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  She shrugged, facing forward completely. I did the same.

  “I don’t know. I mean he’s never shown up before meeting you.”

  I did tell him I had an intermural on Thursday night… and it was Thursday night. The basketball team was known to have practice next door in the big gym every evening. Maybe he passed by and saw me. But why would he come in? To say hi? My mind was spinning, and I needed aid, stat.

  “What should I do?” I asked Clare.

  She checked her sports watch before she turned and grinned at me. “You got a few minutes before we start again. You should go talk to him. Say hi.”

  “Hi?”

  She nodded. “Except this time,” she put her hands on my shoulders, “don’t run.”

  The whole idea seemed so insane I couldn’t even fathom it. Just go up to him? Say hi out of the blue?

  “I don’t know.” Touching my forehead, sweat coated my fingers. Whether it was from the bout or nerves, I couldn’t even distinguish. I chose the latter. “I’m all sweaty and gross, and—”

  “Go!” Clare tugged my wrist, making me stand. “And don’t come back until you say hi. I swear to God you’re a mess. I’m so glad I’m not into men. I so don’t want to look like you right now.”

  Her comment made me snort. I’d get her back for that one next time she got worked up over a girl. She waved me away, and I braved myself, rolling on my skates, away from the team.

  Griffin dropped his feet from the lower bleacher when he saw me coming his way. Sitting up straight, that smile never left his handsome face.

  My mental pep talk was nonexistent. I was rolling slowly to him, but I still didn’t have time to give myself one. I supposed I’d have to go by the seat of my pants on this one.

  I let out a breath and moved one final roll until I was directly in front of him.

  “Hey,” I said, giving a small wave and trying not to be meek about it.

  The word “hi” formed from his lips. The greeting dragged with a bit of a drawl that hinted at a Southern accent. I never realized before that he was from the South. The accent was so faint it couldn’t be heard unless one paid attention. Unless one really listened to him.

  He gestured for me to sit. He sat on the first raised bleacher, and I took the one on the floor below him so I didn’t have to climb the stairs in my skates. Being so close to him, I observed the subtle pink color of his mouth as well as a brown freckle just near the V of his upper lip.

  “Your intermural?” he asked, breaking my gaze of his lips. He tipped his chin to the activity ahead.

  “Um, yeah. Roller derby.”

  He nodded, giving a small grin. “Cool.”

  One word and the heat of my cheeks intensified. I could really just laugh at myself right now. I felt like I was flashing back to my high school days, channeling my teenage self. The weird thing was those butterflies didn’t annoy me anymore.

  I put my hands on my lap, fighting the urge to tug down my shorts. My thighs seemed to expand when I sat.

  Christ.

  I bit my lip. “So were you just passing by or…”

  “Uh, yeah,” he said, pointing to the side with his thumb. “Just got out of basketball practice next door. Your gym’s door was open. I saw you and thought I’d say hi. You left so quick last time I saw you.”

  He did come in to see me.

  “Interesting shirt by the way.” He tilted his long frame to see behind me. “Roxie Elbowa, huh?”

  “Yeah, it’s a pun. You know, because of my name.” Though he probably already knew that… “We’re not allowed to use elbows in play, but I do a lot of shoulder action.”

  “I saw that,” he said, pointing ahead. “You looked good out there.”

  My mouth parted.

  “Eh, uh,” he said, rubbing his hand behind his neck. Dropping his hand, he laughed. “I mean you’re really hustling out there. Better than some of the guys I was scrimmaging with tonight. Let me tell you.”

  I laughed this time, lowering my head. He really was nice.

  “That last slam you did was pretty sweet. Though I’m not exactly surprised to see you out there kicking ass and taking names after what you did the other night. I never really did get a chance to thank you, and I still owe you that favor.”

  “Oh.” I raised my hands. “You really don’t. It was no big deal.”

  “Actually, it was. You probably saved me from being suspended a few games. Coach doesn’t condone fighting. If word got back to him, I most likely would have been benched.”

