Weak Side (Bexley U)

by S.J. Sylvis

Nothing came easy to a Bryant—my mother’s words, not mine—but they still rang true.

My stern voice grew soft as I tried to lessen the blow that had nearly knocked me down an hour prior when I realized the situation I was in. “I’m Claire. Your new roommate.”

I wouldn’t deny it—she was pretty in the way that most girls weren’t. Subtle, delicate features but eyes that made your chest tight. Not my type, though. She was the type of girl that hated guys like me. It was obvious in the way she was glaring.

Then, the door opened, and she left, leaving me standing there in surprise because, for the first time in my life, I met a girl who didn’t fall over her own feet to talk to me.

Theo. Theo Brooks. No wonder there was a naked girl in his bed. His name was plastered everywhere at Bexley U. Even I knew his name, which was impressive because I stayed far away from anything sports related.

Claire quickly spun around, and the gloss in her eye from before was now ice, and if she didn’t already hate me, she definitely hated me now. It was a little entertaining when she glared at me, though. It riled me up for some reason.

“See ya at home, Bryant.”

I took the long way to the dorms from Dean Chiffon’s office, which only added forty seconds onto my trip, but the need to wind down before being trapped in a small space with Bexley U’s most popular hockey player was the most pressing thing at the moment.

I slowly walked to the door, wondering how the hell I was going to live with this guy when just a single look from him made me feel seen. I didn’t like his attention on me because it wasn't brief by any means. His eyes lingered.

I knew of his campus nickname. During his games, he wasn’t the golden boy who offered to help me carry my boxes up to my dorm. He was known as the wolf. He attacked his opponents like they were mere scraps of food.

Not only did I have to live with a guy who was beginning to dislike me as much as I made it seem like I disliked him, but I was going to have an audience every single time I left my room. Great.

Everyone on campus was interested in what it was like to room with Bexley U’s right wing for the number one hockey team in the NCAA.

“You know what they say about rules, Aash.” He looked leery. “They’re meant to be broken?” “There’s a loophole in every single one.”

Maybe if I was a different girl with a different upbringing and future, I could be swept off my feet by a guy like him. But that wasn’t possible being who I was and what I was up against.

“I was right about you.” “You were?” I asked. “You are tough, Bryant. Tougher than you make yourself out to be.”

Bexley U’s best hockey player was charming in a sense, but a charming guy was a red flag if I ever saw one. Unfortunately, most girls loved red flags. Not me, though.

“Did you just try to pretend like you weren’t murdering a pencil at your desk by turning the light off? As if we didn’t just make eye contact?”

There was something about irritating her that entertained me. It was invigorating, and I couldn’t help but laugh to myself as I lay in bed, waiting for her to come back to the room. Sure, there was still an air of friction between us, but it was innocently placed and a little bit comical.

I wasn’t sure why I was so concerned with her being here. Maybe I liked her being in a separate part of my mind. She was my roommate, and that was it. I didn’t want her to start imposing on other areas of my life, but I wasn’t sure why.

“She mean something to you?” Does she?

“You can cry in front of me, Claire. It’s alright.” His voice was soft and comforting, and those were two words I had never expected to use while describing someone like him.

My tears went on for entirely too long—much longer than I had wanted them to—but being trapped in Theo’s arms came with a security that I hadn’t expected.

My emotions were all over the place. I hurt in places that I hadn’t hurt before but was comforted in ways that I’d never felt before, either. It was like being pulled in two different directions.

Since the moment we met, we’d done nothing but dish out quick jabs and tortured each other with roommate antics feigned by irritation. I’d hidden parts of myself from him and the rest of the world, but I was too worked up and feeling too messy to hide what I was feeling.

“Then what are you doing, Bryant?” Theo’s husky voice and flexing shoulders below my hands were like a silent encouragement, but I had no idea what he was thinking or what he would do if I answered differently. “I just wanted to know what it would feel like to be wanted again.” My truth was as shocking as shattered glass. My skin was hot, and I was out of breath, partly from the way I felt with his hands on me and partly from the truth I had just let fly out of my mouth.

