Broken #2 (The Broken Series - Book #2) (2 page)

“I haven't heard anything about
it, and if I had, I would have declined. I don't have time for that shit, man.
Mom always has these benefits and charity things, and dressing up to go save
the owls or whatever other crusade she gets on is fucking ridiculous.”

Craig howled with laughter. “You
got her right on the nose, man. I think Mom has too much time on her hands. She
should have gone to work after we all grew up. Too many brunches with the
ladies have gotten to her head.”

“Yeah, no kidding.
I feel for you, man. But you can
always tell Crystal to go stag; it wouldn't be the end of the world. She would
still get wined and dined. I think a plate at these events goes for like $500.”

“Yeah, I know. It's crazy.”

“Anyways, I'm fucking beat. Let's
hit the showers.”

Craig nodded, and we trudged out
of the weight area. By now, my coach had left for the day, and there weren't
too many of my teammates left around. I was looking forward to hitting the
shower and getting cleaned up since I was covered in sweat, and I smelled worse
than a pig.

We got into the locker rooms, and
I grabbed a towel from my locker. I stripped down, and put my sweaty clothes in
the mesh pocket of my gym bag, so that I could take them home to wash later. I
headed to the shower, and opened the door to turn on the tap. Warm water poured
out, and I adjusted it until it came out hot. Steam started to rise out from
the shower, and I stepped in. I quickly rinsed off before grabbing the bar of
soap. I soaped down my entire body, scrubbing off the sweat and grime of the
gym. I rinsed again, and grabbed some shampoo out of the bottle on the shower
ledge. I scrubbed my hair and rinsed, not bothering with the conditioner. Now
that I was squeaky clean, I leaned my head back into the showerhead, and let
hot water course over my body, pulling some of the pain and soreness with it.
There was nothing better than a hot shower after a hard workout. I believed it
not only cleaned my body, but my soul as well. I just felt so much better
prepared to take on the world afterwards. I turned off the faucet, and opened
the shower door. I stepped out, closing the door behind me, and grabbed my
towel. I quickly dried off, and went to find my clothes.

I got clothes out of my gym bag
and dressed before I checked myself out in the mirror and did a quick body
flex.

Man, I
looked good.

I checked my phone for messages
while I waited for Craig to get out and get dressed. I heard the shower shut
off, and he got out
to dry
himself off and get
changed.

“Hey, Jet, I'm going for lunch
with Crystal and Dad. You should come.”

I groaned inwardly, but didn't
say anything. The last thing I wanted to do was to go have lunch with my dad.
My dad was not a fan of my MMA career aspirations. He thought it was a cool
hobby to have, but it didn't make any sense to him as a career. If I went to lunch
with them, we would get into yet another debate about how I should take over the
billion-dollar tech business he created from the ground up. Sometimes I thought
that was all the old man ever talked about. I was bloody sick of it, and I had
no intention of going into the family business, so I fervently wished my father
would get over it, already. I loved my brother, however, so I thought I would
go on his behalf.

“Yeah, I guess that would be
cool.”

“Don't sound too excited or
anything,” he laughed.

“No, sorry it's not that. I just
don't want to get into another argument with Dad. It's frustrating.”

“Yeah, I hear ya. It won't be
like that though, I promise. I'll stop him if he starts in on you again.”

“I'll hold you to that, man.”

“Hey maybe you should get Natalie
to come. You know, since you guys are fuck buddies now. Dad would just love
that you are dating an art student. It may even distract him from focusing on
you at lunch.”

I laughed along with him as we
headed out of the locker rooms.

Chapter Three

Natalie

I woke again, and realized it was
almost lunchtime. I still felt pretty tired from the late night and all the
booze, but at least the headache and nausea had left. The extra sleep had done
me good, but it also didn't leave me with a lot of time to get to class. I
rolled out of bed and checked myself out in the dresser mirror to make sure
that I was suitable for public consumption. I had slept in my clothing, but
they weren't really wrinkled so I decided they would do. I had to brush out my
hair, though, because it looked like I had been shagged, quite well actually.

I intended on sneaking out of the
apartment and avoiding Jet's roommate, Kyle, at all costs. I had no intention
of dealing with him, and I figured he got more than an eyeful of me that day
anyway. I grabbed my purse, and headed to the door, swinging it open. Just at
that moment, Jet burst into the room, almost knocking me over.

“What is wrong with you? Do you
have to ram into me every time we meet? Thankfully, I didn't have books in my
arm this time.”

“Sorry, I didn't expect you to be
right at the door. I wasn't even sure if you would still be here.”

“Would you have preferred to come
home and have me already gone?” I glared at him, waiting for a response.

“What? No. What are you talking
about? That's not what I meant at all.”

I felt fairly stupid, standing
there in his room after the drunken escapades of the night before. I had pushed
myself on him last night, and the result was sex, and I wasn't even sure if he
liked it. He didn't appear to be overjoyed at the moment. Surely, I was good. I
had never had any complaints before. Though, with Jet's track record, maybe I still
had a lot to learn.

“Oh, forget it,” I said.

“Is everything alright? Did you
sleep okay last night?”

Sleep?
He was asking me about sleep? Were we really not going to discuss the sex show
I put on for him last night? Ugh, men!

“Yeah, Jet, I slept real well
last night. Thanks for checking up on that.”

“Ah sarcasm; how original of you
this morning.”

“Where did you fly off to so
early in the morning? It was a little odd to wake up alone this morning.”