  Whoa. Those were some heavy consequences. Still, I didn’t think I did anything miraculous and it was nothing for him to go out of his way and acknowledge. He watched me during my thoughts. I knew this because when I came out of them, he had his head tilted, studying my face. I thought I had something on me so I touched my cheek. “What is it?”

  I didn’t think I spilled something on myself. I never ate before intermural.

  His gaze didn’t let up, and his lips twitched up into a smile, emphasizing that freckle on his mouth. “Nothing. Sorry for staring. I was just wondering what color your eyes were.”

  I lowered my hand. I found myself watching his eyes now, a light blue, which challenged the clarity of the clearest ocean. If fact, they nearly were clear. His eyes. Only hinted with color. I blinked to come back to reality. “Um, they’re green. I know it’s weird. I think only my great grandma had them from what I’ve heard.”

  “It’s not weird at all.”

  He moved back and my awareness of how close he’d gotten to my face flashed before me. He may have leaned back, but his body was still close to mine. His arms rested on his knees, his hands only a finger reach away from brushing my sleeveless arm.

  “You should come back to my place,” he said, focusing on my eyes again.

  I had to have blanched. Did he just…

  “My roommates and I are having a party. You should come by after your practice lets up.”

  My mind was still spinning from his proposal when I realized he called our bout a practice. “Oh, this isn’t a practice. It’s called a bout. Like a match? A game.”

  Frowning, his eyes flashed to the gym. “But no one is here to see you play.”

  I faced the gym as he did, seeing those empty seats. Our bout was so poor in attendance he assumed it was a practice. I guess I wasn’t surprised, but…

  “We’re not that popular,” I explained. “Not like basketball is anyway.” Chewing my bottom lip, my eyes shifted from his. God, he probably thought we were pathetic.

  “Oh.” He closed his lips, playing with his hands. He gestured my way. “After your match then. You can bring your friends if you’d like.”

  My friends… So this was a general invitation then. That made more sense.

  I faced ahead, playing with my own hands now. The embarrassment of my assumptions loomed, and I ended up standing, prepared to head back to my team. His blue eyes followed me when I did.

  “Well, I gotta get back out there,” I said. “Thanks for stopping by, and really, it wasn’t a big deal what I did the other night. Forget about it.”

  Turning, I started to roll away.

  “Wait. Will you come tonight? Eleven o’clock. Building F. Apartment seven.”

  I didn’t look at him. “I’ll think about it,” I lied, rolling back to my teammates. I knew I was running again, but I couldn’t help it. I definitely wasn’t the partying type, and well, he was Griffin Chandler. He always had been and always would be. I allowed him to make me comfortable, and I ended up forgetting who he was for a moment.

  Despite my realizations, I was really glad I worked up the confidence to talk to him, and I knew I was smiling when I made it back to Clare.

  “You two looked chummy,” she said, strapping her helmet back on.

  I turned. Griffin was on his phone, chatting away with someone. Suddenly, he stood and hopped off the bleachers. His steps were quick and he was out of the door in a flash.

  Apparently w
e weren’t chummy enough if he didn’t even want to stay. I tried not to let myself be disappointed by that. I’d put up that glass wall again. I knew that, so I didn’t have the right or the grounds to be let down.

  I swiveled around in my seat, smiling at my teammate. “Yeah. He was nice. He just wanted to thank me for the other night.”

  Since Clare didn’t know any better, she took that for what it was with a smile. Both of us expected to go back in, but our Coach had us sit out since we were ahead. She wanted to work in some of the younger, more inexperienced girls and give them some playing time. Our team really was about having fun over winning.

  I unstrapped my helmet and placed it on the floor, then grabbed my water underneath the bench. When I rose up, Clare slapped her hand on my shoulder, making me jump.

  “What?” I asked. My shoulder was still throbbing so that kind of hurt.

  She wasn’t looking at me, but behind me, her mouth hanging open. “Is that the men’s basketball team?”

