67

Adam

Not Too Far

The moment I heard the voices outside the door, I cursed under my breath. Our friends. The group of people who could never keep their goddamn mouths shut if someone paid them. Last semester, Ryan and Kassie had been in a fake relationship, and we constantly joked about it because nobody in my circle could keep anything fucking quiet .

The more people know about Piper…somebody's going to talk.

"Ooo." Piper tried to stand up. "I want to see everybody!"

"No, you don't." I pushed her back down with a firm hand and grabbed her clipboard off the table. Goddamn. Why was the font size two? My head swam trying to read everything, and I strode over to the door, cracking it open half an inch.

Ryan put his hand on the door and tried to open it, but I made sure it didn't budge.

"Sorry, Piper has to get to her rounds," I said, holding up the clipboard. "Turns out it was only one event."

Kassie leaned against Ryan. "So…we get the room cleaned up, and she does her rounds?"

Shit .

"Nope." I shook my head. "I got it. I'm helping her out with that."

They gave each other short looks like I wasn't right there. I needed some reason to get them out of here and a quick one. I squeezed my eyes shut, wracking my brain. Why would Piper be out of commission for the rest of the night?

"She's…uh…having…Gray Sweatpants over," I said, trying not to grind my teeth to dust. "The night's called off."

Fuck me.

Zariah's eyes shot open. "Oh my god. Piper! Good for you!"

"Thank you!" Piper slurred from inside the room, and I closed the door even further, keeping it just a sliver open.

"Alright then…I'm going to be saying goodbye…" I said slowly, pushing the door even further.

"You're not coming with us?" Ryan frowned.

"Lots of…studying to do…" I finished, and with a click, the door shut to all the interrogations.

Fucking finally. I could hear the confused murmurs in the hallway, but our friends could head off and be puzzled together. I didn't care. I had Piper to take care of. The girl who was slowly falling off the couch.

"Hold on, ice princess." I grabbed her by the shoulders and helped her back up.

The clipboard was another manner entirely. It was a long checklist of items that had to be done before the end of the twenty-four-hour shift. Jesus fucking Christ. There was the entire map of the dorm to walk through, three times before seven in the morning, a paper to write down noise complaints, fire extinguisher checks, community kitchens, and stairwells. The more I flipped through the papers, the more my head hurt.

I sat down on the couch next to her and ran my finger down the checklist.

You got to be kidding me .

"First thing's first," I muttered under my breath. "Your fingerprints need to be logged into the lockbox…and your phone needs to be charged to answer calls. Where's your phone?"

"What?" Piper giggled.

"Your phone?"

The same phone you got those pictures on .

Piper pointed towards where her phone sat, turned off. Because she didn't want me to see? I held down the button on the side. Anxiety chewed me, ready to spit me out. Didn't I want to see Piper happy?

Not with some chucklefuck who thought he was hot shit.

Another knock echoed on the door.

"Goddammit, what now?" I muttered, opening it.

A couple of students stood in front of me. For the second event. Right. They started trying to file in, but I held out my hand and stopped them. They didn't even look like the guys on my floor.

"Is this the study night?" a girl asked, pushing up her glasses.

"Study night's been canceled," I said. "But who likes free food?"

After five minutes of spending a third of a paycheck on Gianna's delivery, I stepped back into Piper's room phone in hand.

Thomas Sullender must've really wanted a hand-delivered concussion because he had the damn audacity to call her. Right there and then. While I was in the room. I stared down at the caller ID—numb—and went back to the couch.

Piper had a box of malt balls in her hand, one of the things I'd bought her for the event. "Want one?"

"No. I'm…uh…" Whatever energy I had was gone when I showed her the phone. I studied her face. The face of a girl that was completely drunk and into another guy and pulverizing me into bite-sized pieces. "So—uh—Thomas is calling."

She chewed a malt ball, unperturbed. "He does that."

I drew the clipboard back over to me and took in a deep breath. Just a few days ago, I sat on a couch with Piper and had my world rocked with a kiss . Now, I couldn't be any lower. I got Piper drunk by accident. I ruined her shift. And she was talking to some fuckhead who didn't deserve her.

