"How the fuck did we get here?" I muttered to myself more than Li, who beamed like I'd just gifted her a puppy.

No, a whole fucking litter.

As my right hand's index finger and thumb pinched my nose, a short mental recap of this week's events answered my own question. After Jake's surprise visit outside my class, he sent a couple of 'don't block me' warning texts, then thankfully fell silent probably since he prepped for their first game.

In my attempted 'be better'-ness, despite my rough first day, I arrived on time to my class on time the other four days of the week, skirted past any and all of EJ's questions as to what the fuck Jake Harrison from USC wanted with me other than I told him it was a case of mistaken identity. My routine developed quickly, I went to class nine to twelve-thirty every day, did my homework, swam a few pool laps, ate dinner with Li, then went through my nighttime skincare routine. Friday night Li and I camped in, ate Thai food out of boxes, and watched a movie.

In other words, I'm as bored as fuck.

I slipped up Saturday morning when I lugged my laundry basket downstairs and my elbow knocked my paralegal books off my desk. After they clashed into a jumbled heap, Li picked them up and slowly rose, a familiarly stashed away piece of paper clasped in between her fingers. Confusion in her frowned expression slowly morphed into absolute jubilation.

"Oh my gosh! You got game tickets for today?" She flapped Kieran's tickets at me. "And invited to the afterparty!? Do you think they'll have beer pong?"

Fuck, I should've just thrown those away.

"Do I think... Uhh..." With my laundry basket balanced on one hip, I looked back at her. "You want to go?"

While I had zero interest in the Bruins as a collective team, I fully admitted a change of scenery from our dorm room or downstairs eatery was probably best for both Li and I. Her excited head nod combined with the fact I'd previously sat through many, many football games with zero interest in the final outcome, so Li and I took in UCLA's home opener game

In the seven hundredth billionth football game I'd seen, guys in tight uniforms charged back and forth up and down a grass field, tackled each other like apes, smacked each other's asses, crashed helmets, and revved up the Rose Bowl Stadium's crowd of almost ninety-three thousand UCLA fans at every occurence.

The three pm football game, which UCLA won against Stanford 31-17, wasn't enough out-of-the-room activity for my surprisingly social roommate. After Li begged, pleaded, and even threw in a few pouts, I relented and agreed we came to the football house party.

Yes, seriously. She begged me.

She. Begged. ME.

So, dressed in a black bikini top, black sandals, and ripped jean shorts because I still hadn't scheduled my Brazilian but assumed even the soberest of drunks wouldn't have noticed the peach fuzz on my legs, I balanced my least expensive pair of Aviators on the top of my head and mentally prepared myself for a testosterone-filled night of disappointment.

In what hopefully looked like a 'not at all interested' vibe, I kept my makeup clean and fresh except for my eyes. Instead of a dry powder, I applied a soft pink cream eye shadow for a glossier finish, swept a deep purple into my eye creases for definition, then blended them up towards my brow bone and outer eye corners. Dark brown liner completed my eyes, a light foundation brushed with pink bronzer was enough on my cheeks, forehead, chin, nose, neck and chest because my skin took a backdrop. While my bold red lipstick called out to me, I opted for a nude balm.

Li's curious gaze fixated on me the entire forty-five minutes I applied my makeup. Once finished, I turned towards her white bikini-clad top and tiny black shorts that I was seriously impressed with her for wearing and pointed at my desk chair.

My micro-tiny roommate squirmed nearly the entire time I applied her makeup, which was practically none compared to what I wore. I curled her thin lashes, started with a primer and nude shadow base that matched her creamy white skin tone and spread it all the way up to her eye bone. Since I wasn't sure how bold Li wanted to go, I started with a darker brown eyeshadow on the outer corners of her eyes, winged it up, then blended it towards the middle of her eyelids. I finished off her look with a light, almost white shimmery shadow on her eyelids' insides, rubbed gently for a gradient, and dabbed a touch of dark brown shadow to her outer corners.

Might have also possibly watched a few tutorials on mongoloid and hooded eye tricks beforehand.

"Harper, I love it!" She gushed at her reflection in my mirror, then lifted her hands up near her eyes.

"Don't rub it off," I warned her, then palmed her shoulders when she stood up. Her now amazingly accented eyes blinked at me a few times as I held her down and reminded her, "Lips last."

"Oh." Li's shoulders relaxed but her hips squirmed in my seat again while I dabbed light pink gloss onto her thin lips, which still shone as we stood outside a small line queue at the address written on the flyer Kieran had given me.

