Page 25 of Alive and Kicking
My mind is made up for me as I start throwing curses and pillows at him until he raises his arms in surrender and backs out of the room. I collapse back on the flat mattress, having used all the pillows as ammo.
Viv just chuckles at me as her hand trails up my chest before cupping the side of my cheek. Her lips press softly to mine once more for barely a breath of time before she pulls away. “I’ll see you after school. I’ll text you all about how delicious your favorite coffee is, I’ve only got a month to enjoy it after all.”
I grin at her. “Okay. Be safe and try to keep the murder to a minimum.”
Her grin is wicked as she gets off of me. “No promises.”
As she heads through the door with her bag thrown over one shoulder, I call back out to her, “And for the love of God, no more castrating football players.”
She looks over her shoulder at me with a pout but doesn’t respond to that. A few moments later, I hear the door closing to her apartment, and a few moments after that the house falls eerily quiet. I groan, sitting up in her bed and ignoring the urge to gather her pillows and take a nap surrounded by her scent.
I didn’t sleep well the last week. Viv locked herself up here to get some last minute summer assignments done and I was stuck in my room staring at my computer screen all night. The most important task to get done today is convincing Viv to sleepin my bed tonight. If we sleep here tonight Zane or Sloane will invite themselves in like usual. Which I usually don’t mind, but it’s been days since I’ve gotten any sleep and I want to spend the night alone with Viv in my bed.
Downstairs, I make my way to the kitchen to start another pot of coffee. It makes one automatically every morning, but the others have gotten to it before me and no one’s been kind enough to start another one for me. When the carafe is full, I just grab the whole thing and a mug from the cabinet.
In my room, I set the carafe down onto a coaster on the desk before placing my mug on another and getting to work. I pull up our list and pick out the highest priority marks before starting to dig into their electronic footprints. Once I get a better idea of their lifestyle and habits I’ll be able to install cameras and mics to keep closer tabs on them. I will need to have that done by next Monday, which is close but shouldn’t be an issue.
Since I have no trouble keeping up with the workload, I pull up the schools security system when I get a free moment. I pan through camera angles in the hall until I find her. She’s got her arm linked through one of Sandy’s as they walk down the hall toward the cafeteria for breakfast. She’d been stubborn, arguing that they get meal passes again this year for breakfast and lunch at least so I wouldn’t have to make them breakfast, even though I did offer. She was worried about putting too much work on my shoulders.
It’s hard not to grin at the smile on her face. Viv has an actual friend now and I’m so happy for her. I guess you could consider Enzo her friend too, but this is the first and only friend that Viv has outside of criminal activity. I can’t even comprehend how alone I would have felt if I’d never found the guys. It would have likely made me crazy.
When I’m properly assured that nobody has sent assassins to the school to take her out, I turn my attention back to the otherprograms running and dig deeper into the life of the biggest piece of shit on the list. I really hate child abusers, but Zane is going to make a mess of this one when he gets a look at this kid’s hospital records. I end up having to take a break before I decide to go after him myself, and I haven’t even finished my file on the guy.
Looking back to the school security cameras, I find the cafeteria and watch as Sloane and Zane sit on either side of Viv. Sandy is sitting across from her with a couple of girls who must be her sorority sisters, judging by the matching shirts, and they’re obviously trying to flirt with Sloane as he ignores their existence. I’d wanted to keep an eye on her for safety reasons, but watching her at school is actually what’s keeping me calm while doing my job.God, she’s perfect.
Viv leans her head against Sloane’s shoulder, and I smirk. It’s nothing short of a claiming, and Sloane looks down at her softly before pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head. I should feel jealous over the easy intimacy between her and Sloane, but the fact that she has the others there for her when I can’t be actually brings me a lot of comfort. After a while, I force myself to pull my attention away and focus back on my work.
Viviana
The glares I’m sending to the girls on the other side of the table should make them spontaneously combust at any moment. They keep giving Sloane flirty little smiles, and if it wouldn’t draw to much attention I would reach across the table and slam their faces into it. They’re both pretty and it pisses me off. The blonde girl to Sandy’s left looks like she spends hours in front of the mirror to get ready, making sure everything about her is perfect before she walks out the door. And the redhead to Sandy’s right looks effortless. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that she just gets out of bed and runs a brush through her soft, wavy hair before leaving without a care every day. She seems very down to earth and nice, which pisses me off even more, and I wish she were a bitch like the other girl so I could hate her.
As the flirt fest goes on, my anger rises, but so does a strange, anxious feeling in my stomach. I bet either of these girls would be happy to have Sloane and only him, and I know that Sloane could do a lot better than me. But on some level I also don’t care. I’m selfish. I’m not a nice person. I wasn’t raised to take other peoples wants and dreams into account. I shouldn’t care what is best for them, and yet I do. Their happiness matters and I wantthem to be as happy as they can be in this fucked up world we live in.
My teeth are gritted as I watch them be obvious in their attraction to Sloane. Sandy rolls her eyes while raising one brow at me and her nose curls as she looks out of the corner of her eyes at the girls on either side of her. I smirk, knowing that Sandy doesn’t approve. Then I have to force myself to not do a happy dance in my seat when I realize that we’re communicating with glances.
I frown when the girl to Sandy’s left, who’s sitting across the table from Sloane, flips her perfect blonde hair over her shoulder. “So, are you excited for Hockey to start up next month? I bet you’ll get so many scouts begging you to join the NHL.”
Sloane frowns. “I’m not playing after college.”
I look up at him as the girl gasps. We’ve never talked about whether or not he wanted to keep playing. I mean, with the guys business it makes sense that he wouldn’t have any plans to continue, but my hand slips onto his bicep to get his attention.
“If you want to keep playing, that’s something we can figure out,” I find myself saying, even though there’s an ache in my chest. Him playing for a national league would mean lots of distance and severing his ties to us.
His soft expression stops my breath as he places his hand on top of mine. “I’ve never been that serious about it. If I decide I want to play later, I’ll try out for local recreational teams. It’s not worth all the travel and publicity. Besides, I assume we’ll be moving to New York at some point and I’m a Wild fan through and through.”
My mouth pops open. “You want to go with me back to New York?”
Zane scoffs, “Of course we’re going with you.”
My head snaps to him, my eyes wide. “Really?”
His eyes narrow on mine. Leaning forward, he presses a firm kiss to my lips. “You’re never getting away. So stop acting like we’ll ever let you go anywhere alone.”
I honestly figured I would just have to leave in the dead of night after graduation to go back home. I never considered that they would all want to come with me. Well, Sloane and Zane at least. I don’t really know about Nox and Cain. They have deeper ties to the area. Cain has his career and Nox has his home. I guess we’ll need to have that conversation as a group at some point.
“So… which one are you dating?” the girl to the right of Sandy asks with narrowed eyes.
I look at her like she means absolutely nothing to me, because she doesn’t. And I suddenly don’t care that they’ve been trying to throw themselves at Sloane since they sat down, because he plans to follow me after I graduate. Really, we’re not dating. The guys haven’t actually asked me out yet and I refuse to do it. I want that moment like in the movies where the guy puts a boom box over his head and tells the girl how much he loves her.
