Boys and Girls, Part III: Can't Stay Away

Chapter 5 – Meet Tristan

“Are you finished?” Lani asked, checking on Ryan. Instead of finding him in front of his computer, pondering his essay that was due in less than two days, Ryan was sprawled on his back, listening to his iPod. Lani stormed into his room and yanked the earphones from his ears.

“What the hell!” he shouted.

“You’ve been in here for an hour, and all I see is a blank screen with a blinking cursor on your monitor!” she scolded.

“I needed a break.”

Lani put her hand on her hips. Ryan had been out of the hospital for a few days now. He was walking with crutches and doing much better than anyone had anticipated. Still, Lani had left him to study in his own room so that everything he needed was easily accessible. Obviously, his bedroom was providing too many distractions anyway.

“Do you want me to leave?” she asked.

Ryan smirked. “I like it better when you’re in here with me.”

Lani rolled her eyes. “We tried that. You kept trying to talk to me, and you didn’t get anything done. I couldn’t get any homework done either!”

Ryan sighed. “Aren’t you doing this to help me out?”

Lani regarded him suspiciously. “Yes. Of course.”

“Well,” he stated matter-of-factly, “it would really be helpful if you stayed in here to help me write this damn paper.”

Lani tried her best to suppress a smile. Ryan grinned when he saw that he had gotten her to snap out of ‘serious mode.’

“Well?”

Lani sighed in exasperation. “Fine! But if you don’t start writing this paper –

“You’ll send big, scary Sailor Man to punish me, yada, yada, yada…Don’t worry, Ailani. I wouldn’t want to upset the Big Guy wearing the white flares.”

“You are so annoying!” she retorted, hitting Ryan on his arm.

Ryan rubbed his arm. “Shit! I forgot you pack a lot in your punches!”

Lani laughed, but when Ryan continued to become distracted, she threatened to leave again. He finally maneuvered himself in front of the monitor a good ten minutes after he had promised to do so originally. Despite the occasional lewd comment, Ryan actually continued composing in silence. The bastard was done in less than an hour.

Lani leaned over Ryan’s shoulder to proofread his report. She had to swat him again when she caught him shamelessly peeking down her shirt.

While she wasn’t an econ major, Lani was still able to follow the logistics of his report. His paper was surprisingly well written and articulated.

“Why couldn’t you have finished this earlier?” she asked.

“I didn’t want you to leave,” he answered.

Lani laughed, but Ryan didn’t. Her smile eventually faded as she realized that Ryan was serious. Silence became inevitable as Ryan looked directly into her eyes. This was exactly the type of situation that Lani had hoped to prevent. She immediately averted her gaze and changed the subject.

“What do you want to eat?” she asked.

Ryan’s gaze told her that they couldn’t order what he was craving at that moment. She walked out of the room and knocked on Joe’s door down the hall. He heard her from his bedroom.

“Joe, what do you want for dinner?”

Ryan heard Stephanie’s voice drift from the bedroom. “Stephanie wants vegetarian pizza.”

“Lani wants Stephanie not to talk in third person.”

Stephanie laughed. “You bitch!”

Lani joined in, prompting Joe to complain about all the girly noise coming from the hallway. Suddenly, Ryan found himself in a foul mood. He didn’t want to share Lani with other people right now. He wanted her all to himself.

As the three-way conversation in the hallway continued, Ryan surreptitiously slipped the earphones of his iPod back on. He was going to drown out the fun and laughter that didn’t include him.

****

“What is Las Meninas,” Jacy answered triumphantly to the TV.

“This girl’s on fire,” Hunter said, referring to Jacy.

The pair was on the couch watching “Jeopardy.” As usual, Jacy was answering nearly every question correctly. Lani knew that Jacy was pretty brilliant but hadn’t known what a Jeopardy savant she was until recently.

Jacy had spent every afternoon watching the game show, following the end of her classes. It wasn’t a big problem. Lani liked Jacy’s company, and the latter always left when Lani wanted some alone time with Hunter.

But Lani was worried that Jacy was spending more and more time over at her place because Stephanie was spending a lot of time over at Joe’s place. Lani knew the difficulty of losing a best friend to a guy; it had happened with Delaney and Jason. But somehow, Lani was okay with it all, knowing that the pair was so happy together. Lani was also aware that Jacy didn’t like being alone, so she must have been taking Stephanie and Joe’s union a little harder that someone else might have.

