Looking for Trouble (Nashville U Book 1) (32 page)

I push my way back through the crowd to where Anna’s still standing, a smirk on her face. “Did you find …” her voice trails off when she gets a good look at me, and she reaches out a hand to pull me closer. “What on earth happened?” Her eyes search my face, and I can feel tears prick the backs of my eyes.

Shaking my head, I tell her, “I don’t want to talk about it right now. Suffice it to say; you were wrong about Clay and how he feels about me.”

Anna looks stunned, but she honors my request, saying only, “Okay … but we are absolutely talking about this later. You can’t come over here looking like that and expecting me to just let it go.” I turn away from her, still afraid I’m going to cry and watch Max storm out of the room. Anna’s murmured, “Oh shit,” from beside me makes me laugh, even though it’s the most inappropriate time, but at least I’m not in danger of crying anymore. Her voice in my ear says, “Oh yeah, we are
definitely
talking about this when we get home.”

The two of us watch Max make his way through the crowd, and when he gets close, our eyes meet. I watch him try to cover the anger on his face, schooling his features into a blank mask as he walks over to stand beside me. Part of me wants to tell him to go away because the things he said about me are
not
okay, but the rest of me remembers that Max has been my friend for years. Anna leans around me to talk to him. “What’s up, Mad Max? Haven’t seen you in forever.” One eyebrow raises, and when she says the next words, he looks away, jaw clenching. “I hope you’re treating my sister right.”

We barely hear his response. “Better than some people I know.”

“Oooh, big words there Maxy … care to elaborate since this one,” she jabs her thumb at me, “won’t tell me anything. Isn’t that rude?” I glare at her, but she just grins, never taking her eyes off Max.

He shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t think it’s rude. You’re just nosy, Anna.”

She pulls back, shocked he would say that to her, and for once she has nothing to say. I roll my eyes at both of them, and keep watching the door. Dummy me keeps hoping Clay will come out and have something to say, some sort of explanation for a conversation he doesn’t even know I heard. I never said I was logical.

A few minutes later, while I’m still going over the parts of the conversation I heard, Marcus, the guy Clay is here because of, walks out, Clay following a few seconds later. He looks around the room, finally settling on me. There’re so many emotions in his eyes, but when his eyes register Max is beside me, the emotions narrow into one—anger. I don’t want him to see how conflicted I am, so I look away. When I finally turn back, he’s moving, and the crowd, or more accurately, mostly the women, is cheering for him as he gets in the ring. Unconsciously, I reach out to grab Anna’s hand, practically crushing it with mine when I see the guy he’s going to be fighting tonight.

Clay is a big guy, but the guy he’s fighting is
massive
. He easily has three or four inches, not to mention forty or fifty pounds—if not more—on Clay, and Clay doesn’t even look mildly worried. Marcus steps into the middle of the ring to introduce both guys, but my heart is beating so fast I don’t catch Clay’s name. His opponent is nicknamed “The Crusher,” and that’s more than enough information for me.

The two men meet in the middle of the ring where Marcus stands and shake hands. “Crusher” says something that makes Clay smirk in a way I can see all the way back here, but he doesn’t say anything in response. He only nods his head before turning his attention back to Marcus who continues giving the rules of the fight: fists only, three rounds, tapping out loses the fight. As the guys go back to their corners, Max leans in to say, “I need to talk to you.”

Hard as it is, I manage to turn my head away from the ring to focus on Max. He’s giving me his puppy-dog eyes, knowing that usually gets me to do whatever he wants. Not this time, though. I narrow my eyes at him, my words more blunt than normal when I say, “I don’t think we have anything else to say. I heard plenty across the room earlier.”

Max’s eyes widen when he realizes I heard the conversation between him and Clay. “You weren’t supposed to hear that, Kat. That was between me and Clay.” He sounds like he’s chastising
me
when they are the ones who were talking about me behind my back, and that immediately puts my back up.

“I didn’t go over there with the intention of eavesdropping. Clay wanted to talk to me, and I wanted to get that over with. Lucky for me,” I say sarcastically, “I heard how both of you really feel. You think I’m your possession, and don’t like the fact that your brother played with one of your toys. Clay sees me as nothing more than a vagina to stick his dick in. I don’t think it can get much clearer than that.” My voice breaks, and I take a deep breath, trying to keep myself from crying. I
hate
the fact that I cry when I get mad. It’s so annoying, and no one ever takes your anger seriously. You’re just the crybaby, the hormonal girl who cries to get her way when that’s not it at all.

Max sputters out a reply, but sounds from the crowd distract me from whatever excuse he’s trying to make. My attention goes back to the ring where Clay is standing, a trail of red dripping down from the corner of his mouth, and a bruise already forming on his jaw. “Crusher” is on the mat, his chest heaving, but unmoving. Marcus climbs into the ring as I watch the events unfolding, crouching down beside Clay’s opponent and saying something in his ear. I don’t see him respond, and after speaking to him a couple more times, Marcus stands, an ecstatic look on his face as he raises Clay’s arm, declaring him the winner.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Max move; then he’s moving as fast as he can through the crowd to where his brother is getting ready to leave the ring. Before he gets the chance, Max darts under the ropes and gets right up in his face. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but whatever it is, it’s not good. Clay rears back just as Max turns to point at me, before turning back to yell at him some more. Clay turns wide eyes to me, and though he’s across the room, the regret in them is plain.