This was my rock bottom.

"You got photos from him," I told her, my voice husky.

"What?"

"Zariah told me," I muttered. "She said you got gray sweatpants photos. During a meeting. From Thomas. And I know what that means, Piper. You got dick pics on your phone and I just—" I shook my head, leaning forward. "This guy can't even throw a ball right. And that's what he gets paid for! He's a shitheel with no redeeming qualities. The only reason anybody would sign him on a team would be for a fucking blooper reel after playoffs!"

I took a deep breath and glanced over at Piper, her head tilted to the side, a secret smile on her face.

"What?" I asked, a little shaky.

"Thomas didn't send me any pictures."

"He didn't?" I stared down at her phone, still ringing.

Slowly, she shook her head. "No."

"Who did? You can't trust these fucking athletes. They'll toss chlamydia around farther than they toss a fucking ball or a puck—or whatever shit they're throwing the air."

Piper hiccuped. "Adam, you sent me the picture."

What?

I stared at her without saying anything. When Zariah mentioned the picture, I never thought she was talking about the photo I sent Piper. The gym one? The one I sent when she was…in the meeting about the rodeo.

Piper blushed over that?

A big grin stretched across Piper's face and a delirious one hit mine.

"That's the one she was talking about?" I could barely keep the hope out of my voice. "I'm Gray Sweatpants?"

"Uh-huh." Piper nodded, hiccuping again. "Thomas hasn't been doing anything but bothering me. Call, call, call." Her nose scrunched up. "You'd think he'd get a hobby. Bird watching or something. I'm so tired of it."

"Just block him."

"When he kicked me out, he kept my stuff." Piper sighed and slipped back to curl against the couch. "My CDs my parents made me…photos…my favorite stuffed animals…one of these days, he has to give up."

Not for you.

I wouldn't .

I grabbed the phone off the couch cushion, lighter than I'd felt all day. I could finally breathe again. And that asshole wanted to just keep interrupting. Every time it felt like things were going well, there he was, calling her fucking phone.

"Adam, what are you doing?" Piper frowned.

I answered the phone.

"Piper?" A familiar voice flowed through and I resisted the urge to snap the phone in half. Piper could break mine. I couldn't break hers. Thomas sucked in a breath. "Goddamn, you've finally come to your senses. Do you know how embarrassing this has been? You've embarrassed yourself. What the hell have you been—?"

I took a deep breath. "Listen to me."

"Who the fuck is this?"

"You're not going to call this number anymore."

" Adam? " Thomas demanded.

Good for him for at last recognizing the voice of a guy he used to party with every weekend. His brain was finally working. Fantastic timing.

"You're not going to call this number ever again," I told him, a warning under every word. "If Piper needs something, she'll call you. If I find out that you've called her again, I'm driving to Oklahoma."

"Is that a threat? "

"Yeah. But it's not the full one, so shut the fuck up. If you call her again, I'm pulling outside of that ugly fucking house on Rokan Boulevard and I'm going to beat you so hard with that fucking phone, they're going to have to surgically remove it from your ribs. In the hospital bed I'll put you in, they'll ask if you want to call your lawyer, and you'll say—no, thanks—I'm never using one of those ever again."

Nothing but silence over the phone. Piper's mouth fell open.

The call ended.

Satisfaction pulsed through me, and I set her phone back down with a big grin on my face. I'd been wanting to do that for so fucking long. That felt good. I couldn't have felt better. I turned my grin towards Piper but she wasn't grinning. She gazed at me, her eyes soft.

I raised an eyebrow. "Too far?"

"No." Slowly, she shook her head. "Thank you."

"I probably shouldn't have done that. I think I just threw a fire extinguisher through the window of a burning building."

"Adam?"

"Yeah?"

Gently, she put her two fingers on my face and titled me to the side, just like she'd done when she'd patched me up in the blue room. Her gray eyes searched my face. Slowly, achingly slowly, she reached over and kissed me on the cheek.