Theo Brooks was seeing parts of me that I didn’t let many people see.

“Every guy on this floor wants you, Bryant. Don’t you dare let your cheating boyfriend...

Theo Brooks had allowed me to feel more wanted than Chad ever had in the past.

I felt marked. My lips had been touched by someone who knew what they wanted, and for a moment, I let myself believe that it was me, even if I knew, deep down, that it wasn’t.

Ah, shit. I pulled back, and my traitor of a tongue licked her taste off my lips, and I knew that I would never be able to unlive the moment now that it had happened.

It was a minor dip in our platonic relationship—you know, the one where we were roommates and possibly, on some occasions, friends—but I had reassured myself moments before falling for her tender voice and sweet scent that I would give her just a hint of what she deserved and nothing more.

“What the hell was that?” “What the hell was what?” I asked, wondering if he somehow knew that I’d pushed my roommate onto her bed and kissed her with a passion I’d never felt before.

Claire and I were strictly platonic after our kiss.

Give it a minute

Part of me wanted to ask her outright if he had called her yet, but I knew it was none of my business. I was there for her last night, but that didn’t mean she and I were the best of friends now. She was still just my roommate…who kissed very well.

Instantly, I seemed to find my new hobby. It was no longer irritating Claire with pushing the limits within our roommate rules, or using her scrunchies on the doorknobs to irritate her. Instead, it was pissing off her ex. I wanted to pull her in and taunt him over and over again. I wanted to take the knife out of Claire’s back that he’d put there and cut him with it each time I touched her.

“How do you know that?” I stilled but recovered quickly. “Because I run past and see your car there every morning.” She didn’t need to know that running past the auditorium was not my usual route, but deep down, I knew it. So what? I wanted to check on her. There wasn’t anything wrong with that.

I didn’t even allow myself to think about Theo unless it was in an innocent, informal way, and the reason for that was so I didn’t get wrapped up in something that wasn’t even there.

Were we friends now? I wasn’t sure. But he did watch me break in half, kissed me after I nearly embarrassed myself with desperation, and then continued on with life like nothing had happened.

Without meaning to, I turned my head and locked onto Theo. My voice disappeared when I saw him staring at me instead of the four girls competing for a spot on his roster of girls he’d slept with. His jade eyes weren’t bright with amusement like usual when he’d looked at me. Instead, they were intense and piercing.

The second they were out of sight, I peered up at Theo. “You can let me go now.” The playfulness on his features was back, and his curved jaw caught my eye as he grinned down at me. “Now why would I do that, Bryant?”

I bounced my eyes back and forth between his, and I hated that I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. There was definitely something formulating in the back of his mind, and I was afraid to know what it was.

“It’s not like you turn them all down,” I blurted, seemingly more irritated than I actually was. Theo’s eyebrows climbed upward, and one of his lips disappeared behind his white teeth. “I would if you were my girl.”

“Come on, Bryant.” Theo reached his hand out and pulled on the strands of my hair in a teasing way. “I’d be the most faithful fake boyfriend you ever had.”

Would it really be so bad? Being my fake girlfriend? Or at the very least, acting like she was mine for the night while obnoxious puck bunnies popped up like whack-a-moles? I mean, she had already done it twice now. What was another thirty times? Just until the season ended?

“You don’t look at friends the way you’re lookin’ at her.”

If she’s just my roommate, then why do I want to walk over there just to be beside her?

I dipped my gaze to her mouth, and for the second time since meeting her, I had the inclination to kiss her and make her forget his name.

“Breathe, Bryant.” A little gasp flew from her lungs, and I smiled against her neck. “I’ll lead. You follow.”

“He gets to fuck around on you and expect you to wait around for him as he ‘experiences’ college?” The shock of realization only lasted a moment. Oh yes, I know more than you think, Claire. “Absolutely not. No roommate of mine is gonna be played like that. I won’t have it.”

“I’m gonna kiss the hell out of you, Bryant, and don’t you dare pull away.” For the second time, our mouths sealed, but this time, the kiss was undeniably soul-wrecking, and that was when I knew that Claire Bryant was about to become my weak side.