comeback

A couple days passed without me seeing Diego because of practice, and I was sad to say the least. They had a game coming up against St. John's on Saturday, their rival school.

He texted me and wanted to meet by the law school library before practice, since one of my classes was in the building. I agreed only because he wanted to grab lunch and offered to pay. And considering how broke I was at the moment, I couldn't pass up free food.

Sitting on a bench outside, I opened up my book and tucked my legs underneath myself. Before my eyes could even move down the page, I felt someone sit next to me. When I turned to see who it was, I shot out of my seat.

"What the fuck do you want?" I spat, snatching my bag off the grass and moving away from the area.

"Wait, please," Liam pleaded, his hand jerking out to clasp onto my wrist. Immediately, I clenched my first and punched him in the face as hard as I could, not holding back at all.

"Shit!" He screamed, stumbling back a large amount of steps before tumbling to the ground.

If I was a cartoon character, there would've been steam blasting out of my ears. How dare he have the audacity to try and talk to me after what he said on Friday?

I was mad—no, livid.

"Who do you think you are?" I asked, almost wanting to kick his stomach with my boots. "You think you could insult me like you did on Friday and I'd be okay with talking to you after that? Boy, you got me fucked up!"

"Okay, okay!" He said, raising his hands as a sign of surrender. "Just hear me out!"

I stepped back and crossed my arms, waiting for a proper explanation.

He rubbed his cheek as he stood from the grass and grimaced at me. "Who the hell taught you how to punch like that?"

I shrugged. "My father was a Marine. I know all the basics of self defense."

He was quiet for a minute before speaking again. "I'm just looking out for my best friend. Louis told me—"

"Louis doesn't know shit," I spat, shaking my head furiously. "All he ever did was stand around."

"Well I heard some things about you," he admitted. "And calling you a slut in the middle of a party wasn't the way I should've approached you about it. I'm really sorry."

I couldn't help but take his apology into consideration because he sounded genuinely sincere. "Okay, fine. I accept your apology. Just...just don't tell anyone whatever Louis told you."

He nodded and we both sat down on the benches. "Zayn's a mess. He hasn't really spoken to anyone outside of practice since that night. He almost fought me for what I said to you."

"Fought you?" I repeated incredulously, my eyebrows almost reaching the top of my edges.

It was a little hard to believe, considering that there has been complete radio silence.

I mean, I did tell him to leave me alone but hey! I'm a flimsy female college student. I don't ever really know what I want.

When he nodded in confirmation, I stretched out my hand and examined my newly done acrylics. "Well, good. Let him stay over there with his girl."

Liam stared at me before shaking his head. "Why are you being so petty?"

"'Petty'?" I was beginning to sound like a damn parrot with all this repeating. "Oh, you haven't seen me in petty mode yet."

He laughed and I could see the crinkles in his eyes as he smiled. If he wasn't such a dickhead, I would actually acknowledged his attractiveness.

"Well I gotta go," he said, brushing grass from his gym bag when he stood up. "Coach will have my ass if I'm late again to my classes."

I nodded and shifted in my seat as he started to walk away. Before he could get far, he stopped and turned back to me.

"Give me your number," he ordered, and I was surprised at his audacity. Was he being serious?

He must've seen the look on my face because he rolled his eyes. "I'm not making a pass at you. I just need your number in case Zayn gets all emo again. I can't handle that shit anymore, especially when we have another game this week."

I shrugged. "Okay, even though Jasmine could probably do that job better than me."

As I typed my number into the keypad, he scoffed. "Jasmine? Oh please. She's got nothing on you."

As soon as those words left his mouth, he rolled his lips inward as if he said something he wasn't supposed to. A faint blush spread over his cheeks and he scratched at his stubble while I laughed.

"Did I just make you blush?" I asked, clutching my stomach. "I can't believe this!"

He shrugged, trying to look nonchalant when he knew damn well he was embarrassed. "Shut up. You're very beautiful and I'm pretty sure you know that already. I'm just saying that Jasmine isn't something you should worry about in the looks department."

Now it was my turn to blush, even though he couldn't see it. "Why thank you."

He then checked his watch and swore. "Fuck, now I'm late for class. I gotta go, but I'll see you around Cashmere."

"Just Cash," I corrected, as he jogged away to leave. "See you!"

I shoved my hands into my pocket to warm them up. It was freezing outside and I didn't really notice until now. I was only wearing a thin windbreaker, which did nothing to protect me from the biting cold.

"Hey." I swiveled around and saw a smiling Diego standing behind the bench, sweat dripping down onto his shirt. My mouth watered at the sight.

