This is anything but fun.

I sat, completely squished against Logan's tall, muscle-hard frame, on a slightly sticky, cracked black-leather sofa in the living room of the football house. Throbs of party music pounded in my ears and even pulsed into my skin. Like last week, the carpets still weren't the cleanest but now the room was crammed shoulder-to-shoulder with either couples who made out like they were the only ones in the room, held near-screamed conversations, chugged back what smelled like horrendously cheap beer, or, like me and Logan, absently watched the few guys who ignored all the party activities in the room because they were too engrossed in a video game.

Over the thirty minutes we'd been here, Wes, Charlie, and Harper hung out with a small group of guys from the team in the kitchen. Technically, Wes and Charlie stood off to the side and chatted with Kade and Zander, Logan's two centers, while herds of guys flocked into the room and enveloped around Harper.

In the short time between when Logan and I left the kitchen and sat in the living room, Harper turned the kitchen into a revolving door of rejection. Guys walked in, spoke to her, and walked out with downturned mouths, clenched teeth, and averted eyes. The quick shift in their expressions was comical, definitely more entertaining than the 'kill all the aliens' multiplayer game on the TV.

Logan and I weren't anywhere close enough that I caught Harper's conversations but the desperate way the guys looked at her, how their tongues practically laid out on that sticky kitchen floor and they hung on her every word, I wasn't sure I wanted to know what they'd said. By Harper's flirty smiles, I knew she appreciated the shallow, physical-attraction only attention but I still kept one of my eyes on her for any Harper-like developments.

Ironically, the only single guy who largely ignored Harper when he entered the kitchen for a drink was Emmitt. Her eyes, however, shot straight to his tall, muscular frame and, once he turned and left unscathed, he wore a triumphant smirk.

Interesting.

Seth Brooks took a slightly indirect approach. He hovered near Harper, laughed at every one of her exchanges, and eyed her the way Logan had drooled over his steak within our table full of seafood plates at the restaurant. The darker look in Seth's fixated brown eyes and the way his lips randomly parted and he ran his tongue over the seam made his intentions completely obvious but so far Harper had behaved herself.

Logan and I both clutched red plastic cups in our hands, the college party staple, and both of ours were still half-filled with water. I appreciated how Logan insisted that he'd gotten them and how he'd stayed glued to my side from the moment we stepped into the house, even as guys from the team came up, greeted him, and recapped the game.

Right when I zoned out Logan's talk about 'three-four defenses' with Reese Masters, Logan's tight end, my phone buzzed with a message.

Jake: Harper miss me yet?

I snorted down at my phone, then snapped a picture of her surrounded by her adoring fans.

me: Safe to say, no.
me: [ image attached ]

My phone was noticeably silent for a few moments, during which Logan nudged me with his nearest elbow. "Everything okay?"

"Just Jake's way of letting me know he made it back to LA," I assured him and turned off my phone screen.

"I don't know about those two," he muttered so quietly that I only knew what he'd said by how his lips moved around the words.

At that, Reese and Logan started comparing quarterback styles for the upcoming game with Jake. I politely smiled at any and all comments about my brother until Reese left for a drink refill and checked the time on my phone again. Both Logan and I sipped on our water glasses and traded a few small conversations between each other.

And by conversations, half shouting and half missing what each other said is not my idea of a good time.

Of all people, we started our last conversation about Brody.

"Did he really change his last name!?" I leaned back and yelled into Logan's ear over the mix of party music throbs and video game sounds.

"What?" Logan yelled back and leaned forwards, so I leaned closer to his ear and tried again. He just shrugged his shoulders and answered, "Guess he did. I'll ask later."

"What!?" I leaned further towards his ear.

"Later!" was his chuckled reply.

A hearty round of laughter erupted from the kitchen, which drew both of our attention. Seth stood in close proximity to Harper's side and, like a slow motion bad decision moment, slipped one of his arms across her shoulder. My spine stiffened and I shot straight up in my seat.

