Keeping Kane (Face-Off Legacy/Campus Kings 2)

At least she wasn’t until now. Why the fuck did she pull Jemma away from me? She gave me a look that said I wasn’t good enough to share the same airspace as this girl, which only makes me even more curious about her. Until today, Shannon has never cockblocked any of us. Weird.

Shannon walks away, with Jemma at her side, and neither of them looks back in my direction. So, I guess they’re both dissing me. That’s never happened before.

What the fuck?

Annoyed, I head back to my table. I plop down across from Jamie and say, “Yo, what’s up with your girl? She just totally fucking cockblocked me.”

Jamie snorts as he laughs. “No, she didn’t. Shan would never do that.”

“Well, she just did. I was in line, talking to that girl over there…” I say, pointing at Jemma, “… and Shannon made her go back to her table.”

Jamie looks over at Shannon’s table, and then his eyes are on mine once more. “I wouldn’t get all pissy with Shan just yet. You know how sorority chicks are about their rules. I’m sure it wasn’t personal.”

“It sure as fuck felt personal,” I counter, my anger seething through me.

“Since when do you give a shit about a girl you don’t even know?” Preston asks me, his elbows on the table.

Everyone is staring at me like I’m overreacting. Maybe I am. But damn, that shit really pissed me off. Who the hell does Shannon think she is getting in the way? I know she did that on purpose. There was something about her demeanor that I cannot shake.

“I don’t care,” I spit back at Preston. “But I don’t want Shannon around the house if she’s gonna be all up in my business.”

“Don’t act all crazy over nothing. I’ll talk to her,” Jamie offers. “But I doubt she meant anything by it. Chill out and go get something to eat.”

“Nah, I’m good. I told Tucker I’d meet him back at the house, so we can tell our dad in person about the suspension. We’re having dinner with our parents. I think my sister’s home from Paris, too.”

Drake peeks up from his plate, his mouth full of food. “Good luck with that, bro. Your dad’s gonna have a stroke.” He gives me a wicked smirk. “Say hi to Ava for me.” The motherfucker winks when speaking about my older sister, who’s a fashion model, and now home for the next month.

Preston wiggles his eyebrows. “Yeah, say hello to Ava for all of us.”

I shake my head. “Assholes. Stay away from my sister.”

Jamie doesn’t add fuel to the fire, though he does give me a worried look. “Yeah, good luck with your dad.”

“Uncle Tyler will get their sorry asses in check,” Drake says looking at Preston, who nods at his comment.

“We’ve got our dad covered,” I tell them. “I’m more worried about missing games.”

“Fine. But no more fucking off,” Preston adds. “We can’t afford to lose you and Tuck for more than two games.”

“Okay, Cap,” I say to Preston, since he’s our team captain, and raise my hand to my forehead to mock salute him.

He rolls his eyes at me and shoves a forkful of chicken into his mouth. “If Tuck needs help with his classes, all he had to do was ask one of us. You can’t take every test he doesn’t feel like studying for.”

“It wasn’t like that,” I groan. “You guys don’t get it.”

It really was like that. Tucker parties way too much and studies even less. But it’s Tuck, my twin brother, the one person I would do anything for. They will never understand the bond we share.

Preston drops his fork. “What’s to get? Tuck was too busy getting drunk and hooking up with sorority chicks at the Delta Sig house to study for the test. And so you did what you normally do and bail him out.” He cocks an eyebrow at me. “Am I wrong?”

I glare at him, not wanting to admit he’s right.

In fact, he’s one hundred percent on point. Tucker spends a lot of nights partying at the Delta Sigma Phi house, when he should be home studying. He deserves the punishment handed down by Dean Whittaker. But I also earned the suspension when I made the decision to help him. Again. Because that’s what I do.

I press my palms to the table and slide off the chair. “I’ll catch you guys later.”

They utter their goodbyes, and I take one last look at Jemma from across the room. She’s busy waiting on her sorority sisters, with a bored look on her face. I smile at her pained expression, not because I take pleasure in her pain, but because I see a little bit of me in her right now.

I’m the one who doesn’t fit, the one who doesn’t belong. At least it feels that way sometimes. It’s hard not to when I’m always the one who’s screwing up, getting in trouble. And now I have to go deal with the wrath of my father, and the disappointment from my mother.