My head tipped back at the stucco house painted in a light yellow that I never would've placed for a football house. Typical bass-heavy party music throbbed through the air, solo cups were held in everyone's hands, and two minutes after we joined the line outside the front door, Kieran himself stepped out in a ridiculous red and white Hawaiian print shirt and black board shorts.

Ugh, here we go.

"Oh my..." Li squealed from behind her hand clamped over her mouth and pinched my bicep lightly. "I know him! He's in my neuroethology class, Kieran Meade."

I must've blinked at Li for a solid minute because I had no fucking clue which class she spoke about, but thankfully she lowered her hand and smiled, "He's a PhysBio major like me."

Huh, imagine that.

"You know him and didn't say anything earlier?" I arched an eyebrow and tossed a scrutinous look at my apparently secretive roommate, although now her previous deer in headlights reactions to Kieran made completely sense. "If you're looking to toss someone into the friendzone, he's your go-to guy."

"N-no..." Her smile faded slightly with her voice. "I don't actually, I've never talked to... I mean..."

"First time for everything then." My lips curled upwards, I cupped my hands around my mouth, and projected, "Hey MEADE!"

Every single head between us whipped in our direction and I swore Li shrunk into my side. I clasped her hand in mine, then tugged her forwards to the familiar dirty-blonde hair, green-eyed tight end. Kieran's face split into a toothy grin when he recognized me.

"Harper!?" His toned biceps wrapped around my shoulders warmly and heat radiated off his side onto mine. "Holy shit you actually came. I mean... Hi."

"Hey friendzone," I gently patted him on the back. After I broke away, my head turned towards Li and I almost snorted at the wide-eyed, near star-struck look on her face. "Kieran, this is my roommate, Li."

"Li Wei?" His eyes shifted down, met hers, and I couldn't have missed the spark of interest that flashed through them even if I'd stayed back at our dorm room. By the damn-near hearts Li wore in her eyes, to say she reciprocated the feelings was the understatement of the year. "We've had some classes together."

"H-Hi," she gave an awkward wave.

Kieran held his gaze on her, hesitated for a moment with a held in breath, then absolute gobbledegook came out of his mouth, "Wǒ xǐ huān nǐ de xiào róng, Li."

Whatever he said definitely had an effect on Li though. Her eyes snapped open wide, her pink glossy mouth dropped open, then she clamped a hand over it and dissolved into a ten-year old's fit of giggles.

Within one second, Kieran's face fell. "Did... I say it wrong? I'm so sorry -"

"Wait, you speak Chinese?" Now I was the one who looked wide-eyed.

Kieran's dirty blonde-haired head nodded, "Mandarin. I couldn't do Cantonese if my life depended on it."

"Since when?" I kept talking since Li looked like she risked peeing herself from giggling so much.

Kieran shrugged at my words, but kept his gaze on Li. "I took it for my elective here... I hope I said that I liked her smile, but she's still laughing so now I wonder if I messed that up."

"Li," I whispered at her and jabbed an elbow in her ribs.

Her giggles subsided and she gave him a bright smile. "No, that was right. Very sweet, tse tse."

"She she?" I echoed her last two words.

"Thank you," Kieran filled in, with his grin back on display as he led us inside the house. Over the ear-splitting music level, he shouted, "Can I get you ladies anything to drink?"

"I'll get the drinks." I clamped my hands around Li's shoulders and practically shoved her at Kieran. Her already pale face was practically sheet-white but by the small upward lift in the corners of his mouth and his eyes dropped over her appearance, he looked appreciative of my efforts.

That's all the shoving I'm doing this time. Li's on her own.

I stepped around a few hot, sweaty, gyrating bodies and made my way into the red solo cup central set up in the kitchen. After I glanced over the cheap beer options, I realized I had no idea what Li drank. Given limited options, I settled on two Bud Lights and a glass of fruity-smelling peach-colored wine.

After I weaved my way back into the living room, I stumbled into a completely unidentifiable conversation between Li and Kieran.

"Hǎo ba. Méi shén me!" Her black hair, which we'd clipped back behind her ears, shone as her head lifted back and the girliest round of giggles came out of her mouth.

I must've looked at her like she'd grown another head because she clarified, "I said, it's okay, no big deal."

"Did he say something stupid?" I shot Kieran a warning glance and held up the beer or wine choices to Li. After she took a Bud Light, I passed the other one to Kieran, who nodded and cracked off the top.

"No, no," Li assured me before I took a slow sip of solo cup vino. "He's a very nice boy."

I nearly snorted wine up my nose. After a few coughs that left tears in my eyes, since they both stared at me, I croaked out, "He'd better be. I still have to live with you."

"Meade!" A loud, male voice boomed out behind me and Li.

