my girlfriend look fine?”

Skylar doesn’t correct me.

She simply beams.





CHAPTER FORTY





SKYLAR





After a long meeting with my advisor to prepare for spring classes starting tomorrow, my stomach rumbles with an appetite that’s been missing for too long. Spending the last couple of weeks in Boston has helped me gain a little bit of the weight I lost back—probably more than I would have liked, although Danny has definitely shown his appreciation over it.

He never shied away from feeling me up any chance he got, especially when the sun set, and his family went to bed. We’d explore each other’s bodies like we hadn’t seen them in years, drawing out little moans from one another as our fingers and mouths reacquainted themselves with certain body parts. The thought of him groaning when I got on my knees and lowered his jeans and boxers to take him in my mouth for the first time still makes my heart do funny things in my chest.

He’d carefully guided my movements after I urged him to show me how to make him come, and I still think about the noise he made when he emptied himself into my mouth.

I’m halfway to the dining hall with my fingers touching my lips lost in the memory when a hand snakes around my arm and tugs me in between two of the brick academic buildings, slamming me against one of the hard, scratchy walls.

My breath catches when Ricky Wallace’s face appears in front of me, jaw clenched and nostrils flaring with anger. “Did you really think changing your fucking hair color would help you disappear?”

“What?” I ask choppily as I quickly glance at the empty quad for help.

His grip tightens on my arm, making me wince at the sting of pain from it. “Take back your statement. I’m not going to have a blonde bitch ruin my shot at a future for no real reason. It’s bad enough your little guard dog fucked me over with the team.”

I swallow. “Ricky—”

“I don’t want to hear any excu—”

“What the fuck is going on?”

Ricky is ripped away from me, causing me to stumble sideways and drop my bag full of textbooks that I’d bought from the campus store before my meeting. The zipper on my backpack busts open and the books scatter across the slushy ground.

Despite the amount of money that I spent on them, I couldn’t care less about them when I see Caleb and Danny standing there, holding their teammate back.

“What do you think you’re doing with my girlfriend?” Danny asks Wallace, jerking him back so there’s distance between us. “I told you to stay the hell away from her.”

His teammate scoffs. “Why don’t you ask your girlfriend what she’s done to me?” His bloodshot eyes snap in my direction. “Are you jealous? Is that it? Angry I didn’t pay you more attention?”

My eyes widen as Caleb holds him back, and murmurs, “Stop while you’re ahead.”

But Wallace doesn’t heed his warning. He shoves Caleb away from him and turns back to me with a pointed finger.

Danny doesn’t like that.

At. All.

He steps in front of me, blocking his teammate’s view of me with his broad body. “If you don’t put that fucking finger down I’m going to break it. Understand me?”

“You used to be fun. Remember that? All the guys said you could get any girl you wanted. If this is what dating somebody does to a guy, I’m glad I have no interest in doing more than screwing them.” Ricky’s voice is cold as he looks over his shoulder at me. “What the fuck do you even see in her? She’s not even that attractive.”

The insult has me blushing with embarrassment as Caleb cusses and Danny takes a step closer to the man sneering. I grab his forearm as his fists clench. “Your shoulder,” I remind him quietly, knowing he’d make good on the whole breaking bones thing if he needed to.

Caleb gets between the two football players, holding them back from going at it with each other. “Do you think fighting will solve anything? It’s going to make it worse.”

“He fucked me over!” Wallace yells, trying to get past Caleb. “Ask him what he did. Ask him what he convinced his girl to do.”

I turn to Danny in confusion.

Caleb shakes his head. “Whatever is happening to you is your own damn fault. Quit blaming everybody else and own up to your shit for once.”

“They made me take a drug test,” he seethes, glaring at Danny and me.

This is about a drug test?

A few more people join the spectacle that Wallace is making, including Stephen and Justin. As soon as they see who’s involved, they come over and help split everybody up before an actual fight breaks out.

The last thing Danny needs is to reinjure his shoulder before it has an actual chance to fully heal. “Come on,” I tell him, pulling him toward me.

He glances at me, then down at my ruined books. “Fuck.” He kneels and helps me collect them, frowning at the water and muck dripping from a few.

“Don’t worry about it.”