“Who is Coco Chanel.”

Lani looked over at Jacy and realized how cute she was. Jacy was a little chubby, but she had the prettiest hazel eyes and nicest long, brown hair. She also had an awesome personality, was incredibly knowledgeable, and had a beautiful singing voice. Lani hoped that some man would have sense enough to whisk Jacy off her feet and make her realize that love really did exist.

****

“Please explain why we’re here again,” Jacy groaned.

“Ryan said Jason would be holding a box of his stuff for him,” Lani answered.

“And we’re entering this fetid atmosphere because?” Jacy asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

Okay, so the men’s locker room at NMU’s athletic facility wasn’t the cleanest, freshest-smelling place on the planet. But Lani had to admit that Jacy – who had never stepped foot inside of a gym – was overreacting.

“Are you sure we can even just walk into this place?” Jacy asked. “Why can’t Golden Boy just drop the damn thing off at Ryan’s apartment?”

“He should be here…I think,” Lani finished with uncertainty. “Anyway, Jason’s busy, and I said I would do it. Stop asking so many questions!”

As they approached the entrance to the locker room, Jacy stopped dead in her tracks. Lani whipped around. “What?”

Jacy waved her hand back and forth in front of her nose. “It stinks.”

“Yeah,” Lani answered, growing irritated. “It’s called sweat, Jacy.”

“Can I just stay out here?”

Lani gave up. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever you want, your highness.” She pulled the handle and entered the locker room.

It was dead quiet. There wasn’t a damn soul in the entire place.

“Jason?”

Lani walked up and down the rows of lockers. Hmm, maybe Jason forgot and left already. Lani continued to walk and noticed the ground was getting wetter. She was nearing the shower stalls. Realizing she didn’t want to go in that direction, she attempted to spin around when her body collided with a very hard body.

“Oof!” she shouted, nearly losing her balance. Strong arms came to her shoulders to steady hear. As she shook herself out of the collision, she noticed a pair of clear, blue eyes staring back at her.

“Hey baby,” the figure said in a cool southern drawl. “You’re weren’t headed toward the showers, were you? ‘Cause if you were, I’d be tempted to jump back in myself.

Lani’s jaw dropped in indignation but also because she finally got a good look at this cocky ass in front of her. His slightly long, dark blonde hair clung around his face. He was only about an inch taller than she was, but he was clearly bigger than her. He was also very wet and – aside from the fact that he wore a plain white towel around his waist – very unclothed. Beads of water trickled from his hair down to his strong shoulders past his tan, chiseled pectorals and his sculpted six-pack abs to…

Bad.

Lani didn’t have time for this, so she got down to business.

“Is Jason here?”

“Who?”

“Jason Kent,” she repeated, as if he was a total dunderhead. “You teammate?” she added.

“You gotta excuse me,” he answered casually, “but I’m kinda new around here, so I don’t have everyone’s names committed to memory.”

And then it dawned on Lani. So this was the jerk-off who replaced Ryan.

Towel man extended his hand. “Tristan Carter.”

Lani accepted it coldly. “Ailani Bennett.”

“Hawaiian and…

“Welsh,” she finished for him.

“Damn,” he answered. “That’s a pretty good combination.”

Lani gave him an insincere smile. She had business to take care of. “Where is Ryan Mackey’s locker?”

“Who?”

Lani was growing more and more impatient. “Ryan Mackey,” she gritted out again.

“Wasn’t he the guy who fucked up his knee?” he asked unashamedly.

She just wanted to leave at this point. “Yes.”

“Why do you want to know where his locker is?”

“I need to collect his things,” she answered.

“What are you, his girlfriend?”

She wanted to say ‘yes’ just to wipe that smug look off of his face, but she didn’t want to lie about something like this. “He’s my friend.”

“Of course,” Tristan answered. “How in the hell could a loser like him nab someone like you?”

Lani had received compliments before, but this guy’s arrogance was really grating her nerves. “His locker?” she repeated impatiently.

Tristan shrugged his shoulders. “I’m the new guy, remember?”

