Love, Bets and Football

1.0

Chapter One

Rachel Saint Charles

RRRRRIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGG. RRRRRIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGG.

No. Noooo.

It couldn’t be morning yet. It couldn’t be 7:00 am already. It was not fair. Blindly, I reached out with my arm and turned it off. I sighed in relief when my stupid alarm stopped wailing.

Blissfully, I closed my eyes again. I only needed a couple minutes to rest some more. Just a few.

I had walked into our house (rental) at 2:30am this morning, having worked a late night shift. I had passed out immediately, once I had finished taking a shower and changing into my night wear. I always came back exhausted and it was always a nightmare if I had to wake up for morning lessons.

Digging myself deeper into my bed, I tugged the sheets up and completely submerged myself inside. There, satisfaction.

“Get up sweet cheeks, or else you’ll be late.” Kayla aka roommate and best friend sweetly called out in a sing song voice.

Kayla was a sweet southern belle, hot as flames, with sunny waist length blonde hair and light grey sparkly eyes. She was also petite, with long beautiful legs that could give the Hadid sisters a run for their money.

I always asked her why she wasn’t modeling instead of studying medicine, what we both were doing. Her smart ass reply always was, “Because I’m a life saver.” For the most part, she was right, because I couldn’t recite how many times she had saved my sorry ass.

For the most part, Kayla was sweet and nice, but mess with her, and then you would summon yourself a b***h with an attitude the size of the Godzilla.

Proof? Her ex-boyfriends. I had a rumor that one of them had signed a restraining order against her. She was fiercely loyal, and I couldn’t ask for a better person in my life.

“Go away.” I yelled at her, tightly wrapping the bed covers around myself once more.

I could already imagine her snickering face. As expected, Kayla replied, “I will, Rachel. Sleep all you want, but remember, its Professor Flat batty today, and you know how he is when it comes to tardiness.”

“Urgh.” I groaned, tugging the bed covers away from myself. Professor Knight aka Flatty Batty as we liked to call him was an old troll that seemed to live in the 1800s. He………..lloo. This is the 21st Century.

Tardiness in his class was highly punishable, mostly with something that involved writing a 5,000 word essay that affected your grade if it was poorly written.

Did I mention that the topic was always his choice, not yours? Jesus, this was college, not a nursery school where kids were awarded stars for something like being early or taking a star away when you were late.

“I hate you, Kayla.”

“No, you don’t.” came her smartass reply, her jolly laughter ringing in my ears as I raced to the bathroom.

Dang it. She was right. I loved her to death and beyond.

“You’ve thirty minutes to get ready.” Kayla once again yelled from downstairs, reminding me how late I was gonna be if we didn’t hurry.

Nope. Totally hated her.

When I was ready, I found Kayla waiting for me in the car. My hair was semi wet, in an ugly ass ponytail since I didn’t get the chance to combo and dry it. I blamed it on her.

I got in, glaring at her.

“Don’t give me that glare, Rachel. It’s not my fault you had to wake up that early.” Kayla said as she started the car. Campus was literally a ten minute walk from where we stayed, but since Kayla’s parents were loaded, she had to own one. By all means.

Not that I was complaining. It was a relief that her ride was always available when we needed it, plus, it came in handy when it rained. Who wanted to attended class dripping and wet?

“Cheer up, sweet cheeks. At least you won’t be late.”

“It’s your fault I’m having such a bad morning.” I grumbled, strapping my seatbelt in as she started the car. “I would have been still snuggled in my warm bed. Why didn’t you just let me sleep in?”

Kayla shrugged, already used to my morning shenanigans. “And let you drill me about missing Professor Flatty Batty’s lecture? No, thank you.”

“Urgh. Why do you know me so well?” I tried to sound angry, but I was grinning. She knew how to read me like a book.

Flipping back her hair, she grinned “Simple. I’m your best friend, dummy.”

****

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

“Good to see you, Kayla.”

“Have a great day, Kayla.”

The hallway was a chorus of greetings as we both strolled through. Our class had just ended, and we were making it to another. I watched as Kayla blew a kiss to a few guys, then waving to some other people. They all waved back with smiles.

Being honest, none of them were aimed at me, but at my best friend who was walking beside me. Sometimes, I got a ‘hi’ or a nod in my direction but it was always on rare occasions. I didn’t mind though. Attention and the spotlight weren’t my thing.

