Carnelian Page 9

  Reaching the dorms brought noise back to our quiet walk. Seth led the way up to my room. It was if he read my mind and knew I didn’t want to be a part of the noise in the courtyard. We stopped in front of my door as I unlocked it. As I expected, Sim was still at the party. Hopefully she had found someone to hang out with since I had left with Seth.

  “I know for some reason you won’t believe me, but I’m completely serious about you, Mari,” Seth began. “If my only way into your life at this point is as your friend, then that’s what I’ll be, but just know that what I really want is more than that. I’ve been searching for years for you.”

  “You don’t even know me,” I retorted, trying my best to move the conversation to something else.

  “I know all I need to know about you. You are the girl I’ve been searching for. Now I just need to convince you that maybe, just maybe, I’m the guy for you.” Seth grinned like he was accepting the challenge. “Just know that I’m not giving up on you.” And before I could reply, he leaned down and kissed my forehead before turning and strolling away, leaving me speechless before the open doorway.

  I marched into my room and slammed the door. Seth Sangre was good. I could still feel the tingles from where he had kissed me. Heck, I could still feel his hands around my waist as he caught me from falling. He was such a puzzle to me now. He’d been nothing but a gentleman all night. In fact, he only kissed me on the forehead when I was standing there shocked, even though he could have kissed me on the lips. I probably wouldn’t have even pushed him away if he had tried. He was a riddle to me, filled with secrets, yet when he said he would protect me, I knew he was telling the truth. Most players I’d known in high school would never go that far for a girl, even just to impress them. Seth was turning out to not be the person I thought he was, but even so, there was no way to be sure. If I said yes and went out with him, and he turned out to just be the normal, player jerk, I’d be the one with a broken heart.

  My phone buzzed where I left it on the charger.

  “Hello,” I said, answering it before it went to voice mail. It was Sim.

  “Hey new bestie, do you think you can come down here and help me out? I’m by the food again.” Sim slurred her words a bit. I didn’t need to be there to know she was drunk. How could she get drunk down there? There was a no alcohol policy in the dorms to prevent upperclassmen from getting the freshmen drunk.

  “I’ll be right down,” I told her before hanging up. I wasn’t sure what kind of help she needed, but I couldn’t leave her down there alone, no matter how much I didn’t want to go back to that party.

  I climbed down the stairs and hurried out into the courtyard. By now, the party was going full blast and didn’t show any signs of slowing down. I wove my way between the people. It was obvious that Sim wasn’t the only one that was drunk. I found my way over to the food area and didn’t see Sim or anyone I knew. I turned to scan the crowd, wondering where she went next, when I felt a tug at my shirt. Sitting on the ground to my left was Sim.

  “Hey, roomie.” She smiled from her spot on the ground. “The world is spinning too much.” That explained the help she needed.

  “Are you here alone?” I asked, wondering who had left her drunk on the ground.

  “I was with the Barbies, but pink Barbie puked on blue Barbie, and green and purple each took them away to get them in bed and cleaned up. I think they missed me since I had already sat down.” Sim smiled a big grin. I think she might have been sitting there for a while.

  I shook my head and bent over to pull her standing. She giggled at my effort and moved to sit down immediately.

  “Come on, Sim, we’ve got to get you upstairs, unless you want to sit around here all night and possibly get caught for underage drinking. Bet your parents would love hearing about that,” I added. You couldn’t reason with a drunk, but her parents seemed to be the only motivation she had a times.

  Sim stopped trying to sit down and let me put her arm around my shoulder as I put my arm around her waist. She leaned on me as her first step had obviously caused her to be dizzy again. We made our way slowly through the crowd and back the way I came. Halfway through the crowd we met Ty. I told him we were fine. We kept our steady pace and made it to the edge of the crowd. We still needed to walk around the square walls, but we were getting closer to our hallway door. From what I found inside as I came down, it would be just as much trouble going through the hallways. We hugged the building as we made our way around.

