Bryna’s eyes wandered through the crowd of football players to where Eric Wilkins was standing. She had been very into him on her school visit here last semester. Sometimes, she still was when she forgot why they would never hook up. She was pretty sure none of her friends and certainly no one on the football team actually knew the reason.
Eric was gay. That was why he never tried to hook up with her on her visit and why he hadn’t talked to her since.
“I don’t think you’re his type,” Bryna said.
“Whatever. I heard the guys talking about how he dated that psychotic head case last year. What was her name?”
Bryna raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t heard anything about this. Must have been one hell of a cover story.
“Audrey,” Trihn said.
“That’s it.”
“Why did they break up?” Bryna asked.
Stacia shrugged. “Who cares? She was a crazy bitch. But now, he’s on the market. We can all take our chances with him. What do you say, B?”
She laughed and shook her head. “I don’t think I’m his type either.”
“Bri, you’re everyone’s type,” Trihn said.
“I appreciate the sentiment.”
Normally, she wouldn’t disagree with Trihn. Bryna had perfect long blonde hair, an impressive rack, and a killer body to boot. Most guys couldn’t tear their eyes away from her, and she always enjoyed the attention. After her disastrous senior year, she had especially enjoyed that attention this summer while lying on various European beaches and hooking up with gorgeous exotic men whom she couldn’t understand.
“So then, go ask him out.” Trihn nudged Bryna.
Stacia cracked up. “Ask him out? You want Bryna to ask him out?”
Bryna rolled her eyes. “You know that’s not happening. Do you know who I am?”
“The elusive Bryna Turner,” Trihn said with a wink. “Come on. You should be confident enough to be able to ask him out. I’d do it.”
“You do it then and let him turn you down. I’m not interested.”
“Well, I’m interested,” Stacia said.
The girls didn’t get it. Bryna never considered herself a good person. In fact, she normally figured she was a class-A bitch. But she wasn’t about to tell people that Eric was gay. He obviously wasn’t out, and the last thing she wanted was for it to get back that she was the one who had outed him. She admired him too much to spew venom.
After all, as the defensive back, he had led LV State to a national championship before he’d completely blown out his knee, ending his career. Now, he was a student assistant coach for the team, which meant they always hung in the same circles.
She would keep her mouth shut and tolerate her friend’s ridiculous behavior.
“You know what?” Bryna said with a smile. A plan was already formulating in her mind. “I’ll go ask him out.”
“Yes!” Trihn cried, thinking she had won.
“But…when he’s not interested, you’ll get a big, fat I-told-you-so, and you bitches will need to find guys to buy us the next round of shots.”
“Easy for us,” Trihn said. “There’s no way he’s not interested.”
Bryna smirked. This is almost too easy.
She honed in on Eric. Tall and still built like he played ball with short-cropped dark hair and an easy smile, he was easy to spot, even in the crowd of football players. The guys he was hanging out with had a bunch of girls desperately clinging to them, but Eric was without one. He might have told everyone else that it was because of his psycho ex, but she knew the truth. They always said all the hot ones are gay.
“Hey, Eric,” Bryna said, interrupting their conversation. “Can I talk with you a minute?”
She felt the eyes of all the other football players heating her skin, but she kept her focus on Eric. She wet her lips and looked up at him from under her long lashes. One of the other guys murmured something vulgar under his breath, and Eric shoved him.
“Sure, Bryna. What’s up?” he asked nonchalantly.
Bryna pointed her French-manicured finger toward a more private location. “Mind if we talk over there?”
He nodded and then followed her away. The guys immediately catcalled to him.
He flipped them off before returning his attention to her. “What’s going on?”
When she stared up into his honey-hazel eyes, her smile widened. God, he is fucking hot. She always thought so. Too fucking bad.
“Bryna?”
She snapped out of her trance and remembered why the fuck she was here in the first place. “Do you want to go out sometime?”
Eric blankly stared back at her. He looked surprised, but underneath the shock was something else. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
“You’re asking me out?”
“I know. Shocker, right?” She tried to play it off as if it wasn’t a big deal. She had never done this before. Mostly because she didn’t need to. She was hot, and guys flocked to her. She was just proving a point.
“Look, I…I don’t think you’re my type.” He scratched the back of his head. “Nothing against girls like you, but they’re not for me.”
Bryna’s mouth fell open. “Girls like me?”
“You know what I mean.” His eyes fell to the floor.
There it was in his voice again. Is that…disgust?
“No, I don’t think I do. I’ve been here for a month. What exactly is my reputation that makes you say ‘girls like me’?”
Eric sighed, and his eyes found hers once more. “You know what people say about you…about all the cheerleaders,” he clarified quickly. “No offense. I’m not into that.”
“Them now and not just me?”
She had expected him to turn her down. She had expected him to say no, that he didn’t want to go out with her. But she sure as hell hadn’t expected him to basically call her a slut-bag whore.
Girls like me? What the hell did that even mean?
She hadn’t slept with anyone since arriving at LV State. While she had flirted, she had been wary of getting too close to anyone. The last thing she wanted was for feelings to get involved and fuck her up again. She preferred meaningless hot sex. And it was harder to come by with someone who went to her school, knowing she could inevitably run into that person again.
“I don’t want to get into it, Bryna. But it’s…cute that you asked me.”
Cute.
He had said it was cute. This had gone from irritating to humiliating with one word. What an asshole!
“Maybe call up your friend Gates. He seemed into you.”
“We’re not friends anymore, but thanks,” she spat sarcastically.
Bryna turned to walk away, but Eric reached out and grabbed her arm.
“Hey. I didn’t mean to upset you. I didn’t know you two weren’t friends anymore.”
“Let me go,” she growled.
Eric immediately dropped her arm. “Whatever.”
He had that look again, like he was already disgusted with her, and her harsh tone had only made it worse.
Bryna stormed away, back to her friends. She struggled to find composure.
The thought of Gates irritated her to no end. He had been in love with her, and everything had gone straight to shit. She hadn’t even talked to him since he kicked her out of his movie premiere, and now, Eric Wilkins had brought him up.
Ugh!
And that only made her think of one thing. Images flooded her mind. The most prominent of them all was him.
Jude.
She took a deep breath and shut down. She locked away the image of him. She refused to think about the man she had once loved telling her he was married with a son, and then him turning around, following his wife out of the banquet room, and leaving her forever.
She swallowed hard. This wasn’t right. Jude’s name held no power over her. Never again would he hold any power over her.