Page 14 of Thunderstruck
Yawning, he stretches his arms overhead and clasps his hands behind his head. “They weren’t randos.”
Of all people, I thought Derek would agree with me. He’s too famous to be careless, and the more movies he’s in, the worse it gets. He can’t leave his house without being recognized, even in the most innocuous places. “She’s your ex-girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend’s wife’s sister,” I point out. “That feels pretty random.”
Derek laughs. “She’s a friend of a friend. And part of your team now. Besides, Carissa was nice. I don’t see why you were so cold to her.”
I could argue that I wasn’t cold, but it would be a lie. Groaning, I rub my hands down my face and wrap them around the back of my neck. It’s only Tuesday, which means I have four days before the next game. With Freya on her way back home, I don’t have anything good to distract me from the fact that in a few weeks Sage is marrying a guy I once called a friend. I should be at practice, but today exhausted me.
I barely spoke to Carissa, and she wasexhausting. With the way she chatted so easily with my friends, it was clear she is everything I’m not when it comes to social skills lately, and I can’t stop dreading how much time she’s going to waste if she starts distracting the guys at practice.
“Freya asked me to give you some homework.” Derek says it so casually that I don’t register what he says at first, but then he looks over at me, mischief in his eyes.
I gape at him. “Homework,” I repeat.
He shrugs. “It’s not the first time I’ve made you do homework.”
“No, but the first time, I was twenty years old and failing half of my classes.”
Snickering, he lifts an eyebrow at me. “You wouldn’t have passed if not for me.”
I hate that he’s not wrong, but I’m not about to take this sitting down. Metaphorically. “Big talk from a guy who didn’t know how college even functioned.”
“Which is why I was wandering around USC.”
“You looked ridiculously out of place.”
He laughs, shaking his head as if I said the funniest thing he’d heard all week. “Well, I’m sorry I got into acting in high school and never got the chance for a college experience, otherwise I might have fit in better. Why do you think I sat down and started talking to you?”
I lift my shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. “Beats me.” And it’s true. Of all the people on the campus, I’m still not sure why he went for the jock a few years younger than him and who was too cool to have friends outside the football team.
I was on suspension because of my grades and had no idea what to do while my buddies were all in Michigan for that week’s game, and out of nowhere this vaguely familiar guy sat down and started asking me about college life. I didn’t recognize him at first, but the other students on the quad did, and we only managed a short conversation before he got swarmed by giggling co-eds.
He asked if he could come by my apartment that night to talk more, and then he started signing autographs.
I’d figured out who he was by the time he knocked on my door that night, and though I thought it was strange to discuss with a Hollywood actor what it was like to be a student athlete, Derek was easy to talk to. Easy to trust. He seemed to pick up on things no one else did, and that was probably why I listened when he said I should spend more time on my classes so the football thing could work out for me because it clearly made me happy.
I got drafted the next year, so I never graduated, but some of the business and finance classes I ended up taking are a big part of why I can afford to play rugby for pennies. Investments have ensured I’m set forlife, though I’ll never live like Derek does. Some of his lavish lifestyle is out of necessity, like bodyguards and a mansion on its own street, but a lot of what he has is because he can.
The rest of us might be famous in our spheres, but we don’t come close to Derek.
“Anyway,” he says, still grinning, “I’m supposed to make sure you make friends with guys on your team. So this is going to be as much work on my end as it is on yours.”
“Ha.” I roll my eyes. “When did you and Freya become my parents?”
“Come on, you know it’s not like that.”
“Sure feels like it. I’m not doing homework.”
“There are consequences if you don’t.” Derek hops to his feet and comes to stand in front of me, backed by the sun and looking like some sort of avenging angel with the way it makes his hair glow. He hasn’t played one of those in a movie yet, but clearly he should. I’m mighty tempted to remind him that he’s human by kicking him in the gut. Lightly. Those abs of his are valuable, and he’s in the middle of shooting a movie. “Maybe don’t refuse until you know what’s in store if you do,” he says.
That feels mildly threatening, so I stand to match him. “What sort of consequences?” I’ve known this guy for eight years, and I’ve seen plenty of his flaws to know he’s not nearly as perfect as the world thinks. He’s generally untouchable, but I know his pressure points if I need them. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“Are you afraid of Freya?”
“Terrified.”
“As you should be. And if you don’t try to make friends with your teammates, she’s going to force you to go to Sage’s wedding.”
Instead of me kicking Derek, I feel like I’m the one who just got a heel in his gut. I drop back into my chair, dizzy and nauseous, because a threatfrom Freya Alverra is not something to take lightly. Sage’s wedding? Is she serious?