  As I passed an open doorway that was creating an alcove, the finger I pricked earlier tingled. The tingles traveled down my arm, and I couldn’t help but look around. It was as if someone was shocking me with a little painless electrical current. I only glanced, but immediately regretted it. Seth was standing in the shadows with his ex-girlfriend Melissa. Her arms were around him as she pulled him in closer to kiss him. I turned my head instantly, but didn’t miss the kiss. His lips were pressed to hers. My stomach dropped. I was just starting to trust him. Once a player, always a player.

  Chapter 7

  Avoiding Fate

  I went to breakfast very early the next day to avoid seeing Seth. I found a note written on our dorm door that he left the night before. I wiped it away. I tried not to care, but I kind of was beginning to like the guy. To have him be nice to me, only turn around and make out with his ex-girlfriend… that just about broke my heart. He was the perfect example why I swore off guys. They couldn’t be trusted, no matter how nice they were or how they said they were interested in you.

  After breakfast I decided to hibernate in my room all day. The first knock came at ten, but luckily Sim wasn’t a morning person, so she didn’t wake up to get it. I looked through the peephole and decided the best action was to avoid it. I didn’t want to deal with that player, Seth Sangre. By lunch, Sim was actually awake and heard the second knock.

  “You going to get that?” she asked from her bed. She was awake, but not really moving.

  “Nope,” I whispered back. I didn’t need to look. It was Seth again. Somehow I could tell from his knocking and the tingling in my hand. Sim raised her eyebrows in response and threw her legs off the bed to the floor.

  “Are you here or not?” she asked, obviously regretting the movement. She wasn’t tipsy like the night before, but she didn’t look too well either.

  “I already know who it is, and I don’t plan to talk to him. Just go back to bed. Looks like you need more sleep,” I said, motioning for her to lie down.

  “You are going to have to tell me later,” Sim replied, taking my advice and lying back down.

  Sim went back to sleep and didn’t get up until late afternoon. There were two more knocks, and I didn’t answer either of them. When Sim finally got up and went for a shower, I snuck out. I took different stairways to make my way outside with my bag full of homework. I stopped by the union café on my way to the library. Homework was going to have to be my distraction. Finding a dark, isolated corner, I sat alone, and it was quiet enough to study without worrying about being found. After hours of being holed up in the library, I was going to have to go back. I took the back route to my room and was happy that I did so. Before I went around the corner, I stopped to listen to the talking right by my doorway.

  “I’m serious,” Sim complained. “She isn’t here. Go ahead and search our room. She went out. Probably to do her homework.”

  The door pushed open with a whoosh. Within moments, the door clicked shut and there was a loud sigh.

  “I told you she wasn’t there. What did you do, anyway?” Sim was actually getting defensive.

  “I have no idea. I thought she had a good time with me last night,” Seth replied. He sounded confused. “Girls are such a puzzle. Why would she avoid me? I tried all morning, and she wouldn’t answer.”

  “If she really was there this morning, how would you even know? She might have been gone all day,” Sim replied.

  “I know she was there, just like I know she’s hiding now,” Set
h replied.

  “Don’t go there,” Sim retorted. “I just let you look around. You didn’t see her. Then she isn’t there. I haven’t seen her since I went to go get a shower. Honestly,” Sim tried to convince him.

  Seth huffed and then walked away. Sim huffed her own reply of sorts and went back into our room. I waited a few more minutes to be sure he was gone before I quickly snuck back over to the door. I unlocked it and slid into the room before anyone could catch me in the hallway.

  “Was he was right? You were here?” Sim asked.

  “Around the corner,” I answered, before climbing on my bed to face her.

  “What did lover boy do?” Sim asked, starting her interrogation. She looked eager to hear the news. I was beginning to think Sim wanted to live vicariously through me.

  “Ugh.” I threw myself back onto my pillow. “We went to the lake and just talked. He was nice. I think I was actually falling for his act. And I would have, until I had to get you last night. When I went back down there, I found him kissing Miss Popular. I was right all along.”