Uh-oh.

I planted my feet onto the carpet but hadn't even lifted my butt off the cracked black leather sofa when Harper's hand slipped up, clasped around Seth's hand and, for one blink, he smirked at her. With one twist of her wrist, she flipped him around so his pelvis pressed into the kitchen counters, pinned his arm behind him, and by the way Seth's face wrenched up with tension, I safely guessed that his smirk had disappeared.

A warm hand on my shoulder pulled me back against Logan's side, where he wrapped a welcome arm around me.

He cupped one hand over my ear and fogged it up with both assuring words and his warm breath, "She's got it."

I turned to agree but Logan's entire body posture changed. His arm tensed around my side, the muscles in his thigh where my free hand rested clenched tightly, and his spine stiffened. His eyes stared straight ahead and, once I followed their trajectory, my gaze met a pair of warm, dark brown eyes.

Emmitt stood in the kitchen entry, arms crossed over his chest, back towards the Harper-related excitement, and eyes fixed right on mine. With a few hitched steps from his walking boot, he approached us and, as he got closer, Logan's body tensed further. His hand squeezed into my outside shoulder until my inside one tucked under his armpit and my forehead rested near his neck.

"Hey bro." Emmitt kept his eyes on me but extended a hand to Logan that developed into some weird bro fist bump. "Ellie."

I pulled what I hoped looked like a polite smile across my lips at Emmitt but before I answered, he shoved himself into the sofa's small open space I'd left once Logan had tugged me closer. His body heat radiated into me as I got sandwiched between two walls of solid muscle.

Ugh, just like our first Anatomy class lectures all over again.

"Didn't think I'd see you here," he said in a quiet voice, which drew my attention to the fact that the party music had died down. The hum of conversations and video game noises continued around us.

"My friend wanted to come." I nodded at Harper, who shoved Seth away from her then tipped her head back and laughed at Lord knows what.

Emmitt kept his gaze fixed on me and, when I lifted my eyes to his, they were the darkest shade of brown I'd seen on him. The warmth and slight smell of beer his close proximity brought shifted a slight sense of discomfort through me. His lips parted, he tucked the lower one under his teeth, and gently ran his tongue across it.

"And what about you?" He leaned forwards and murmured with a low voice into my ear. The gross choice of words that followed raised the hairs on my nearest forearm. "Are you here because you wanted to come?"

So that just took a turn into Pervert Alley.

With my boyfriend on the other side of me.

"No." My forehead tensed into a frown. With a slight pull back, I shook my head a few times before I took a slow, deep breath in, then exhaled sharply. With a direct look into my convex reflection in Emmitt's pupils, I replied, "Not unless it's with Logan."

"Fair enough." He rolled his eyes, reached his closest hand up, and wrapped it behind my neck. I flinched forwards at the contact, but Emmitt only patted Logan's shoulder a few times, then stood up. "Enjoy the party."

By the way Logan's eyes followed him and the fact Emmitt's face remained intact, I assumed Logan hadn't heard what he'd said, but I tugged Logan's face down towards mine and pressed a kiss into his cheek.

"I'd like to go," I mumbled into his ear, then stood up and pulled on his hand. In no form of reality I'd ever have lifted Logan up, but he got the hint and stood. We got two steps into the kitchen when another unwelcome interruption hit us.

"Logan, surprise and pleasure to see you" a suggestive female voice, attached to a hand that mentally I yanked off his shoulder tugged on his shirt sleeve near his shoulder.

Logan turned and his mouth twisted slightly sideways at the unfortunately unfamiliar blonde dressed in a skin-tight black minidress that I was positive she felt best displayed the 'assets' she now pressed right into Logan's arm. "Good to see you here."

"Right, Lydia." Logan scoffed and pressed himself against me, which obviously worked better in his mind because, with his size difference, I stumbled a step forwards. "I think we're getting ready to leave."