Lani rolled her eyes, but Mr. New Guy wasn’t daunted by her obvious repulsion in the least. He took the time to look Lani up and down. A smirk crept onto his face and he lifted his eyebrow suggestively. “Maybe you’d like to show the new guy a good time around town?”

Lani’s frowned. “Maybe you’d like kick in the balls.”

Tristan just chuckled. “If you’re going down there, I’d prefer something besides kicking.” He slowly walked forward and tilted his head to one side. “How tall are you?”

Tristan continued to pursue Lani, and she walked backward uncomfortably. “None of your damn business.”

Tristan ignored her. “I’m 5’11” myself, but you’ve got to be one of the tallest girls I’ve ever had the pleasure of laying eyes upon.”

Lani panicked when her back hit a locker. She tried to move for the doors, but Tristan gripped her arms and pulled her back in front of him. He leveled his lusty gaze at her and leaned in closer.

“You’re also the most fucking gorgeous girl I’ve ever met,” he whispered with a heavy breath. “We’d be very hot together, you and me.”

The physical strength that normally bailed Lani out in tense situations before had inexplicably deserted her now. Maybe Tristan was just too strong, or maybe he had caught her completely off guard. Whatever the reason, he continued to overpower Lani. He pushed his body into hers, and she could feel his growing erection through the white towel as it brushed against her thigh. Tristan’s breathing grew heavier, and his eyes closed as he leaned in to kiss Lani. All she had the strength to do was pray that God intervened in some divine manner.

“Get your fucking hands off of her.”

Tristan stopped himself and turned toward the direction of the command. He wasn’t scared; he just wanted to see who had the gall to interrupt him before he had a chance to kiss a beautiful woman. He snickered when he saw who it was.

Jacy stood in front of the door, her hands at her hips. She eyed a murderous glare in Tristan’s direction.

“What have we here?” Tristan asked, humored by Jacy’s presence. His hands remained on Lani’s arms.

“Are you deaf?” Jacy asked. “Get your hands off of her.”

Tristan ignored Jacy’s request. “And if I don’t? Will you sit on me or something?”

Lani’s jaw dropped in shock. She couldn’t believe Tristan could be jerk enough to pick fun at Jacy’s weight. Then again, this was the same man who had sexually harassed her not two minutes ago…

“That can be arranged,” Jacy shot back, appearing completely unaffected by Tristan’s taunts.

Tristan was very interested now. He pulled away from Lani entirely, giving her a chance to walk back towards Jacy. “And who the hell are you?”

“Her friend,” Jacy answered, referring to Lani.

Tristan smiled. “Well, Miss Ailani’s got friends just everywhere, don’t she?”

“Yeah,” Jacy answered confidently. “It’s a pretty nice feeling. You should try making friends instead of screwing over new teammates and molesting pretty girls in dark locker rooms, ace.”

Tristan’s smile faded, and his eyes slowly narrowed into slits of blue ice. “That pussy must be crying his little heart out to you. Can’t say that I’m surprised. After all, real men don’t need to send women out to fight their fights now, do they?”

“And now how would you know what a real man was?” Jacy asked as nastily as possible.

Apparently, that remark set something off in Tristan Carter. He marched with a purpose toward Jacy, who stood her ground. He stopped two feet in front of her and gave her his iciest glare. As he opened his mouth to fire out an especially nasty remark, footsteps sounded from the door on the opposite side.

“What are you two doing here?”

Jason. Thank God.

Tristan spun around. Jason shot him a suspicious look, which was justified, considering the fact that Tristan had two girls cornered while wearing nothing but a towel.

“Dammit, Kent! Keep your fucking female friends out the locker room!” Tristan spat out before retreating back to his locker.

Jason turned back to Jacy and Lani. “Why are you –

“We came to pick Ryan’s things up,” Lani interrupted.

“Jesus, you two! I could’ve dropped his shit off at his apartment.”

“We were just trying to save you some time,” Jacy added.

Jason smiled. “That was sweet guys, but believe me…there’s nothing worth seeing in this locker room.”

“Really?” Jacy asked, ready to cause trouble. “’Cause that not what Delaney says.”

Lani elbowed Jacy’s complete lack of tact, but even she couldn’t suppress the laugh that formed in her throat when Jason started to blush.

****

A/N: Hmm, does anyone else sense chemistry between…Nah, I’m not going to say it yet.