  “That bitch from before?” Sim asked.

  “The one and only,” I replied as the bed flopped beside me when Sim hit the covers next to me.

  “And he doesn’t know you saw, hence his act, right?” Sim assessed.

  “I guess not. But I know, and I am not falling for that.” Sim threw her arm around me as I talked, giving me a big side hug.

  “I’m sorry. Cute isn’t worth it,” she added. “If he’s interested in a girl like that, you are better off without him.”

  “That means you’ll help me avoid him?” I asked. “No more letting him search our room?”

  “I knew you weren’t in there,” Sim replied. “We need to find you someone else, then. Someone for you to show up on the arm of to make him see how good it feels. There are other fish in the sea.”

  “Just what my grandfather likes to say,” I answered back.

  “Smart man,” Sim added, before jumping back up at the knock at the door.

  “No, no, no,” I whispered, shaking my head and waving my arms as she approached the door.

  Sim smiled and opened the door a crack so that she could still see me, but Seth couldn’t see in the room.

  “Yes?” Sim asked.

  “I need to talk to Mari,” Seth replied, not even asking if I was there.

  “She’s not here,” Sim replied, with a coolness to her voice.

  “I know she’s in there,” Seth argued.

  “Have you ever thought that after seeing you kissing another girl, maybe she doesn’t want to talk to you?” Sim answered. I could feel my face turning red even though no one saw me. I guess Sim wasn’t one for being discreet.

  “Kissing another girl?” Seth asked, confused. “I didn’t kiss another girl.”

  “Then what do you call it when you have your lips pressed to your ex-girlfriends lips?” Sim was getting madder at him by the moment.

  “Melissa? Oh, that? I can explain,” Seth started right before Sim slammed the door in his face.

  My mouth dropped open in surprise as Sim laughed.

  “I always wanted to do that,” Sim giggled at my face. “College is turning out to be great fun.”

  Sim helped me avoid Seth the rest of the day, and I didn’t have to listen to whatever excuse he planned to give me about his ex-girlfriend. By Monday morning, he had stopped trying, but that didn’t mean I stopped seeing him around. After each class he would be somewhere in the vicinity, watching me. He was always there, as if he knew my schedule. Most times he was alone, but other times there would be his brothers or Melissa with him. He never seemed to see them when I passed by, but constantly stared at me. He appeared to be pleading with his gaze alone. Seth may have put aside chasing me out in the open, but his eyes still watched me. Sim was right in that I needed to find someone else and soon.

  After a week of being observed, I was grateful to be tutoring just Ty as Dee had another commitment. Dee had been extra prickly since I had blown off Seth. Ty was the only friendly and trustful one of the three brothers.

  “Are you coming to the game this weekend?” Ty asked as he packed his bag up after our tutoring session.

  “Sorry. I’m a little busy,” I lied.

  “Busy avoiding Seth,” Ty replied. Yep. He was honest and hit that one on the head. I didn’t reply. “What did he do this time?”

  I raised my eyebrows in response. Seth didn’t tell his brother? I doubted that. They seemed like the type that told each other everything.

  “Really, I didn’t ask him. I figured if you were mad at him, he must have done something. He didn’t tell me anything. Unless I ask, he always says nothing,” Ty replied. I weighed his response. It looked like Ty honestly didn’t know.

  “I found him making out with his ex-girlfriend after CRUSH. I don’t think he knew I saw him, or that I went back down to the party, but I had to get Sim. He was in some corner making out with her. Sorry. I’m not into guys that tell you one thing and do something else. Been there, done that.” I picked up my bag. Ty joined me and we began to walk back to the dorms.