"Ellie." Her blue eyes narrowed slightly and I fought an urge that I rolled mine. The chill in her voice gave away her true sentiments, so I wrapped one arm around Logan's waist. "You're leaving, right?"

"We are," I emphasized 'we' in as syrupy-sweet of a voice as I mustered. A smile pulled across my lips as I leaned forwards and placed them right near her ear. "Back to our apartment, where I'm going to sleep with my boyfriend, over and over while he tells me how much he loves me."

Her sucked in breath gave away her surprise, which she masked with a chilled tone of voice but she stepped back into the wall behind her. "Watch your mouth, Ellie. Might get you in trouble one day."

"What are you going to do?" I stared into her blue eyes and tilted my head slightly sideways. "Throw out pathetic, weak, empty threats? Rat us out for a gossip scoop? Ship sailed, ESPN got the exclusive interview from Logan."

Lydia's lips parted and eyes narrowed into thin slits, but momentum carried me further, "I got Logan. His body, his mind, and his heart are mine. Leaving you with exactly what you deserve, nothing but your pathetic, desperate, insecure, single, lonely ass."

Her lips pressed into a line so hard that her pink lipstick disappeared and the skin over her upper lip and chin stretched tight. A stormy gray cast over her eyes as she glowered at me so intensely normally I would've recoiled in response.

I'm not going to let her intimidate me, not this time. Her back's literally against the wall.

At her pathetic intimidation attempt, my shoulders relaxed, my lips parted, and I laughed. Loud, hearty laughs left my mouth and the more I laughed, the more tension my body released. Tears pricked my eyes, the corners of my mouth creased and my jaw ached but I laughed and laughed and laughed.

"Stop laughing, you psychotic bitch -" Lydia started when a blunt force rammed into my chest.

I stumbled backwards a few steps until I landed hard against Logan's tall, broad frame. His hands steadied my shoulders while I caught my breath with a few raspy gasps. Only the way Lydia's outstretched hands receded told me she'd pushed me.

She... pushed me!?

My mind flipped back to years ago, where Lydia had stood over me, when I was half-naked, blindfolded, and subjected to humiliation. While I'd left on my own accord from her hazing situation, the emotions that resurfaced with the freshman year memory bubbled up. Embarrassment and anger churned inside me until my entire body reacted.

My legs locked into place, feet pressed firmly into the floor. In one breath, my right shoulder pulled back and before my movements registered, pain radiated throughout the back of my right hand. Throbs of aftershocks radiated up my wrist and I flicked a few strands of her hair off my fingers absently. Lydia's head snapped sideways but only the flash of fear in her eyes registered the fact that I'd punched my fist right into the drywall above her left ear.

"What the hell?" She cried out before her hand cupped around her left ear, then tugged her hair away. "You tried to hit me!"

"You're lucky she missed." A strangled noise hit my left ear, which I turned towards and saw Logan's shoulders bounced slightly, he clenched his jaw, and his eyes flashed.

"If you even think about doing anything to me or my boyfriend then I won't miss." I stepped over her now slunk-down frame, which normally would've towered over me but not in her hunched over position.

"You can't do shit," she said in a nasally, weak voice that threatened another round of laughs from me.

"How about I expose the Zetas for hazing?" I fisted my hands on my hips. "Forcing innocent girls to sleep with football players, give them blow jobs during initiation? Not my idea of sisterhood and I'm pretty sure the dean of the school would agree. I'm willing to bet he'd yank your whole charter off campus."

"You wouldn't," she muttered in a quiet voice. "No one would believe you."

"I would," a deep voice spoke up behind us. I turned and found Emmitt's tall frame leaned against the same wall I'd hit, his still-dark eyes fixed on me and smirk on his lips. Lydia fell silent, her eyes wide and fixed on him until he stared her down.

"Funny thing about whistleblowing, all it takes is one before others follow," I retorted firmly and ignored the continued throbs in my right hand as I tightened both fists. "And if it meant your pathetic ass got expelled, then I would. So don't tempt me."