We turned towards a tall, confident guy with short, chestnut brown hair and a wide grin plastered on his face as he made his way over us. His brown eyes locked on mine right away and I swear, his lips parted slightly and he ran his tongue over his lower lip. With his broad shoulders, cocky sauntered gait, and a chiseled face I recognized from how often it was flashed on the stadium's screens during today's game dropped a pit into my stomach.

Oh fuck no.

Kieran tipped his chin upwards at the guy, who towered over me as he slid beside me. As soon as he did some stupid bro handshake-fist bump with Kieran, he confirmed my suspicions of not just the fact he was Kieran's teammate but which one in particular.

"This is Ethan Burke," Kieran turned towards me and Li, then nodded at us. "Ethan, Harper and I went to high school together and her roommate Li is also in pre-med like me."

"Harper..." Ethan's arm suddenly slid over my shoulders and a sweaty, smelly armpit pressed into the nape of my neck. His warm breath washed over my ear and his eyes roamed over me unabashedly. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Fuck no." I slid his arm off my shoulders and turned slightly so I faced him squarely. Even though I knew exactly which guy he was on the team, I feigned ignorance, "What position do you play?"

"Any position you'll let me put you in." Ethan leaned over and pressed a kiss behind my ear. Nothing in his words or gesture did anything for me other than churned my stomach like I'd eaten bad Indian food.

Here we go again.

I handed him my red solo cup, reached over and grabbed his crotch with my right hand. Ethan's eyes flipped open wide and his mouth opened, probably to suggest something vulgar, so I beat him to it.

"Hmmm... feels like quarterback." I frowned, squeezed his testicles harder in my palm, and internally high-fived myself when he winced. "Missionary preference... finishes before a girl knows what's happened... totally unsatisfying."

"That's -" he started when another fisted hand grab, plus a slight lugnuts twist for good measure, shut him up.

"If you ever put a hand on me again," I purred my sweetest voice possible into his ear, "Then I will chop off your balls so you can kiss them goodbye yourself."

"Harper, huh?" Ethan leaned back a few inches, so I released him.

After my hand took back my cup, I tipped it up to him and winked. "Good boy."

"That never, ever fucking gets old." At the smirk I heard in Kieran's voice, I looked sideways and Friendzone winked at me. By the way his shoulders shook, he held back laughing probably because Ethan now shot him a murderous glare.

Li on the other hand... I would've assumed I'd dropped to my knees and given Ethan a blowjob right in the middle of the living room by the way she stared at me in horror.

"Since you seem like you like a challenge." Ethan turned to me with a glint in his eye. "Let's play a game."

"Beer pong?" Kieran suggested. I rolled my eyes at the childish game but Li's eyes lit up like an ignited sparkler.

"Pong?" She hopped excitedly from one foot to the other as her eyes shifted over to a worn, dark green ping pong table set up in the corner of what looked like a dining room space by how it sat between the living room in the front of the house and kitchen in the back.

"Yeah." Kieran cocked his head slightly sideways, clearly amused by her reaction.

Li's lips parted, she smiled brighter than I'd seen her smile, reached behind her, and unsheathed a ping pong paddle.

"Where the fuck did you..." I leaned over her back and tried to figure out where she'd hidden that the entire time. We'd worn bikini tops, after all.

I guess if she and Keiran -

"Normally you just toss the balls." Ethan chuckled, but then added as her face fell at his words, "But you can use that if you want."

"I'm on Li's team," I called dibs on her and stepped out of Ethan's cologne fog. While Ethan disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a pitcher of beer, my spidey senses told me that the confident way Li's hand grasped her paddle, the steadiness in her shoulders, and lift in her chin suggested that was best for my sobriety around these meatheads.

In response to my arm slipped around her tiny waist, Li grinned up at me, then rotated her wrist a few times with the paddle like she warmed up.

"Let's make this interesting then," Ethan said as Kieran set up the smaller cups on one side of the table, then filled them with beer that I hoped wasn't skunked. "For every made shot, the other team drinks. For every missed shot, you have to take off a piece of clothing."

Since beer pong enthusiast was nowhere in my skill set, I softly squeezed Li's shoulder. She gave me a soft smile and nodded. I half expected that she revealed another paddle for me but she just lined herself up on one side, while Kieran and Ethan took the other.

Ethan's eyes sized me up and down suggestively as he mouthed, "You're going down," while Kieran had enough sense and eyed Li's paddle warily.

This should be interesting.

Half an hour later, Li and I stood fully clothed except for our bare feet. To the absolute delight of almost every set of eyes in the house, Ethan and Kieran were stripped down to just their socks and slightly swayed from drinking every cup on their side of the table except for the last one.