  “Knowing Seth, he probably got trapped by that one. Melissa.” Ty sighed, saying her name like it was a dirty word. “That girl just can’t take no for an answer. You’d be surprised by how much self-control Seth actually has. He broke things off with her last year, and he found her naked in his dorm room the next day. She really doesn’t understand when someone says things are over, and Seth is too nice to hurt her feelings.” Ty painted Seth in such a nice light, like he was a saint for not sleeping with her as she threw herself at him. Ty didn’t understand that a guy that looked like Seth would always have girls throwing themselves at him. He needed to grow a backbone if he wanted to keep a girl like me around.

  “She must have kissed him?” I asked, hinting that was what Ty was going to say next.

  Ty shrugged. “I’d guess so. The guy has completely fallen for you. I doubt he even noticed her approaching him before it was too late. She’s quite the stalker. All he’s talked about since school started was you,” Ty added. Why did Ty have to paint Seth in a good light again? I was completely willing to just throw away any connection we might have had.

  “Well it’s too bad he can’t seem to tell that girl no, because I don’t want to get involved with a guy again that I can’t trust completely, whether a girl throws herself at him or not.” Ty nodded. He may be on Seth’s side of the argument, but I think he could understand my point. Actually, it was looking like Ty was completely neutral, beyond telling me what a great guy Seth was.

  Ty stayed close as we walked through the wooden path. It was as if Ty had the same feeling that the woods weren’t the safest place. I looked around, but nothing seemed suspicious when I was out with Ty. Then again, most people wouldn’t confront the large guy walking with me. The muscles in his arms were bigger than my thighs. If he didn’t smile, he would be completely unapproachable.

  “You still need to come to our game tomorrow,” Ty added as we neared the dorms. “Not to watch Seth or even Dee play. You need to come to watch me.” Ty flashed his lopsided grin. “I plan to crush some heads and make everyone fear a freshman.” A couple passing freshman jumped at his growl. I had to laugh. If I had just met him, he would be terrifying, but I knew Ty. He was harmless. “Come on. Please,” he begged. “You can be my date to the after party. That, at least, should be worth it. We can enjoy pissing off Seth together. I mean, he’s my brother and all, but he needs to man up sometime. You’re completely right that he needs to tell Melissa off. Maybe he just needs some motivation.” He was winning me over with his new plan to woo me to the game. “Heck, I can bring both you and Sim. I’d love to show up with two beautiful women on my arms. That would piss off not just Seth, but Dee, too.”

  “I doubt bringing Sim and I would piss of Dee,” I added as he opened the door to the dorms. Dee didn’t even seem to think Sim and I existed.

  “I suppose not,” Ty replied, his
balloon bursting only a little. “But the other guys on the team will be jealous, which might just make both Dee and Seth a bit jealous also.” Ty seemed to have back-up plans for his back-up plans. “Come on, Mari, I’ll even buy you some pizza,” Ty bribed.

  “Fine,” I said as he opened the door for me. Bribery was the best method, and food was always a good bribe. “We’ll go to the game and be your dates, but only for free pizza.” Ty laughed.

  “Then it’s a date,” Ty replied. Ty surprised me when he bent down and crushed me in a hug. Surprised me, that is, until he set me back down and I saw Seth coming around the corner with Melissa right beside him.

  “See you tomorrow after the game date,” Ty added, obviously for Seth’s benefit. I hid my smile in his chest after he sat me down. I had caught one glimpse of Seth’s face when Ty was hugging me, and sitting through a football game would be worth it. Dee might not be impressed with Ty showing up with Sim and me, but Seth was already fuming.

  I tried to keep the momentum of seeing Seth mad the day before and into the next day as Sim and I got ready for the game. I began to worry a little bit about watching Seth. I wasn’t completely sure about anything with that guy. I was already regretting my decision to go to the game, but I couldn’t think of a good enough excuse to get out of it. I dressed hurriedly, not especially paying attention to what I chose. I hadn’t been at Morton long, but I had enough blue and white clothing to last a lifetime. Sim redressed me when she saw what I picked out, and at that point I didn’t even care. I was getting too nervous. After talking with Ty and him telling me that Seth was a good guy, I was slowly doubting that I could unfall for Seth Sangre.