Heart As Cold As Ice | 18+ | ✓

04: jack

When I walk into the front of the house I share with a few of my friends and teammates, my best friend, Dylan, is on the couch heavily making out with his girlfriend, Ruby. At the sound of the door closing, they separate and Dylan isn't phased by the fact that I caught them.

"Get a room guys."

Dylan snorts, "Shut up, this is a room. Where have you been?"

I set my backpack down and flop into one of the armchairs, my brain swimming from all the information it tried to absorb during my study session with Alondra. Ruby sighs, realizing that I'm here to stay and moves off of Dylan's lap and into the spot next to him, her cheeks flushed. "It's Thursday, I had a tutoring session with Alondra."

His mouth quirks up into a smirk, "Right. Coach's daughter."

"Jack is that really a good idea?" Ruby asks, pulling her hair back into a ponytail at the same time.

"I don't know. Is it a good idea to dry hump your boyfriend in our living room when his bedroom is right upstairs?" I say, my voice thick with sarcasm. She rolls her eyes in response and I grin. "Exactly. She might be Coach's daughter, but she's smart as a whip. I'd be dumber than I already am to not have Al tutor me."

She's also hot as fuck and I have a hard time focusing on what she's saying because I keep getting distracted by her full lips and remembering what it felt like kissing them.

"I think you're a fucking idiot for having Coach's daughter tutor you; I'm not wrong when I say you can't keep your dick in your pants." Dylan muses and Ruby hits his chest.

"Do you have to say it like that?"

He laughs and gives me a pointed look before refocusing his attention on Ruby. "Jack is literally asking for trouble and I have to try to get through to him. He might have taken too many blows to the head though."

"Screw you, they'd have to be fast enough to catch me," I snort, running a hand through my hair. "There's nothing to get through my head. Al has zero interest in anything more than a tutor and a...tutoree relationship. Fuck. Whatever you want to call it. She wants nothing to do with me."

Ruby looks at me skeptically, "And what do you want to do with her?"

Well for one I'd love to find out how she is in bed. But I also know I can't go there. "I want to pass this stupid class." I do. I really do. This class is potentially going to stand in the way of me and the draft if I can't play this season; I can't let it get to that point. Hence the early intervention by asking for Al's help a month into classes starting. Last year I struggled more than I'd like to admit and I don't want to let anyone down.

Tonight was our second tutoring session and I don't think I've ever had to work this hard to get someone to like me. I'd gotten Pritchett's number after the first one and she told me how Al likes her coffee so I brought it to class today. Barely got a smile.

I can't figure her out.

It's frustrating but also intriguing.

A part of me enjoys the fact that she isn't fawning over me like most of the girls I meet. It's refreshing. I just have to find some way to push our kiss to the back of my mind. She's stubborn insisting that it was only a three, even though she told me it was better than that. Alondra refuses to admit what she actually rated it. She might be able to keep her face neutral, but the way her breathing hitches whenever I lean over to look at her text book tells me that I wasn't imagining the spark between us at the bar. It felt the same way for her as it did for me.

And how did it make me feel?

No fucking idea which is confusing the hell out of me.

I was going to leave Alondra alone after I found out who she really was, but then I walked into class and saw her sitting with her friend. Before I knew what I was doing, I was sitting next to her.