I could've happily gone my whole life without seeing their meat wrenches and lugnuts.

After one errant throw from me that had cost Li and I our shoes, I'd turned the game over to her and she never missed. With a soft smack sound, she handedly knocked the ball into the last cup, then lifted her paddle overhead in both hands like she'd held the holy grail. I wrapped her up into a big hug, then set her down and flashed our opponents two middle fingers like I'd contributed anything towards our victory.

"Looks like we had a snake in the grass," Ethan grumbled as he drank the last cup. Unfortunately, Li and I got a full moon shot as he bent over and shucked off his socks.

"Now I'm definitely going to be sick." I rolled my eyes up to the most likely sticky ceiling, where Li's eyes had been fixed almost the entire time that Ethan and Kieran's trunks were on the floor.

I took a painful long, slow sip that drained the rest of my now-warm solo cup of wine and made sure my eyes roamed over the free strip show those two had given the whole house. To no surprise, Ethan strutted around shamelessly but Kieran's cheeks flushed pink, so I put him out of his misery with, "Put your shorts back on at least, boys. For both your sakes, you look... cold."

"Incredibly impressive." Kieran slipped his bathing suit back on, walked around the table, and shook my and Li's hands. I smiled as he held hers for one additional second and how she melted in reaction.

"My turn to be sick," Ethan's voice murmured into my ear.

"Not much of a romantic, huh?" I smirked at his lopsided grin, glanced down, and internally thanked Ethan for how he wore his bathing suit instead of the birthday one. "Don't worry, if it's one thing that Kieran's good at, it's being friend-zoned."

"I meant the beers." His red-rimmed eyes ran unabashedly down me, then obviously lingered on my chest. "But I know something that will make me feel better."

"Take the beer googles off." My eyes narrowed and I mentally thanked Officer Davis for my lingered sense of clear-headedness even a week after our encounter. "I don't sleep with giant dickweeds, so eyes off the funbags."

"Harper..." Ethan asked as his eyes finally dragged up to mine. "How do you really know Kieran?"

I paused, took a slow breath, then admitted, "We both went to Santa Cruz High, where Kieran's best friend was my best friend's brother."

Kieran's forehead creased at my vague choice of words and his green eyes flashed towards me, but he remained silent. My mouth twitched at how he steadied himself with one of his hands clutched on the end of the ping pong table.

"I am way too drunk to figure out that connection." Ethan smirked.

"We both know Jake Harrison," Kieran grumbled in a low tone as his grip tightened to white-knuckle level. "To put it one way."

Li's eyes couldn't have stretched any wider and her mouth dropped open. "Harper!?"

"I'll... tell you about that later," I murmured quietly at her and must have worn a pained look in my eyes because she just nodded silently. I couldn't have been more grateful towards her for that reaction and mouthed 'thank you' while Ethan and Kieran exchanged a look.

"I hate that asshole." Ethan seemed like he shared the same sentiment as Kieran, given by the near murderous expressions they both now wore.

With one step, Ethan's chest pressed into mine and he stared down at me. "What I want to know..." He paused with a look like he knew the answer to his own question before he'd asked it. "Is why the fuck Jake and half USC's fucking football house were here on campus Monday... and I think I'm looking at it."

I glanced between them before I raised an eyebrow at Kieran. He shifted uncomfortably in his feet, but his eyes burned with the same level of anger that Ethan's held.

EJ... Fuck, he told them.

"Kieran?" I looked at him momentarily while Ellie's texted words, 'Kieran and Jake had a fallout' echoed in my mind. "You said if I came tonight you'd tell me, so..."

"We're not friends anymore." He took a long drink, long enough so he drained the bottle, which suggested he wanted this topic avoided.

"Let me guess." My eyes closed for a moment and I took a slow, deep breath. "In a totally cliché moment, he stole your girlfriend and slept with her."

"Yep." His forehead creased into a deep frown, which flickered his eyes a darker shade of green. "Just this past summer. Not that five months of dating mattered to her while she cheated on me... with him."

Oh shit, I was kidding.

Wait, was that Barbie from Monday?

I didn't have much time to contemplate Kieran's equally vague statement because his eyes shifted again and sparkled with amusement. "But he's going to go apeshit now that you're here. He was always obsessed with you."

"The only person Jake Harrison is 'obsessed with' -" My fingers hooked air quotes and I purposely avoided Li's curious look. "- is himself."

No way in hell I'm sharing his recent texts and nude with these mouth-breathers.

And Li... Fuck, how do I explain this to her?

