Page 25 of Notorious Man on Campus

“Out to—”

“Can you do me a favor?” I hold my breath and my chest feels like I’m being pricked with tiny icicles, because the last thing I want to do is owe Nyla. “Make sure Willow leaves—without taking any videos?” She’s already nodding and I’m not sure if she’s being helpful or plotting revenge. For all I know she may team up with Willow and plot against me, two women scorned. Fucking great.

She opens the door and steps out, but I stop her.

“You know what—never mind.”

“No, it’s okay. I get it. I don’t like Willow any more than you do. I’m on your side, Brick.”

“No, you’re not. You can’t be. We’re enemies, remember?” She shakes her head, disbelief in her eyes as she shoves past me and out the door, stomping in Willow’s direction with a full head of steam. Willow sees her and doesn’t wait. She walks in the direction of her house across the street and down two. I watch Nyla follow her all the way to the other side of the street as Dooley comes to stand by my side.

“What are we watching?” he says. Same thing a few others have asked me, but I ignored them.

“A shitshow. When Nyla gets back, bring her with you up to my room for a meeting.”

The band is packing up and the crowd is thinning as I stride into the kitchen and zero in on Dylan. He’s with Allie and Trey having a beer.

“Meeting up in my room. Damage assessment.” I nod at Trey. “You’re welcome to join us if you want.” He’ll be in charge of the house after Dylan. It’ll be good leadership training for him. Not that he needs it since he’s already captain of the hockey team. But this is different than hockey problems. This is real life. My heart pounds as I take the stairs two at a time with my guys following behind me.

We settle in my room and I crack open a beer then sit in my chair and pick up my football, drinking with one hand and tossing the leather with the other.

“Shit, this must be serious,” Dylan says. “Beer drinking and football tossing at the same time.” He’s lucky I can’t flip him the bird, so I mouth fuck you at him instead. He laughs hysterically.

“Go get Roman. He’s in his room.”

“With a girl?” Trey says, “And you want to interrupt him?” I give him a look without speaking. “Shit, I want that assignment.” He springs from the desk chair and goes out the door with an evil grin.

“I think I like that guy,” I say. I’m waiting for Dooley and Nyla so I can start the meeting. Dylan takes the time to settle onto my bed with Allie and I roll my eyes at their snuggling.

“Jesus, Dylan. We’re having an official meeting here.”

“Is that an inflection of annoyance I hear in your voice, oh cool one?”

“I’m practicing for the stage,” I say. “What are you practicing for? A whore—”

“Don’t you dare fucking say it,” Dylan sits forward, getting all growly. Allie laughs and pulls him back. “He’s yanking your chain, honey. It’s all a game. And according to my calculations, in spite of the fact that I don’t have a computer brain, I’m winning.”

“I’ll let you think that since I don’t give a fuck,” I say as the door swings open and Dooley comes inside with Nyla. Trey follows them with Roman, who’s shirtless and looks like he put his finger in an electric socket to get his hair to stand up.

“Time for damage assessment. Thank you to all the nonfootball teamers for helping the cause.”

“It’s not just about football,” Trey says. “BMOC House itself is being threatened. I heard Lassiter is out to get us evicted if we show up in any more social media posts or videos.”

“Good point. So what do we have? Dooley you go first.”

“Too soon to tell on social media but I’ve checked the hashtags and didn’t see anything of note. Yet. It takes a while for things to go viral though.”

“See anyone with phones at the party?”

“Not me.” He nudges Nyla.

“Only Willow Ford,” she says. Everyone stares.

“Willow had a phone?” Allie says. “Shit. I didn’t think she would go against a Brick directive.”

“That’s serious shit,” Dylan says. “She get anything on it?”

“We didn’t get a chance to check it,” Nyla says.