JAX: MC Biker Romance (New Adult Contemporary Bad Boy Romance) (12 page)

Chloe blinked back tears and went inside of her room, leaning against the door. She didn’t understand what just happened. Why didn’t he do anything? Why didn’t he say something to Vanessa about them? Why did he just walk away?

All of the questions plagued her mind, and she shook her head trying to eliminate the one question she didn’t want to worry about the answer to.

“Did he not care about me at all after everything that happened between us?”

She dreaded coming to class the next day.

She had worried herself to sleep last night, thinking about what she’d say to Evan and what they were now to each other. She could feel that Evan felt something for her, but the way he acted last night contradicted it. She wanted to know how he really felt, but she didn’t know how she was going to bring it up.

“Hey, babe,” a voice called, making her jump in her seat. She turned around to see Evan taking his seat, looking at her like she was being weird.

“Hey,” she managed to say, and looked at her hands, wondering where to start.

“Are you going to watch my game tomorrow?” he asked, his eyes shining brightly as he imagined Chloe wearing his jersey number across her chest and yelling out his name from the crowd.

“Uh, I’m not sure. I’ll think about it,” she replied hurriedly. Evan frowned, wondering what was happening to her, and was about to ask before the bell rang and the professor came in carrying a huge stack of papers with him.

“Alright, kids. It’s your favorite part of being a student: pop quiz. You guys better have been doing your advanced readings or you’re going to fail miserably on this test,” the professor said.

Chloe started to sweat, panicking as she realized she had not read up on the next topic at all. The person in front handed her the test paper and all she could do was stare. Evan nudged her shoulder, motioning for her to start answering and she struggled, looking desperately for questions she could answer or guess correctly.

But, the bell rang and Chloe didn’t even reach half of the test.

She blew it.

She bombed her first test.

Her shoulders started to shake as she was overcome with disappointment. She had let herself get distracted by her emotions, just as her parents had feared she would.

Evan’s brows furrowed as he watched Chloe shake with anxiety. He raised his hand to hold her shoulder when she bolted out of the room, leaving her things. Evan took her bag and followed after her, his worry escalating as he watched her run into the football field and stop by the goal post.

“Chloe! What is the matter with you? Why did you run off like that?” Evan yelled, stopping just a couple of feet away from her. She turned around and looked at him angrily, her eyes pooling with unshed tears.

“Evan, what happened last night?” she asked, and he shook his head, not understanding the question. “Why did you leave without saying anything?”

Evan knew what she was talking about, but he pretended not to. “What do you mean? I did say something. I told you ‘I’d see you later,’” he smirked.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” she said, hating this part of him that liked to pretend. “Did what happened between us that night in the lab not mean anything to you?” she asked, her voice moving down to a whisper.

Evan dropped his smirk and moved, standing in front of her and placing his hand under her chin, tilting it up.

“Last night was amazing,” he told her, and Chloe looked unsure. “I swear. It meant a lot to me, baby… more than what you think,” he admitted.

Chloe gave him a small smile, and they held each other tightly, the both of them hoping that their feelings for each other would last.

If only they knew.

*****

The next day, Evan was pumped and ready for today’s football match, especially after Chloe promised she’d be there to cheer him on. He gave her his extra football jersey to wear, loving the confused look she had when he handed it over, but she agreed that she’d wear it.

His door opened and his heart leaped, expecting to see his girlfriend appear on the other side, only for a man who looked like the older version of him entering his room.

His stomach plummeted, and his earlier good mood disappeared. He had forgotten all about him these past few weeks.

Evan’s father’s brows were furrowed as he frowned severely at his son.

“What’s this I hear about you fooling around?”

Chloe looked at the frat house Evan was staying in, biting her lip anxiously as she thought about what to do next. She had come here to surprise him before his big game, wearing his football jersey and even putting on some face paint to line her cheeks with.

She didn’t think far enough ahead with her plan, however, because she didn’t know where Evan’s room was.

She was about to turn back when one of Evan’s teammates spotted her.

“Hey! It’s the ghost! You here to see Evan?” he asked.

Chloe was mildly offended by that but chose to nod her head instead of picking a fight with the guy. She didn’t want to ruin Evan’s day, so she was determined to be on her best behavior for him.

The guy led her up the stairs, passing by other fraternity brothers and football players along the way. Chloe ignored the hoots and hollers she was getting because of her outfit and kept her head down. They turned left, and she frowned as she heard a voice she recognized as Evan’s, and another older, gruffer voice through the walls… screaming at each other.

Chloe didn’t like the sound of their argument and was about to tell Evan’s friend that she was leaving when he knocked on his door and called out.

“Evan! Your girlfriend’s here!” he called out. He then proceeded to open the door and push her inside, straight into the fire, and she looked at Evan’s stony face and his father looking absolutely livid as he glared at her.

“What did he say she is, boy?” his father asked. Evan’s face looked conflicted before turning cold and hard, staring straight at her as he answered his father’s question.

“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s nothing to me.”

Chloe’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her hand, staring at Evan in disbelief. When he didn’t budge from his spot or even make a move to retract his statement, her eyes stung as her tears flowed down her face.

She shook her head and did the only thing she could do: she turned around and ran away.

Evan’s heart broke as he watched her run away from him, the same way she always walked away from him every time. The only difference was that this time… it really hurt to look.

His father probably felt the same thing as well because all the anger that was about to burst inside of him moments ago faded as Chloe ran away, crushed from his words. He turned around and looked at his son strangely.