After I took a couple steps away from Lydia, where she still stood pressed into the wall, a pale tint now across her skin, I added over my shoulder, "In fact, let's pretend for the rest of the year that neither of us exist because after tonight Lydia, you're not important enough to exist in my book."

My heart hammered loudly inside my chest walls and my breath was ragged but an odd sense of calm filled me as Logan directed me outside the house.

Cool, damp air hit my cheeks as the pattered sounds of rain on the roof above the house's front porch filled my ears. My cheeks warmed as my outburst replayed in my head and I slowly lifted my eyes to Logan's. He stood silently and his eyes stormed with so many mixed emotions, my best efforts couldn't have detangled them.

"I'm sorry," I whispered and brought my very sore hand up to my forehead. "I don't know what I was thinking, I'm mmph -"

With one long step, Logan silenced me when he bent down and smashed his lips hard against mine. His nose pressed into my cheek, where a few sharp, hot exhales fanned over my skin and his fingers tensed through my hair as his hands cupped tightly onto the back of my head. His lips remained still, just pressed so hard against mine that I couldn't have moved even if I'd tried.

I gasped once he finally broke off with a soft pop and stared at me.

"Are you okay?" he murmured softly, then pressed a soft kiss into my forehead. Since that first kiss had stolen the words right out of my brain, I only silently nodded, and he stepped back inside. "Stay here, I'll be right back."

I exhaled a breath I hadn't realized I'd held in and averted my eyes from the house. The night sky hung, dampened with rain that, going off the number of umbrellas that littered the front porch, everyone who came for the party had expected.

The longer I stood there, the more curiosity won me over, and I looked back inside through the nearest window. Next to Wes, Charlie, and Logan, Emmitt sauntered over to Harper in the living room, where she laughed, then reached out and grabbed what looked like his ass in one hand, patted her other palm in his chest, then winked. His shocked face was enough that I tore my eye gaze away from whatever the hell that exchange was.

That's enough spying, Ellie.

Less than a minute later, the door swung open with a bang and Harper stepped out, a look of annoyance mixed with curiosity.

"Did you just punch a fucking wall?" Her eyes met mine until I nodded feebly. To my surprise, she exhaled with relief. "Good, because I just chewed that bitch a new asshole. Possibly two. I was working over the broken quarterback when these two yanked me outside."

"Very impressive." Charlie snorted as she and Wes trailed out the door, followed by Logan. "Harper, I can't thank you enough for all the entertainment tonight. Although I could've lived without seeing you grab Emmitt's ass."

"Felt a little flat." Harper only scoffed quietly and I bumped her shoulder once we stepped off the porch. With a few clicks, we all flipped up our umbrellas and walked in the rain back to our apartment building.

"Do I even want to know how many guys' egos you knocked down back there?" I asked her once we'd put two blocks between us and the football house, or one block away from the house parties on Greek Row.

"It is my favorite sport," she joked but kept her gaze forward. "Eight? Ten? I didn't count."

"Nine," Charlie spoke up from behind us, then shrugged when Harper and I looked back over our shoulders at her. "I counted, so what? The woman's like some kind of male ego lumberjack."

"Wasn't anything serious," Harper assured me and stomped one of her boots into a small puddle ahead of us. "Not like the way Jake-two-point-oh stared at you, Ellie."

At the mention of Emmitt, I glanced over my shoulder at Logan, just in time that I caught his clenched jaw.

"He doesn't know anything about me," I muttered quietly and looked at Harper when one of her hands rested on my shoulder.

"Even so," she murmured quietly. "Keep your eye on that one."

"What?" I whispered as loud as I could without Logan hearing me. "Why?"

"Don't trust him," was all she replied. Before I prompted her for more details, her eyes lifted and locked on mine. "Let's just say that he was the only single dick there that wasn't pointed at me."

_____________________________________

Q: Can we have some phone conversations/connections between Ellie and Jake?

A: Sure!