  I had no idea what she was talking about until, well, I did. They all filed in, one after another, an extremely long line of extremely tall boys, dressed in sweats in our university’s colors and most held gym bags. A couple others even had a basketball under their arms. I feared they came for the gym, but that didn’t make sense. Griffin said the boys wrapped up practice already.

  The guys took their seats on the bleachers behind us, and the thought of them taking over our bout playing space passed. Once seated, they filled nearly three rows.

  “Oh my God. There’s even more of them,” Clare said, her eyes wide.

  Sure enough, even more guys came in right after. Wearing their sweats as well, they joined their teammates on the bleachers. There were now six rows of college men behind us, and every single one sat down, watching the closing of our halftime show. Who brought up the rear of the male parade nearly made my heart speed into cardiac arrest.

  Griffin.

  He came in and sat front row center. Right behind the Venomous Vixens along with the rest of his crew. Out of his pocket, he pulled out a piece of paper with black words written on it. He wasn’t sitting very far behind me, so I saw the message on it as clear as day.

  It was for me.

  GO ROXIE ELBOWA! The sign read, and underneath there were three short sentences.

  11:00 p.m. Building F. Apartment 7.

  Chapter Five

  Griffin

  By the time the party began, many of the guys were still going on about all the “hot pieces of ass” rolling around in tiny shorts and fishnets at Roxie’s bout. These comments were mostly made by the younger players. Horny as shit eighteen and nineteen-year-olds. Though the upperclassman guys had a few things to say as well. The recurring comment being why they’d never heard of the sport featuring vampish, sexy females. They were like badass cheerleaders who wouldn’t hesitate breaking someone’s face if they got in their way.

  And the guys couldn’t get enough.

  I passed the whole sudden gathering of my teammates off quite easily. I simply said we were doing a favor for one of our own. I explained to the guys a player came up to me, wanting to get the attention of one of the girls playing at the bout. I also said the guys wouldn’t be disappointed by what they saw, and they came in droves. Everyone but D. Someone had to be at the apartment incase people came early for the party.

  Little did my teammates know, the guy they were doing the favor for was their very own captain. Me.

  I had to do something for Roxie. No one showed up to her match and that was bullshit. The University should do more for intermurals as far as promotion. Hell, with all the money they threw at basketball alone, I knew they weren’t hard up. I practically got new gear and sneakers every week. Roxie and those other girls needed some support. I felt strongly about that, but if I dug deeper within myself, I knew my reasons for wanting to help Roxie went beyond that.

  I offended her tonight, and I knew instantly when I had. I knew because before I opened my big mouth about no one being at her bout, she looked as if she would go to my party. After my comment, she wanted anything but. She had to go, though. She had to. Her being there would make the whole monotonous event more bearable. I genuinely liked being around her, and I wanted her there to talk to. We only had a little bit of time together earlier. I wanted more time.

  I was thinking about our short conversation as I was forcing myself to mingle around my own place, a beer in my hand. The same folks came to these things. The same damn folks. I hoped Roxie brought some of her friends. It might mix up the crowd a bit. Though I hoped she wouldn’t be joined at the hip with them all night.

  I found myself looking over the heads of people in every new conversation I was dragged into. Where was Roxie? She never said flat-out she would be here, but I had a strong feeling she would. A strong feeling deep in my core.

  I excused myself from my latest conversation. I was making my rounds when I ran into D.

  “‘Sup, man,” he said, bringing me into a shake.

  “‘Sup.” I pounded his fist after the release. I thought to ask him if he’d seen Roxie, but I remembered I never told him about her. I could at least describe her so he’d look out for her. Direct her to me if he saw her. “Hey, I’m looking for someone I want you to keep an eye out for.”

  “Who? Everyone is here, kid.” He motioned to the room, his own beer in his hand. His words slurred a little, and I knew he was already tipsy. “Speaking of, Ursula and Tanya are looking for you.” He tipped back his beer.

  “Together?”

  Getting close, he eyed me. “Together, my friend.”