“I'm sorry, Natalie. I already
had plans today to meet my brother at the gym. I hadn't expected ... you last
night. I didn't want to ditch him today.”

“You could have left me a note.”

He stood there silent unable to
say anything else, or maybe he just didn't care to.

“What are you up to today? What
are you doing later?”|

“I really have to get to class,
okay, Jet? I'm running late.”

He just nodded, confused as
always.

As I walked passed him, I whispered
in his ear, “By the way, Kyle saw me naked this morning.” With that, I kept walking
down the hall, and made a mental note that he didn’t say a word. I headed out
the front door, thankful that Kyle either left the apartment, or holed himself
up in his room for the day. Either way, I avoided him, and that's all that
mattered.

As I was walking down the street,
I texted my friend, Brenda, from the art walk, and told her to meet me outside
of campus before class. I called a cab, and had it pick me up as I continued to
head down the street. I didn't want Jet to come out looking for me, as I was
sure I alarmed him about the comment about Kyle seeing me naked. One-night
stand or not, I knew Jet to be the territorial type, and he would not like the
fact that Kyle had seen me naked.

I watched as the cab pulled up
beside me, and I got inside. I gave the address of the college, and the cab
pulled away from the curb. I lay back in the seat, determined to rest my eyes
again before I got to school. I didn’t have any of my schoolbooks, so I would
have to wing it for the time being. I really hadn't thought through my
seduction routine last night. Had I done that, I would have brought along my
books as well.

As the cab pulled up to the
college, I saw Brenda outside the front doors, waiting for me. I paid the cab
driver, including tip, and bounced out of the cab toward her.

“Hey girl, how ya doing?”
I asked.

“You are a sight for sore eyes.
Where is your stuff?”

“I left it at home, so you are
gonna have to be my book buddy for class.”

“At home?
Julie told me you didn't make it home again last night,
and you haven't been home all week.”

I blushed, forgetting that Julie
and Brenda were also friends.

“Yeah, I stayed at Jet's. No big
deal, though.”

Brenda raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, right.
I guess when that handsome stud bought your
art work; he sure won you over, didn't he?”

“No, no, are you crazy?
Absolutely not.
He hasn't won anything. It was just a one-time
slip on my part. I was actually out with Benny last night. I just needed to do
something, anything to try to get over my ex, ya know?”

“Really, that's all it was?”

“To be honest I don't even
remember much about it.
Drank too much.
But yes, I'm
just trying to get that jerk out of my head, and Benny suggested spending the
night with someone might do the trick.”

“Benny suggested you sleep with
Jet? Are you serious?”

“No, he actually vehemently
insisted I
not
sleep with Jet.” I
laughed. “He just meant a guy in general, but thought Jet was a bad idea.
For obvious reasons of course.”

“You are sure in a pickle, aren't
you?”

“Yeah, it seems that way.”

“So, what kind of gun is he
packing?” she said, chuckling.

“Oh God, are you actually asking
me this?”

“Well yeah, he's a stud. And
since I don't have a prayer of having him ask me out, I'm curious.”

“Well, although I don't remember
a lot of the mechanics of the evening, I do recall being pleasantly surprised,
so the boy is definitely packing a lot of heat,” I laughed then, winking at
her.

“Wow, I'm so jealous. I can't
remember the last time I had sex.”

“Brenda, please, I barely
remember it. Just pieces, it could have been a wild disaster for all I know.”

Brenda shrugged. “I don't know.
Men like wild disasters.”

I chuckled.
“Maybe.”

“So are you guys a thing now?”

“No way.
He's already slept with
me,
I
doubt I'll ever hear from him again.”

“I think he really likes you,
Natalie.”

“No, he doesn't. I'm just then
next thing for him to conquer. And then he will move on.”

We got to class, and settled down
in our seats. I settled in as the professor made an announcement to the class.
 

“Class, I want you all to be
prepared for next Thursday. Class will be a little bit different that day and I
want you to take that into account. We will not be meeting in the classroom,
but in the gymnasium this time. So don't be late, and don't skip that day, as
we will be having a special project.”

I
shot Brenda a disappointed face as I thought about the project. It had to be a
sports-related themed project, and the thought of it bummed me out enormously.
I had a strong dislike for sports of any kind, so the idea of a project based on
it was disappointing, to say the least. I took it for what it was worth,
however, and buckled down for another art class.

When
class ended, Brenda and I grabbed our things, and headed out to the hallway.

“So
what do you think the project will be about?” Brenda asked me.

“I
have no idea, but I think it's going to be severely lame if it's in the gym.
Like what is she going to have us
draw
?
Basketballs and catcher’s mitts?
Borrrrrring
.”

Brenda
laughed, but it was cut short when she stopped suddenly. I looked away from her,
only to find Jet standing there, waiting for us outside of class.

Brenda
broke out into a grin, and said, “Hey, Jet, nice seeing you again.”

He
smiled and nodded at her before his eyes met mine again.

I
turned to Brenda, who was still grinning like an idiot.

“So,
Natalie, I will catch you later; I got to run.”

“Oh
sure, have a good day.” I watched as Brenda hurried away, casting a look at me
over her shoulder as she headed off. That left me alone with Jet, and I wasn't
happy about it. I had been sure the stalking, and showing up at random times
and places, would have ended once he had his way with me. Why was he back for
more? The drunken sex couldn't have been that good.

“Hi,
Natalie, how was class?”

“It
was peachy, Jet, and how was whatever it is you have been doing all day long?”