Page 106 of The Draft

Okay, they thought I was a creep, and I couldn’t blame them. It was dark, and I looked shady as fuck popping out of the darkness asking to be let in. As the girls shifted away, I closed my eyes and took a breath because I was about to do something that I vowed I never would.

“Do either of you know Scotty Hendricks?”

Yup. I just name-dropped my teammate.

The shorter girl laughed. “You’re joking, right? Who doesn’t know him on this campus? Wasn’t he voted the most eligible athlete at Covey U or something?”

“Do either of you like him?” I asked with raised brows.

“Yes. I think he’s a good guy.” The shorter one smiled, trying to act cool. I wasn’t surprised that I’d managed to find a hockey fan between them because when Scotty committed to Covey U, the female applications apparently increased by twenty percent.

“That’s an understatement,” the other one, Ati, I think, mumbled.

Thinking fast, I pulled out my phone, unlocked it, and swiped throughmy gallery until I found a picture of him. I flipped my phone over, showing the girls Scotty and me at The Draft. Okay, it wasn’t my best shot. I looked angry as hell and like I wanted to kill someone, but that wasn’t far from the truth.

“Scotty is one of my best friends.” They were still studying the picture. “And my teammate.”

“You’re on the hockey team? I don’t recognize you.”

“That’s because I’m the goaltender. I don’t like to take my helmet off.”

“Wait a minute, are you the one that does all those fancy warm-ups?” Her lips curled, and I wanted to roll my eyes because Scotty did say that would come back to haunt me.

“Yes,” I answered curtly, which seemed to be enough to warm them up to me. “How about this? I will invite you to the next party at the hockey dorm if you let me in.”

Okay, maybe I’d made that offer too quickly because both of their smiles turned, and they looked at each other wearily.

“Look, I’m sure you’re a nice guy and everything, but really, I’ve seen far too many slasher movies to think that it would be okay to let you into a dorm full of girls when I don’t actually know you. Besides, you might have just photoshopped those pictures with Scotty.”

Fuck. Why was the universe conspiring against me on this? Name-dropping Scotty didn’t work, and they were backing away. I was losing them, so I needed to take a different tactic.

Glancing back at my phone, I flicked through my gallery and showed them a picture of Madison. It was from the other day. I was kissing her on the cheek, and she was smiling.

“This is the girl I need to see. Do you know her?”

The taller girl examined the picture. “I think I’ve seen her in here before.”

“Her name is Madison Bright. She’s the love of my life, and I screwed things up earlier. I need to talk to her and let her know just how much she means to me.”

“Aww,” the short one cooed, giving me a far more sympathetic look. Was this going to work?

“Come on, Ati. Maybe we should let him up.”

“No,” she replied quickly. “We are not going to be responsible for adeath on campus. Sorry, dude. You’re just going to have to wait until the morning.” She opened the door, letting her shorter friend through, before shutting it and locking me out of the building.

Well, shit. I was out of ideas, so I called Madison again. When there was no answer, I scoured the ground, grabbed a few pebbles and tried to throw them at her window. Or, at least, the one I thought was her window.

After six attempts, I threw the rest of the pebbles at the ground because I’d missed every single shot.

“Fuck!” I yelled so loudly that I knew the entire dorm block heard me. I didn’t care. Maybe it would wake her up. Trudging over to the door, I leaned against the window and slid down until I was sitting next to it. She’d have to walk out of her building eventually, and I was going to be here when she did.

Bringing my knees up, I relaxed my head against the glass and closed my eyes. I could feel myself drifting to sleep, but I wasn’t doing anything to stop it. It’d been a long day and I was exhausted. Just as my eyes shut, there was a loud banging against the window, causing me to jump.

When I looked around and saw Aster pointing at me from behind the glass, I knew I was in trouble. Pushing the door open, she had no qualms about walking out here in her bathrobe. “This is the guy, Todd. He won’t leave the dorm, he’s throwing rocks at windows, and constantly swearing like a drunk.”

I held back from laughing upon seeing the look Aster was giving Todd. Glad it wasn’t just me who she thought was an imbecile. “Can’t you see him?”

Todd rolled his eyes before looking at me. “Yes, I see him, Aster. He’s the only person out here.”