"Hi," I said loftily, a smile setting onto my face. "You ready?"

He nodded and I stood up. "Yeah, let's go. I have practice in an hour."

"Don't you guys ever get days off?" I asked as we walked to the dining hall.

He shrugged. "If we have a game that week, we get the day off after. If we don't, we get Fridays off."

We entered the hall, which was surprisingly empty for a Thursday afternoon.

Walking through the cafeteria area, we walked side by side. "So how's it been living with those two dicks been for you?"

Diego sighed and rolled his eyes. "It was like living with two stars of Real Housewives of Atlanta. They wouldn't stop arguing over the littlest things, and two nights ago they actually fought."

"So I've heard," I said, grabbing waffle fries from the hot foods section. "Oh my god, is that oxtail? Holy shit."

"Yeah, the Caribbean Student Union is had something last night so they gave the leftover food to the hall," he explained as he scooped up a spoonful of the brown meat onto his plate. "And how did you hear?"

Nudging him out of the way, I plopped and heaping amount of meat on my plate. Diego came me a wary look and I shrugged. "I'm from New York City where food like this was available to me on a daily. I've been eating white people food for the past few months, so spare me the looks. And me and Liam has a heart to heart like two seconds before you showed up."

"You and Liam?" He asked, disbelieving. "Since when?"

"Since five minutes ago," I said, walking over to the cashier to swipe my student ID. "He apologized and told me some shit. We're chill now."

We sat down in a booth and started to eat. "So we have a home game this week, and I want you to sit in the front section near the field. We get reserved seats and you could bring a friend."

"Sure," I said, before biting into my food.

A couple minutes of silence passed before he spoke up again. "Damn, what the hell? You eat messier than a lion depraved of food."

"Boy, this food just blessed me," I said, wiping my lips with a napkin. "I haven't been this full since I started going to school here."

He chuckled and pushed his plate away. "I think I'll just take this to go. Seeing you eat like that probably wounded my already fragile masculinity."

I laughed along with him, and we stood up and walked out of the eating hall. We walked towards the direction of my dorm before we exchanged goodbyes.

"I'll be hella busy with game day prep so if I don't see you, I'll text you," he said, walking backwards as soon as we got to my building. "Or even better, watch me on SportsCenter!"

Rolling my eyes, I walked into my building with a smile. Being around Diego was honestly much easier. He was funny and simple. And also very easy on the eyes.

But I knew shit was about to get more complicated as I turned the corner of the hallway and saw Zayn, sitting on his gym bag in front of my door, texting away on his phone.

I wanted to turn back around, but he already glanced at me and sprung up from his seat. "Cash."

"What do you want?" I asked, hitching my bag higher up on my shoulder to busy my hands.

"You," he replied without hesitation, and I almost wanted to yell in annoyance. It was so back and forth with him, and it was getting me nowhere.

"Listen," I started but he got to me in two strides and intertwined my fingers within his own.

"I broke things off with Jasmine," he told me, and momentarily I was shocked before I recovered.

"No you didn't," I brushed off his statement, and moved away from him. He couldn't be telling the truth when just a couple of days ago it was hard for him to even tell me the truth about her.

"How are you going to tell me what I did?" He asked, now amused. "This isn't just some ploy to get some from you. I want to work for this. I want to work for you."

I blinked. Then I blinked again.

"Who the hell are you, and what have you done with the real Zayn?" I questioned in astonishment.

He smiled down at me before nuzzling his nose into my neck. "I'm still the guy who made you orgasm how many times again? Was it three in one night—"

"Alright," I cut him off, no longer smiling. "Don't get too ahead of yourself."

He laughed and wrapped his arms around my waist as I unlocked my room door. "Let's start that whole 'working for it' right now because I need to start fulfilling your needs first before mine."

My heartbeat picked up at those words and he backed me up until the back of my knees hit the bed.

I was nervous a bit, because I wasn't fully sure about the whole Jasmine thing. I had no solid proof about what he said, and if this were any other guy, I would've pressed all the information out of him.

The sound of the door slamming shut cleared every single thought in my head and I watched him walk over to me with a smirk clear on his face.

"Don't worry, baby girl. Just sit back and relax. Let me do something for you."

So I did. And I came. Twice.

-----
a/n: happy new year! new year, same old rachel who can never maintain an update schedule to save her life!

but my New Years resolution is to finish all my stories by the end of the year so it's lit.

and stop liking Diego more than Zayn lmfao like guys that's not supposed to happen 😓

also I'm thinking of Marlon Teixeira (???) for Diego but idk? highlight w/ suggestions

-rachel

(p.s. it's 4 am so I don't even want to know how many typos are in this)