“It doesn’t look like nothing to me,” he said gruffly.

The others moved out of her way and let her run past them, looking at her strangely and wondering what happened. She didn’t care. She just kept running until she ran out of breath, and she collapsed on the ground.

She bit her lip and got up again, telling herself that it wasn’t safe for her to cry here. She caught sight of Vanessa and her cheer squad practicing just a few meters away, and they would just love the sight of her on the ground, bawling her eyes out.

She ran the rest of the way back to her dorm and, once she was inside her room, she let herself cry all of the pain she was feeling. She yelled, wailed, and did everything she wanted to express her grief over her failed relationship with the first man she ever loved, mourning over the person she let Evan stomp all over.

She thought that maybe, just maybe, crying it all out today would make her feel whole again tomorrow.

“You’re an idiot,” his father told him, his tone completely deadpan as the both of them sat on Evan’s bed, and Evan finally admitted the truth about Chloe. Evan sighed.

“I know. I was scared of what you were going to say because you told me before that I shouldn’t take any girl seriously and just concentrate on playing football,” he argued. His father reached up and slapped him upside the head, making Evan yelp from the shock rather than the pain.

“That was because there were hardly any women here worth losing your concentration for,” his father cried, and Evan looked at him like he couldn’t understand what he was talking about.

His father sighed at the apparent stupidity of his son.

“Why don’t I give you ten minutes to tell me whatever you got going on, and tell me what you really feel about that girl? The truth, Evan,” his father told him. Evan bowed his head, taking a deep breath before he spoke up.

“I like playing football, Dad. But, I… I don’t want it to be the center of my life anymore. Do you know I’m actually pretty smart? Chloe told me I could be anything I set my mind to, and I don’t want to be just another dumb jock that I’ve always been pretending to be. I want to do something different; something worthwhile for a change,” he said. He hesitated in telling his father the rest, but the encouraging look on his father’s face spurred him on.

“Chloe is... majoring in biochemistry,” he started, making his father raise his eyebrows, impressed.

“That’s a mouthful. Smart?” his father asked.

“Very much; I’ve never thought about her, nor have I ever seen her before, but the moment I do, I can’t un-see her. She brings everything else out of focus whenever she’s close by, and she always leaves me watching her walk away, always three steps ahead of me, making me want to be better, be good enough to stop watching her walk away and start watching her walk beside me instead.”

Evan raised his head up and looked his father in the eye, showing him how serious he was. “She’s kind of like the end zone for me, Dad. She’s the goal I keep running to, knowing that once I reach the end, everything will make sense. Everything will be worth it,” he admitted.

His father contemplated on his answer for a while, and Evan waited for him to tell him no… which was why it shocked him when his father suddenly pulled him into an embrace and apologized. He hugged him back, patting his father awkwardly on the back before they pulled away from each other.

“Well, what are you still doing here, boy?” he asked Evan. “Rush the yard,” he said.

Evan blinked in disbelief before smiling at his dad and running out of the room. His father shook his head, smiling as he watched his son run toward the end zone.

*****

There was a loud banging on the door, and Chloe rolled her eyes. She didn’t have the energy for Vanessa’s drama right now and, if she was going to be pulling any attitude toward her, then she was ready to retaliate.

She had shed the jersey she was wearing earlier and was only wearing a pair of sweatpants and a large t-shirt, a tub of ice cream on her lap as she watched horror movies with her laptop. She wasn’t going to the game anymore. She didn’t want to have anything to do with someone who thought of her as nothing.

The banging continued and Chloe stood up, fed up of the noise, and moved to unlock it. The sight of Evan, sweaty and heaving on the other side, made her heart twinge painfully, but she held her ground, her face passive and waiting for him to speak.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and Chloe raised an eyebrow.

“Is that it?” she asked, and he shook his head.

“You don’t mean nothing to me. I didn’t mean it,” he continued, and Chloe laughed humorlessly.

“No, it’s okay. You were right,” she said. Evan opened his mouth to speak, but Chloe continued. “We’re from two different ends of the food chain, Evan. I’m the ghost of the halls, and you’re the star quarterback. We never should’ve been together in the first place. But, I loved you anyway, and I was very wrong,” she said. She was about to close the door when Evan stopped it with one hand, looking at her pleadingly.

“Please,” he begged. “Please give me another chance,” he said. Chloe looked at him and shook her head.

“You’re gonna be late for your game,” she replied. She forced the door closed and locked it, leaning her head against it as he willed herself not to cry again. She waited for Evan’s shadow to disappear before going back to the couch, sighing.

It frustrated her a little that despite what he did to her, her heart was ready to go back into his arms as soon as she saw him.

Her parents were right: love makes you stupid, after all.

A few moments later, her cell phone rang and she saw that it was a text from Evan. She opened it, wincing at how immediate her reaction was, and read his message.

Evan C: Please come to my game today.

Evan C: Please.

Evan pushed his fingers through his hair, searching for Chloe desperately in the crowd. He had texted her an hour ago, asking her to come to his game, but he wasn’t sure if she was coming or not.

He was going to make it up to her today, even if it was the last thing he’d do.

He asked his team’s help in pulling his plan into motion and, although a few of them found it strange, they’d be willing to do this for Chloe… all of them agreed to help.

He was about to lose hope that Chloe was coming to watch when he finally saw her standing by the entrance to the bleachers. He raised his hand high and waved at her, but she didn’t wave back, making him lose his confidence slightly. He steeled himself, put his helmet on, and joined the huddle.