Clay tries to get around his brother, but Max steps with him, putting both hands on his chest and shoving him back. Clay’s face darkens with anger, and he returns the shove. Unlike Max, he follows his brother when he stumbles backward, getting right up in his face and saying something that makes Max go pale.

“What do you think they’re saying?” Anna’s voice is full of curiosity, her eyes locked on the two arguing in the ring in front of everyone.

Clay’s attention comes back to me, and people in the crowd start to notice. People around me start to whisper, and I can’t handle any more tonight. “I have no idea, and I
don’t
want to know. Are you ready to go?” I avoid looking back at the ring, not wanting to meet Clay’s eyes or see the brothers fight over me … again.

Anna looks over at them, shaking her head in what I’m not sure is disgust or exasperation, or maybe a little of both. “Yeah,” she says with a sigh. “I guess we should go.”

Clay

Max’s words echo through my head on repeat.
Kat heard us arguing, you asshole
. Of course, he said a lot more than that in the ring, but that’s the only part I care about. Kat heard our conversation, which means the look I saw in her eyes just before the fight was probably a combination of both anger
and
hurt. I think about what I said in that room with Max. I was so focused on not giving my brother the satisfaction of knowing how I feel about her, I made it seem like she wasn’t important at all to me. Something that couldn’t be further from the truth. Realizing she heard us argue made things crystal clear for me. I
love
Kat. I’m every movie and book cliche ever. I didn’t tell her how I felt, and now she’s gone. The only thing I know is that I need to find her. I need to tell her how I feel and hope she feels the same. No more hiding my emotions, because it will ultimately cost me her … if it hasn’t already.

The first place I check for her is the dorms after I call her, and it goes straight to voicemail. It’s the first time tonight I get lucky, because there are two guys from the football team leaving when I walk up, and they’re happy to let me in without any questions. I take the stairs two at a time, and come to a stop at her door, bending over with my hands on my thighs as I try to catch my breath. I can’t tell her how I feel if I can’t speak through my panting.

Once I’m breathing normally again, it takes a few minutes to work up the courage to knock on her door. No one answers, and irritated, I yell through the door, “C’mon Kat. I need to talk to you.” A few more minutes go by before the door finally opens, but it’s not the brunette I was hoping to see. Instead,
Becca
stands in the doorway, her hand stretched up as far as it can go on the edge of the door as she strikes what I’m guessing she thinks is a sexy pose.

“Hello Clay,” she says in a sultry voice, almost a purr. I immediately recoil, not wanting her anywhere near me.
Why the hell did I come here
? I remember too late that Kat wouldn’t come back here, not after what she heard Becca saying about her last night. Becca whines my name, so I tune back in to what she’s saying. “Kat’s not here, but you’re welcome to come in and wait.”
Yeah
…
I’ll pass
.

I back away, but then wonder why. She’s the bitch here, and I have a few things I’d like to say to her. Things Kat is too nice to tell her. Making sure to keep my distance, I let out all my frustration on her. “You know, I would come in and wait, except I just remembered you’re a bitch, and there’s no way Kat will be coming back here tonight.” Becca gasps, her mouth dropping open in shock, and it just sets me off further. Why does this surprise her? “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Bec. These dorms? They have
really
thin walls. You know what that means?” She shakes her head, but I can see the fear in her eyes. “That means, when your roommate comes home early from a bad date, she can hear you talking on the phone.” Becca covers her mouth with one shaking hand, and I smile nastily at her, leaning forward like I’m about to whisper something to her. “That also means your roommate, who’s way too nice of a person, by the way,
leaves
the room that’s belonged to her for over a year because she doesn’t want to hear any of your bullshit excuses.”

I’m not sure why I ask the next question. The answer doesn’t matter, but I have to know. “Why did you spread the rumors, Bec? How could you do that to Kat? She was never anything but nice to you, and she considered you a friend.”

“Kat was a pretty sucky friend,” Becca is quick to say. “If she was a decent friend, she would have caught on to the fact that while she was pining over her precious Max, I was doing the same … over you.”

I back up another step in shock. “Wait a minute. You mean to tell me you spread bullshit lies about Kat, including bullshit about Kat
and
me because you were jealous I was giving her attention?” Just one more way I’ve ended up hurting Kat. True, this one probably wasn’t something I could have prevented, but it’s just one more way I’ve fucked things up with her.

My dad always told me I would meet a girl who’d knock me on my ass … but I don’t think he meant it would happen like this. Right now, I want to find Kat and apologize over and over for screwing everything up. My brother thinks she’s nothing but a notch on my bedpost; Kat thinks the same, and this stupid girl has no problem spreading lies around campus to make her look bad. The thought crosses my mind that maybe she’d be better off if I just let it go, but I quickly dismiss it. If I do that, she’ll always think she meant nothing to me, when in reality it’s the exact opposite.

“Clay?” Becca’s voice is snippy, and she sounds like a bitter, harpy shrew.

I look back up at her, and maybe I should regret what I say to her, but I don’t. “You’re not even worth my time. I’m
glad
Kat knows just how toxic you are. One day, you’ll regret losing her as a friend, because she would have been the best one you ever had if she’d been given the chance. Those people you’ve been spreading lies to? When they find out you’re just a sad, lonely, bitter girl who’s full of shit, they won’t want anything to do with you either.” Becca backs up, her face going pale at my cutting words. “Kat has friends,
good
ones. She doesn’t need you and your bullshit.” Satisfied with what I’ve said, I turn and run back down the stairs. I know where Kat is, and I’m going to find her.