"I don't believe you." Ethan's hardened gaze never wavered, even though his balance did as he swayed side to side.

"Me neither," Kieran agreed as he took a casual sip of another Bud Lite bottle. "Or at least, Jake was obsessed with you. You were the only other girl he made off-limits to the rest of the team. And before you bust my balls, yeah we knew you'd chew any of us up and spit us out if we tried anything."

Again, Li threw me a curious look, which I returned with a shaky smile while Ethan rubbed his chin absently like an actual thought processed through his head.

Abort the conversation, Harper.

"But shit." Kieran's head tipped back and a loud laugh bobbled his Adam's apple. "I'd give anything to see you tear him a new asshole again. Even just once. Your insults cut him down like no one else, drove him insane until he almost punched his fist through the locker room walls every fucking time. So yeah, he's obsessed."

"Insane and obsessed, huh?" Suddenly I didn't like, or trust, the gleam in Ethan's eyes or his interest in this topic. "And how do you feel about Harrison, Harper?"

Loaded question.

My lips rolled inward for a moment since I didn't really know, or trust, this Ethan tool. So, "Hate his guts," while my shoulders lifted was the casual reply I finally decided upon.

I'm not wrong.

Apparently I gave the wrong answer, since his thick brown eyebrows shot skywards. "Really? Seems like we have something in common then. How would you like to help us give Jake a little shit payback?"

"What's in it for you, Rumpleforeskin?" I raised an eyebrow at Ethan, who threw me a lopsided grin and lifted his shoulders.

"I'm a simple guy," he replied in a cool, even tone that none of me trusted. "On the field, off the field, Jake Harrison is the biggest asshole in Los Angeles."

Mixed reactions stirred inside me at his synopsis of Jake. Sure, I more than anyone rightfully called Jake an asshole and he capably dug his own graves during the three years he'd lived here, but a small thread of defensiveness pulled in my chest.

If it's one thing I hate besides stupid shit football rivalries, it's outside judgment without knowing the whole story.

And whatever shit they have with Jake, it's between them.

"Honestly?" I stepped close enough that my breasts brushed against Ethan's hard chest, smiled when his pupils slightly dilated at my close proximity, and ignored Kieran's knowing chuckle behind me. I playfully drew random shapes across one of his flat pectoral muscles with my fingers and finished with, "I'd rather have my nipples chewed off by a rabid dog than see that asshole again."

"Not far from reality, though Harper." Kieran snorted behind me right when my palm shoved Ethan back a step. I whirled around and caught a flash of 'bro code violation' guilt that flashed across Kieran's expression. As my eyes narrowed, he coughed and took another sip of his beer.

Of course Jake told him about... us. Asshole probably bragged to the entire locker room.

Anger coiled inside me the more Kieran's words sunk in and my chest heaved with a few short, sharp breaths at the idea that what had happened between Jake and me hadn't stayed that way. I was many things - a girl with a high sex drive yes and kind-hearted person no - but I respected personal privacy.

Which absolutely transcended into the bedroom.

Or in parked cars, behind football stadium bleachers -

I wasn't sure if Kieran would've admitted how much he actually knew about me if he hadn't drank so much beer, but I was glad he had. With a direct look into his slightly glassy eyes, I asked in a cool, calm voice, "How much did he tell you?"

He looked at me for a moment and, thankfully for his sake, slightly tipsy Kieran was an honest one. "Not the whole ski trip story but I didn't need all the details," he mumbled with downturned corners of his mouth. "Other than it was one of the best weekends he'd had, until it became the worst and he moved on to fucking any girl within range."

My eyes squeezed tightly shut at that reveal. Since my brain was nowhere prepared to absorb the weight of his words, I chose the diversion approach and raised my cup up to my lips. I ignored the warm burn on my tongue and throat as I practically chugged my wine down.

Fuck.

Suddenly, my gut flamed with anger as if I'd swallowed gasoline and someone had tossed a match into it. The reality that I now meant nothing to Jake other than a booty call when his girlfriend's vaginas clammed up was bitterly sobering and insultingly cruel.

Kieran went straight for the ovary punch when he added, "If there's anyone in this world capable of hurting Jake, really breaking him down, then it's you."

Double fuck.

While one glance at Kieran's large but slightly tipsy form now clearly showed he bordered on being drunk off his tits, I was more sobered up than ever as a lump swelled up in the back of my throat.

After years of shit about that asshole that I kept to myself.

While normally I wouldn't have given two shits about what anyone said about me, what Kieran implied was personal. So I turned back towards Ethan, gave him a sugary sweet smile, and asked, "What did you have in mind?"