Page 15 of Off Sides

There’s music playing from a speaker someone has set in a doorway, there are people everywhere, rolls of toilet paper being thrown around, and someone is puking, but I can’t see them. My room isn’t on this floor, so I don’t care. Puke is not my problem tonight.

Unless it’s one of my freshmen. Fuck.

Straightening up off the wall, I follow the sound of vomiting down the hallway, avoiding the couples hooking up and the dude passed out on the floor. He’s not a football player, so he’s not my problem.

I pull a condom out of my pocket and slap it against the chest of one of my freshman teammates.

“Don’t be an idiot,” I tell him and watch the girl for a second to make sure she’s sober enough for consent.

She lifts an eyebrow at me. “What?”

“How many drinks have you had?” I ask her, but she doesn’t look intoxicated at all.

“One.”

“Cool.” I nod and pat Chad’s shoulder. He reaches for the girl’s hand, and they disappear into a room. I make it a few more doors down the hallway before I find the puking kid and the one man I want to see, Joey Carpenter. I can picture how his shaggy brown hair hangs down around his collar, sharp green eyes taking in everything around him, and his cheekbones that were chiseled from granite. He’s standing with his back to me, arms crossed over his chest, and he lets out a deep sigh.

This is the side of him I haven’t gotten to witness yet, and I’m hungry for it.

“I swear to fuck, Riggs.” Joey shakes his head. Riggs is not one of mine, but he is an idiot, and finding some of my dumbasses with him is not uncommon. Normally, the guys stick with teammates since that’s who we all know the best, but a lot of freshmen have to take the same classes, so some of the guys on the team have started hanging around the hockey players.

I slap Joey’s back in solidarity, and he glances back at me. His eyes go wide in alarm for a split second before he covers it with the captain mask he wears so well. I can see on his face that he feels the weight of responsibility. He’s one of those that wants to save these guys from making bad decisions, but he can’t.

“Fucking freshman.” I shake my head, leaning my forearm on Joey’s shoulder when I find the kid with his head in a trash can. “What did he drink?”

“From what I can tell, everything,” Joey bites out and pinches the bridge of his nose.

The kid groans and finally stops throwing up, dropping down to his side on the carpet.

“Nope, get up.” Joey grabs him under his arm and hauls him to his feet. “You’re done. Go to bed.”

I step aside but glance around the room to find two of my assholes half turned away from me.

“Who dared him?” I fold my arms and set my jaw, staring the guys down.

“Allen,” one of the guys says, throwing his teammate under the bus.

“What the fuck, dude!?” Allen yells at the snitch.

“Allen, room.” I point over my shoulder for the door. “You make bad decisions.”

He stomps off, muttering something about backstabbing roommates.

“You’re his roommate?” I ask Robbie, the snitch. When his eyes widen and his face pales, I know the answer. I shake my head and tsk him. “You done fucked up, A-A-Ron.”

“Fuck!” Robbie takes off past me for his room, and I sigh. Bunch of idiots, the lot of them. No loyalty.

I wander down the rest of the hallway and look for more of my guys. As a senior and the special team’s captain for the football team, I have to watch out for my guys too. There are six team captains this year, and it’s my second year being one, so I’m used to looking out for the team, but I swear, freshmen get dumber every year.

When I don’t find any more fuckery, I check the second floor, which is the female floor, and then head back up to the third. When I don’t find Robbie outside the room on his ass, I assume he’s okay and decide to use the stairs to get to the fifth floor instead of the elevator. I’m around the fourth floor when I run into Joey, sitting on the landing.

“Hey, you okay?” I lean against the railing, taking in the defeated droop of his shoulders and his head in his hands.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he says to the floor.

“Well, you’re currently sitting in a stairwell. Does that help?” I offer, trying to lighten the mood.

He lifts his head and glares at me, completely unamused. I chuckle softly and drop down next to him, our arms brushing in the tight space.