Safety Net {l.r.h}

16) "My girl"

LUKE HEMMINGS

I was pacing my room after several hours of hanging out with Ellie. We hadn't done much besides watch movies, but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Practice was in less than an hour and I was currently waiting on my friends to meet me here in order to discuss my newfound information. Glancing at the time on my phone, I had begun to grow frustrated until my door swung open, and two goons walked in.

"Hey, g- Where the fuck is Cal?" I snap as I notice no one trailing behind them.

"He's coming." Michael says without further explanation.

My face dead pans as I stare at him with boredom. "He lives here. What could he possibly be-"

I was interrupted by quick footsteps bounding down the hallway and Calum buckling up his jeans. "Sorry, mate. I was uh, busy."

I grimaced at the fact he was probably fondling around with Zoey but decided to leave it at that. They weren't important right now. "Anyways, Ash and Cal, you two didn't know but Ellie was roofied at the party on Saturday and it was strong enough to knock her out for nearly 20 hours. From what I've heard around campus, she's not the only one."

Cal's eyes widened as he stepped in and closed the door. "Holy shit, is she okay? Wait- is that why she was here last night?" I nodded. "So, you didn't actually hook up?"

Michael smacked him upside the head at his question. "Thanks, Mike. And no dumbass, we didn't. I just said that to spite Zoey."

"What does she have to do with this?" He asked, crossing his arms.

Without missing a beat, I stepped closer to him to assert some sort of dominance. "Clearly you don't know her as well as you think you do."

"Anyways," Ashton broke in, pushing me back by his fingertips. "What's the plan for this guy, mate?"

"We're going to beat the brakes off these motherfuckers."

"How do we know who to get?" Michael asked. I pulled out my phone to retrieve the picture that Ellie sent me and turned the screen towards them.

"Recognize him and what group of people he hangs out with?"

"The scumbags that hangout in the back-alley by the sophomore dorms," Cal says, nodding his head. "We can handle them, but what about the dude- what's his name?"

"Landon Taylor, plays d-line for the team."

"Don't tell me you're going after him at practice." Ash says worriedly. I roll my eyes.

"What're you gonna do about it?"

Calum shakes his head, "dude, you're gonna get fucking suspended and-"

"And what, Cal?"

"We just made a bet on this girl and you're acting like her fucking boyfriend! It's not worth your football career!" I stayed silent as he blew up. "Don't tell me you've actually got feelings for that freshman." Clenching my jaw, I looked over at Michael and Ashton to see them waiting for my answer.

"She's just a friend," I force out while trying to hold my emotions back. It was hard to come clean in front of them, knowing none of us really dated anyone.

"Yeah, and friends help each other out, right?" Michael cut in, helping me out. I shot him a quick smile before turning back to Calum.

"Just this once, man. I'm not getting into trouble with any cops." I understood why Calum was being so skeptical on getting into trouble. He hadn't been the best kid in high school, and somehow got into college, so it only made sense to want to turn things around. He had already had his football career ruined because of his careless actions. His parents were very persistent when they said that if he screwed up, he'd be cut off.