Another thing about Kayla was that she was a social butterfly, and I was an introvert-extrovert-ish person. On my good days, hanging out with people was fun. On bad days, I hardly wanted any human contact at all.

“I just don’t understand why you’ve to be so cheerful.” I marveled as I watched Kayla wave to the hundredth person we had met in a span of twenty minutes. “And, do you know everyone by name?”

Kayla smirked me. “It’s my specialty”

“You’re so chirpy, I’m sure you could get Professor Flatty Batty to smile at you if you wanted him to.” I said, raising my head to stare at the ceiling in the long hallway. Plain white walls stared back at me. Turning to her, I watched as she wrinkled her nose. “Now that’s pushing it.”

Only she could look good with her face twisted like that.

“Probably.” I agreed. “I hate it though.”

“What exactly?” Kayla asked.

“The fact that your chirpiness is rubbing off on me. I don’t like it.” I complained, resisting the urge to groan when I saw her growing smile.

“Awwww.” Kayla cooed. “Thank you. It is probably a good think.”

“It is not.” I objected.

“It is. It will probably catch you a boyfriend. ”

I frowned at her. “I don’t need a boyfriend and I’m not looking for one.”

“It might be a good thing.” Kayla said, studying her nails.

I snorted.

“What? It could be.” It was her turn to object.

I rolled my eyes. “Maybe, maybe not. I don’t have the time to find out. See you soon.”

Since we had different classes, we both were taking different routes.

“See you at lunch?” Kayla asked.

“Of course.” I assured her. “Later.”

“Later.” With a side hug, we parted ways.

****

“I can’t believe I didn’t know about this till now.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Kayla stopped in her tracks, forcing me to stop in mine. Eyes narrowed at me, she asked, “Are you even listening to me?”

I winced, guilty. “Uhhhh. . .Kinda. Not sure.”

“Don’t even think about spacing out this time. “Sighing exasperatedly, Kayla linked her arms with mine. “As I was saying earlier, I can’t believe I missed the football game from last night.”

Now that got my attention. Kayla wasn’t a football fan. I even doubt if she even knew the dates the team played. Something was up. Either she liked a guy on the football team, or there was a rumor spreading. If so either way, I wanted to know. I needed them juicy details.

“Since when do you like football?”

“Since there was an abs show. I can’t believe I missed it.”

I blinked. “A w-what now?”

“Can you believe it? The whole team literally stripped bare for the world to see. All that hard muscle and sweat. I didn’t even get to get a glimpse.” Kayla whined, oblivious to my jaw that was currently hanging on the floor.

“Kayla? Are you talking about The Steel Tigers?”

“Of course. Duh!” Kayla said, staring at me like I was the crazy one. I wasn’t. I was actually surprised that she was this eager to catch a glimpse of “muscle and sweat.”

“Wait, one of the comments says there’s actually a YouTube video. I have to find it.” She chirped excitedly. I’m sure if she wanted to, she would be jumping like a child.

“Anha. I found a comment with an attached link. I can’t wait.”

Seriously? She was that excited? I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

“Oh my God. They actually did it.” Kayla squeaked, eyes glued to the screen of her phone. Sounds of girls screaming were purely audible from her phone. ”Damn, I doubt if there is an ounce of fat on them. So fit, big and fuckable.”

“Kayla!” It was my turn to shriek. She giggled, enjoying my discomfort. “What? It’s true.”

“Keep that information to yourself.”

“You are such a prude.” Kayla told me, still grinning.

“I’m not. I’m just not comfortable with saying such stuff out loud.”

“Prude.” She taunted.

“Whatever.”

“Fine. I will leave you alone. Just come check out this free show. I know you want to see this.” Layla answered, waving her phone at me.

“I don’t.”

Kayla rolled her eyes at me, then shoved the phone in my face. “You do.”

Fine. A little. I wasn’t admitting though. I was watching purely out of curiosity.

And true to Kayla’s words, the video was entirely of shirtless men, all sweat and muscle. I would have actually enjoyed it, perhaps even get a little flushed due to the incredible edits, but then I came face to face with the bane of my existence.

Cain West Stuart. Champion of the Steel Tigers.