  My eyes lifted to the heavens. This didn’t surprise me. How I met them was in a pair, and again, being young and stupid, I gave in to them. Both of them that night. At least that was the only time, but I still wasn’t proud of the fact. That’s how the weird shit between us all began. I went out with Tanya until she grew tired and wanted a new flavor of the week. Usually a football player as basketball players didn’t sleep with each other’s girls due to code. That’s when Ursula stepped in. She was nice because she didn’t want anything permanent. No labels like Tanya did. When Tanya came back to me with her tail between her legs, Ursula moved on, and then the whole thing would repeat again. It was all a vicious fucked up cycle. I ended things with both of them permanently before the holidays on the down low so no one outside of us would make a big deal of it. I got tired of the run around and had enough of not feeling anything for either of them. I wanted to feel something for once. I just wanted to.

  I grabbed D when it looked like he was going to head off. “About who I’m looking for, she—”

  “She?” He looked me up and down, stepping back. “Y’all adding a fourth to your posse?”

  D really was stupid when he was tipsy. I’d have to get around to telling him I was single again when he was sober. “This girl is a friend. Her name is Roxie, and I invited her tonight. She’s got dark skin and green eyes.” I wanted to mention the innocence of those eyes and how her round face and full lips gave her a sweet look, but D looked like he was only taking in a few words at a time at this point, so I finished with the most important part of my message. “If you see her, tell her I’m around and looking for her.”

  “Sure, thing, kid,” he said, dancing with his beer to the hip hop music playing in the room. “Hey, I’m going to look for Candie. If you see her, direct her my way.”

  I chuckled. “Sure.”

  “And you go find those girls. I saw them earlier, man, and whoo…” He whistled, emphasizing his point. “Fine as hell tonight. I’ll tell them where you’re at.”

  I fought the urge to groan, playing it off. “Eh, don’t bother. I’m going to look for them now.”

  A small lie gave me at least a little time to find Roxie, and quite frankly… time to hide from Tanya and Ursula.

  Roxie

  Clare, myself, and a few of the derby girls who could come tonight entered the apartment that music could be heard from bef
ore we even entered the building. We pushed our way through the two-stepping bodies. Before we came to the party, we made a stop at a couple of our apartments to freshin’ up. The girls were only dressed to get cheese sticks after the bout, and I was only dressed to go home. We stopped at April’s, a fellow Venomous Vixen, because her place was on the way and then mine because I actually lived in this building a couple floors below. Between the pair of us, we got everyone dressed and appropriate for a college party, our two sizes varying for our friends’ sizes. I saved my best stuff for myself, though. I couldn’t help but make an attempt to stand out and look nice. I never wore heels, but I did tonight with peach-colored capris. I also did my makeup and wore my hair down. I wanted to look good, but not overdone like I tried too hard, so I wore a black leather jacket to keep things casual. It matched my pumps and smoky eye makeup. I hated to admit that the girls had to wait for me, who took the longest to get ready. Something told me my labor wasn’t for nothing after what Griffin did for me at the bout. I didn’t want to jinx anything by pondering the thought, so I just kept it casual as we walked around.

  Some of the girls saw a few people they knew and left Clare and me by ourselves.

  “This is different,” she said, referring to the party scene as she looped her arm around mine.

  This felt like a vast understatement. I very rarely left my apartment except for the necessities, well that and class. And also roller derby, of course.

  “You might just miss your chat tonight.” She nudged me.

  The thought of my online session actually had left my mind. Maybe coming tonight wasn’t such a good idea. I was technically busy. But with what Griffin did…

  No, being here was right. Griffin wanted me here. He wouldn’t have done what he had if didn’t want me to come. He was clearly trying hard to get me to come to the party.

  He wanted me here.

  I nodded as if convincing myself of the thought. My feet stumbled on the carpet, my heels catching the thick shag rug, when Clare came to a full stop.

  I watched her as she stared ahead. There was a girl directly in front of us. Of Asian descent, she was tall and glamorous in a golden dress. She danced slowly by herself near a corner of the spacious apartment, her arms flowing through the air.